The Lincoln Club of Colorado’s third annual holiday party rang in the seasonal cheer on Wednesday night at the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association’s building in Denver, giving members a chance to toast Republican victories on last month’s ballot and look forward to more success in the new year.

State Treasurer Walker Stapleton, center, joins Lincoln Club of Colorado organizers Alexander Hornaday and Lori Horn at the group’s holiday party on Dec. 10 in Denver. A lunch with Stapleton was the top-grossing item in the live auction at the party.

The Lincoln Club, the oldest supportive GOP organization in the state, raised money at the event to support Republican candidates — this past year, said board member Chris Murray, who emceed the proceedings, the club donated more than $25,000 to legislative candidates, helping flip control of the state Senate to Republicans for the first time in a decade — but mainly brought together members to celebrate.

“Last year,” Murray told the crowd of about 100 revelers, “we had come off a pretty tough election in 2012, but things were looking up. Look at us now. We’ve won. We’ve won,” he said with a broad smile.

Matthew Zielinski, president of the Denver Metro Young Republicans, and state Rep.-elect Gordon Klinginschmidt, R-Colorado Springs, chat after Zielinski purchased lunch with Klinginschmidt and state Rep.-elect Kit Roupe, R-Colorado Springs, in an auction at the Lincoln Club of Colorado’s holiday party on Dec. 10 in Denver.

Republicans, he noted, not only took back the state Senate and narrowed the Democratic margin the House — helped by unseating several incumbents — but also won every single down-ballot constitutional statewide office. “On the federal level,” Murray crowed, “I don’t think I need to remind anybody here, that we sent Cory Gardner to the U.S. Senate and Mark Udall is coming home.”

There’s no rest for conservatives, he pointed out, drawing attention to a 2016 Republican presidential preference poll conducted at the party by Lincoln Club board member David Sprecace.

“By this time next year, it’s hard to believe, we will be in the thick of another presidential nominating process, and we’ll have a hundred people running,” Murray quipped.

State Rep.-elect JoAnn Windholz, R-Adams Count, and Republican stalwart Kaarl Hoopes celebrate the holidays with the Lincoln Club of Colorado on Dec. 10.

There weren’t quite that many names on the preference poll ballot — just a dozen, not including former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who won the Colorado caucuses two years ago and announced he was running again this week, though plenty of participants wrote in his name — but the results were spread across the spectrum of candidates.

By the end of the evening, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had won the poll, with 36 votes (in the tradition of rough-and-tumble politics, Lincoln Club officials joked, votes were for sale at a dollar apiece). Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker came in second with 30 votes, followed by Santorum with 15 votes, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz with 12 votes and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with eight votes.

Rounding out the contenders were Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal with six votes, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul with five votes, Dr. Ben Carson and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with two votes apiece, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with a single vote. Potential candidates who didn’t get any love included Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan.

Sen. Owen Hill, R-Colorado Springs, and state Sen-elect Tim Neville, R-Littleton, and his wife, Barb, visit at the Lincoln Club of Colorado’s holiday party.

But the main event at the festive gathering was a fast-paced live auction, run by former state Sen. Tom Wiens, R-Sedalia.

The top bids went for lunch with State Treasurer Walker Stapleton after two competing consortiums, led by former Secretary of State Mary Estill Buchanan and Lincoln Club board member Barb Piper ramped bidding up to $725 for the honor, at which point Wiens and Stapleton decided he’d have lunch with each group for that sum.

CADA president Tim Jackson placed the winning bid of $500 for lunch with Attorney General-elect Cynthia Coffman, a prize promoted by Wiens as a possible get-out-of-jail-free card, though Coffman demurred, saying with a smile, “There will be plenty of legal advice, and if somebody wanted a will drafted …”

(Jackson told The Colorado Statesman that he plans to take the opportunity to discuss the importance of automobile dealerships with Coffman, part of a continuous outreach effort with policy-makers and elected leaders. A full 20 percent of the state’s sales tax revenue is generated from the sale of new and used cars, Jackson noted, a growing share of the total pie as sales of everything else has been migrating online. In addition, local car dealers are often among the top employers in small towns throughout the state, he said.)

Lincoln Club of Colorado director Chris Murray presents former state Sen. Tom Wiens with an Abraham Lincoln bobble head after Wiens ran a live auction at the club’s annual holiday party on Dec. 10 at the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association headquarters in Denver.

Photos by Ernest Luning/The Colorado Statesman

The club also auctioned off lunches with state Sen.-elect Tim Neville, R-Littleton, and state Rep.-elect Kit Roupe, R-Colorado Springs, who was joined by neighboring state Rep.-elect Gordon Klingenschmitt, R-Colorado Springs, to sweeten the deal. State Rep.-elect Jon Keyser, R-Evergreen, was called away on duty with the Air Force Reserves so was unable to take part in a planned live auction, though lunch with the new lawmaker was sold in the silent auction.

Wiens also auctioned off two passes to next year’s Western Conservative Summit, donated by former Senate President John Andrews and the summit’s sponsoring organization, Colorado Christian University’s Centennial Institute, and two tickets to next year’s Centennial Dinner, the state Republican Party’s annual marquee event held in early March on the eve of statewide GOP reorganizational elections.

Murray and Lincoln Club president Mary Dambman thanked Wiens for his auctioneering duties with its traditional Abraham Lincoln bobble head and a fine bottle of wine.

— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com

See the print edition of Dec. 12, 2014 for full photo coverage.