Colorado Republicans meet this weekend to elect a state chairman in the wake of sweeping wins at the polls in November, although the incumbent chair Ryan Call and his challenger, Steve House, have sharply different interpretations of last fall’s results.

The two chair candidates met on Saturday at the Horan & McConaty funeral parlor in Thornton for a forum attended by some 75 people, about half of whom are voting members of the state central committee. The North Suburban Republican Forum sponsored the exchange, which was moderated by former state Rep. Don Beezley, R-Broomfield, and John Lefebvre, the group’s president. (In a policy that occasioned much controversy on social media, the sponsors banned audio or video recording — “This is an in-family discussion,” Beezley said at the outset — although The Colorado Statesman was allowed to snap photographs and take notes at the event.)

Republican state central committee members — county officers, elected officials and bonus delegates, awarded to counties based on the vote for gubernatorial nominee Bob Beauprez in the last election — will choose between Call and House at the party’s biennial reorganizational meeting on Saturday morning at Douglas County High School in Castle Rock.

Call, who is seeking a third term, contends that the GOP romp in the last election — including Republican Cory Gardner’s defeat of U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, the first time Colorado voters have ousted an incumbent senator in 36 years, and taking control of the state Senate for the first time in a decade — underscores the effectiveness of Call’s leadership skills and makes a case for reelecting him.

“We have made important progress,” Call said, citing vast improvements in fundraising, candidate recruitment and field operations since he took over in the wake of the Dan Maes gubernatorial campaign, when the GOP risked losing “major party” status under Colorado law. “Did we score a touchdown on every single drive? Did we win every race? No, but we made dramatic and important progress.”

His challenger, former Adams County GOP chairman and gubernatorial candidate Steve House, however, maintains that Republicans didn’t do well enough at the ballot box and that it’s time for a change in state party leadership.

“We have to look at ourselves and say we’re not where we need to be,” House said, lamenting that Colorado has only elected one Republican governor in the last 40 years and enjoyed full control of state government for just four years during that span. “Last year was a Republican wave year — there were 100,000 more Republican votes than Democratic votes,” he said, but despite that, the GOP couldn’t elect a governor or win back a majority in the state House.

Part of the answer, House said, was for the party to “go back to counties” and “create 64 individual franchises” in order to succeed. Later during the forum he promised to launch a training session in June to empower local party organizations and potential candidates.

In addition, House says his business background provides all the tools he’ll need to run the multi-million dollar organization, disputing Call’s insistence that the incumbent’s relationships with donors and party officials won’t automatically transfer with the title of chairman.

“While my record may not be perfect, I have a record of performance that you can see and kick the tires on,” Call said. “I worry that we have these great, new, young party leaders who are going to call up the state party office and the answer is going to be, ‘I don’t know,’ whereas, I think, with me, you’ve got an experienced, tested hand at the tiller heading into an absolutely critical presidential election cycle.”

House argued that Republicans had been kicking the tires and ought to decide it’s time for some new treads.

“If America is to be saved, it has to start in places like this,” he said. “This race is about you. It’s about what you want and what you’re willing to do with leadership to get us back to the point where we have a majority.” Noting that Republicans count more registered voters than Democrats in the state, he added, “Yet we don’t control the agenda. If that doesn’t tell you we should change, nothing should tell you we should change.”

Answering questions submitted by audience members, the candidates agreed about lots of issues: the GOP has to make sure there’s a seat at the table for libertarian-leaning and Tea Party Republicans, both said, as well as make sure young and Hispanic voters feel welcome in the party. In a moment of levity, both also agreed that the Republican National Committee’s fundraising emails involving former President George H.W. Bush’s colorful socks could be annoying, although Call also pointed out that it’s been the RNC’s most successful recent promotion.

Although the forum was generally convivial — both said they’d support the other if the election didn’t turn out their way — supporters of both candidates were swinging hard in the days before the election.

A group of former Adams County Republican officers circulated a letter on Wednesday slamming House for his tenure leading the county party and calling his character into question.

The letter, signed by former county chairs Patty McCoy and Clark Bolser, former vice chair Patty Sue Femrite and county finance chair Maria del Carman Guzman-Weese, alleged that House quit the post half way through his term in order to run for governor after promising he wouldn’t do just that. What’s more, the Adams County group charged, he left the county GOP in a shambles and it was Call who came to the rescue to rebuild it.

“Steve definitely has charisma and personal ambition, and he certainly knows how to give a good speech,” the group wrote. “He’s personally likeable. But his record of unfulfilled commitments, multiple broken promises, and overall poor performance as County Chairman left many of us in Adams County disappointed, extremely frustrated, and with unwelcome extra work during a critical time.”

They continued: “Knowing what we know from personal experience, and seeing first-hand the kind of ‘leadership; Steve provided to the Adams County Republican Party in the last election cycle, we are supporting Ryan Call for Colorado State Republican Party Chairman.”

Calling the letter an example of “late-campaign dirty politics,” the House campaign was having none of it.

“Steve is quite proud of the changes he made in Adams County, and, in fact, he left the Republican Party in a substantively better position than when he started,” House campaign manager Mike McAlpine told The Statesman.

“Steve is, frankly, pleased by the successes realized by Adams County,” he continued. “After all, Adams County delivered one of the (state) senators that helped to change control of the Senate. In his experience, he had very positive responses to his chairmanship there. How unfortunate it is at this late stage of the game these unsubstantiated rumors would be brought up. These are certainly things he would have been happy to discuss earlier.”

As for the specific allegations made in the letter, McAlpine chuckled.

“Steve’s very positive about the experience, the tools and the structure he had and left in Adams County,” he said. “The proof is in the pudding, because they were quite effective electing one of the senators that helped bring the Senate to Republican control.”

Call boasts endorsements from Gardner; U.S. Reps. Mike Coffman, Doug Lamborn and Scott Tipton; State Treasurer Walker Stapleton; Secretary of State Wayne Williams; state Sen. Larry Crowder; state Reps. John Keyser, Kevin Priola, Don Coram, J. Paul Brown, Tim Dore and Jon Becker; and former Gov. Bill Owens, among other elected officials and party luminaries.

House is backed by Attorney General Cynthia Coffman; former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo; state Sens. Kevin Lundberg, Kent Lambert, Vicki Marble and Chris Holbert; state Reps. Janak Joshi, Gordon Klingenschmitt, Lori Saine, JoAnn Windholz and Kevin Van Winkle, and a number of local officials, former legislators and party officials.

Colorado Democrats had their own contentious race for state leadership two weeks earlier, eventually handing the reins to chairman Rick Palacio for a third term in the face of challenges by political consultant David Sabados and former congressional candidate Vic Meyers. The contest was thrown into turmoil on the eve of the election when Palacio announced that he was naming 46 men to the roughly 500-member state central committee in order to comply with the party’s requirement for gender balance on governing bodies.

In addition to the state chair race, the Republican central committee will pick a vice chair and secretary and handle party business at its Saturday meeting. Incumbent vice chair Mark Baisley is seeking a full term (the former Douglas County chair was appointed to the post 18 months ago) and is being challenged by former Summit County chair and legislative candidate Debra Irvine, former El Paso County chair Eli Bremer and Derrick Wilburn, who heads the American Conservatives of Color organization. Secretary Lana Fore is running for a second term against Moffat County chair Brandi Meek.

Gardner is headlining the GOP’s annual Centennial Dinner fundraiser on Friday night at the Inverness Hotel in Englewood. House supporters are holding their own reception that afternoon at the hotel with Tancredo, Cynthia Coffman and former state Sen. Ted Harvey listed as hosts.

— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com