The Colorado Republican Party was thrown into turmoil this week after three powerful Republicans attempted to persuade state GOP chair Steve House to resign.

While House initially took them up on the offer, he quickly rescinded his resignation — reneged on the deal, detractors say — and fired back at Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo and Pueblo County Republican chair Becky Mizel, the three most prominent supporters of House’s bid to run the party earlier this year.

Beyond that bare outline, there’s little agreement among the Republicans about what actually happened, and less about what might result.

Depending on who’s telling the story, it was either something approaching a thwarted coup attempt using blackmail and extortion or a personnel matter that shouldn’t have blown up in public.

As things stand at press time, House is adamant that he isn’t going anywhere, while Coffman, Tancredo and Mizel are standing by their contention that he’s got to step down, and it’s only a matter of when House blinks.

“I will not give in to a vicious and vocal minority that seeks to bring down the Party from within,” House said.

“I am more committed than ever to seeking his resignation,” Mizel countered.

It started on Monday night, when House headed to a meeting he’d had scheduled with Coffman, House said in a statement issued on Tuesday night, after the controversy had consumed political circles for nearly 24 hours. He said he believed it was going to be a routine strategy sit-down but, when he arrived at the Warwick Hotel, he was surprised to see Tancredo and Mizel there waiting for him, along with Coffman.

Late last year, the three had talked House, a former gubernatorial candidate, into his successful challenge against state chair Ryan Call just three months ago, but on Monday night they had a different message.

“Congressman Tancredo confronted me about not hiring former state Sen. Ted Harvey as the Party’s executive director, and demanded that I resign my post,” House said in his statement. “If I refused to meet their demand to resign, they threatened that a potential lawsuit may be filed and that false rumors that I have been unfaithful to my wife would be made public.”

House said that after the meeting he sent Coffman a text message “stating that I would resign,” due to his frustration of “this type of treatment.” He said he came to the decision because he didn’t want his family or the GOP “dragged through this.” But later that night, after discussing his resignation with his wife and advisors, House let Coffman know that he’d changed his mind and wasn’t quitting.

Mizel recounts the meeting differently.

She said in a statement posted to Facebook on Wednesday afternoon that she joined Coffman and Tancredo “to seek his voluntary resignation when we and several other dedicated party members leaders and legislators lost confidence in his ability to exhibit the leadership traits needed to manage a complex and successful organization.”

The decision to “withdraw support” from House, which Mizel described as “difficult,” was reached following “many credible complaints by very active members engaging with him, and serious repeated incidents of lack of candor in his communications with members.”

She said the trio confronted House privately to avoid publicizing “the unfortunate decisions he is making that places the state party at credible risk.”

What’s more, Mizel said, there wasn’t any dispute over hiring decisions, as House alleged in his statement. “Our concerns are far more serious, and relate to a loss of integrity that is incompatible with the standards of our party,” she said.

Coffman, who declined through a spokeswoman to speak with The Colorado Statesman, called House’s charges “rumors and lies” in a statement to the Associated Press.

“This matter belongs in a confidential session with the party’s executive committee, and that is where it is headed,” she said. “It is a personnel matter and I am honoring the prescribed process. I am not going to comment on all the rumors and lies.”

Mizel had a similar reaction. “I can say that House’s public statements to date concerning the meeting and his resignation are generally untrue and a gross misrepresentation of the facts,” she wrote, adding that she intends to make the case before the state GOP’s executive committee.

“Based (on) House’s poor judgment in making such false allegations, I am more committed than ever to seeking his resignation, with every effort to avoid a publicly humiliating experience for House and the party that would result from a forced removal,” Mizel said.

The experience went public late Monday night, when Mizel posted to social media that House was resigning the next morning for personal reasons — even though he maintains he’d already informed Coffman that he wasn’t going through with his resignation — igniting a storm of speculation and stunned reactions on Facebook and other platforms.

It wasn’t until later on Tuesday morning, however, that House declared publicly he was staying put: “”There are rumors out there that I have officially resigned as chairman of the Colorado Republican Committee,” he said in a statement issued just before noon. “Let me be clear: I am not only staying on as your chairman, but I am doubling down on my efforts to lead us to victory in 2016 and beyond!”

Later that evening he joined more than 70 attendees at a Liberty Libations gathering of conservatives at a brewpub in Centennial, although he only received a single question about the resignation controversy during the program’s question-and-answer period. Asked what was “the motivating factor in that thing that blew up last night,” House responded that the Republican Party was “fractured,” but that he was staying “right here.” Many members of the crowd rose to their feet in applause.

“No one should be bullied out of running for office, or serving as a leader in our Party,” House said in the statement issued hours earlier. “It is clear that our Party has some challenges ahead and that is what I was elected to address. These types of divisive and bullying tactics are why so many Americans are sick of politics as usual.”

For her part, Mizel was clear that divisions within the GOP had nothing to do with the issues raised by the trio, though she wouldn’t say exactly what those concerns were.

“It is inappropriate to comment on the specific details of the concerns at this time, as the concerns will first be communicated to the Executive Committee for their deliberation and recommendations to Chairman House and the membership of the Central Committee. The Central Committee members will then determine by membership vote whether removal from office is prudent,” she said.

The state executive committee meets next Friday at Colorado Republican Party headquarters in Greenwood Village. According to party officials, there isn’t much that body can do. There are no impeachment proceedings written into party bylaws, except the possibility that more than two-thirds of the much larger state central committee can vote up or down on a party officer, but that body isn’t scheduled to meet until fall.

Immediate fallout from the controversy, however, included the sudden announcement this week that Coffman won’t be running against U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in next year’s election, less than a month after her husband, U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, also pulled himself from contention for the Senate race. (Also on Thursday morning, former state Sen. Mike Kopp had decided not to run against Bennet, a source told Roll Call reporter Emily Cahn.)

—ernest@coloradostatesman.com