A Republican clash in Colorado Springs is shaping up to be the most intriguing race of the upcoming legislative primary slate.

“It’s a classic standoff of the current split that’s going on in the Republican Party,” said Bob Loevy, a retired Colorado College political science professor and longtime Colorado Springs-based political analyst.

Former state Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, who served in the House from 2006-2012, is a conservative policy wonk with longtime ties to the El Paso County GOP establishment.

Freshman state Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt, R-Colorado Springs, is a far-right conservative and evangelist whose comments on social issues have at times earned him admonishment from his own party.

The two are vying to fill the Senate District 12 seat that will be vacated by term-limited Senate President Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs.

The race between two Republicans who couldn’t be more different from each other epitomizes the fractured state of today’s GOP.

“This to me is a model showdown in the Republican Party,” Loevy said. “Bob Gardner has always had this reputation of being a well educated, clear-thinking, very sensible, but very Republican El Paso County politician, and he’s functioned that way.”

“What he’s not is what his opponent is – a strong, outspoken person on issues important to the religious right.”

The primary is still more than eight months away, but the race has already reached a combative phase, with Klingenschmitt already on the offensive over Gardner’s House voting record.

In a recent interview with The Colorado Statesman, it took Klingenschmitt fewer than two sentences to tear into Gardner.

“I’m excited and momentum is building and the voters and volunteers are clearly with me because of my conservative voting record,” said Klingenschmitt, who represents House District 15. “A lot of people are surprised when I show them copies of Bob Gardner’s liberal voting record.”

Bob Gardner – liberal? This is the kind of campaign it’s going to be.

“My opponent is pretty good at distorting everyone’s record – his and mine as well,” Gardner said.

An unpredictable district

What makes this race even more interesting is the make-up of a Senate district that will see its first truly competitive primary since it was redrawn in 2011.

The district, like most others in El Paso County, is heavily Republican, meaning the winner of the primary can be expected to cruise to victory in the general election.

The sprawling district encompasses the western-most and eastern-most House districts in the Springs. To the west, it includes the wealthy Broadmoor area. The district’s eastern reach includes Peterson Air Force base and neighborhoods where many military families reside.

Democrats redrew the district four years ago to force one of two Republicans out of the Senate: Cadman or former state Sen. Keith King. Cadman’s former senate district was mapped into King’s District 12 after reapportionment. King avoided a primary showdown with Cadman by declining to seek re-election.

Loevy, a Republican who was a member of the state’s Reapportionment Commission, which redrew the legislative maps, said the district’s new make-up provides little indication which candidate voters might back next year.

“We don’t have much past history to go on to know how it would vote in a Republican primary,” he said. “You’d have to say, under these circumstances, either candidate would have a good chance, because it’s a district that’s brand new and never had a real Republican primary before.”

But Klingenschmitt, who was elected to his House seat in 2014, believes his message will resonate among a conservative electorate. He boasts about the high legislative scores he has received from Principles of Liberty and the Colorado Union of Taxpayers, two far-right advocacy groups.

Klingenschmitt points to the “F” grade that Gardner received in 2014 from Principles of Liberty, which bases its scoring system on legislation that has an impact on personal liberties, free markets and limited government, among other factors.

“He is not a conservative,” Klingenschmitt said of Gardner. “He is deceiving the voters when he claims he is a conservative. And all the scorecards demonstrate that.”

Klingenschmitt sponsored bills this year that are red meat for conservatives. He sponsored efforts to remove Colorado from Common Core education standards, to shield business owners who allow customers to carry concealed handguns and to repeal and sunset outdated business regulations.

Klingenschmitt has also pounded away at Gardner for a bill the former House member sponsored two years ago, a measure Klingenschmitt said was akin to supporting President Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare to backers and detractors alike.

Klingenschmitt has dubbed House Bill 13-1266 “Bob Gardner Care.” The bill aligned Colorado law with federal requirements of Obamacare. Earlier this year, Klingenschmitt ran an unsuccessful bill to repeal state ACA alignments, contingent on the full or partial repeal of Obamacare at the federal level.

Gardner said the legislation was necessary after Obamacare became the law of the land.

“Had Colorado not aligned its health care mandates with the federal law, all of our state health care policies would have been non-compliant, and people would have either lost their policy or not been able to get their tax benefit associated with having health insurance,” Gardner explained.

“And they would have been required to buy through the health care exchange instead of outside the exchange, which would have given the health care exchange a monopoly, which is something I didn’t want to see,” Gardner added.

Klingenschmitt dismisses Gardner’s explanation.

“If you think that way, I already know two things: That you heard Bob Gardner twist and spin and that you’ve never read the law that he sponsored,” Klingenschmitt said.

Gardner stands by the bill.

“I was trying to avoid the Obamacare disaster as best I could,” Gardner said. “And I’m proud I made the efforts that could be made rather than burying my head in the sand or doing as some may do, which is beat their chest and say, ‘I oppose Obamacare,’ and not do anything about it.”

Both sides hurl attacks

Gardner said Klingenschmitt attacks his record because doesn’t have one of his own. Of the five bills Klingenschmitt sponsored this year, only the concealed handgun bill received Democratic sponsorship. And none of the five bills even made it to the House floor because they all died in Democratic-run committees.

Gardner’s campaign sales pitch is based on his record of “effective conservative leadership.” He said he is proud of his legislation that increased funding for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, his work to strengthen laws that protect crime victims, and his tort-reform bills to “protect businesses from costly lawsuits.”

Gardner’s high-profile backers also tout his effectiveness as a lawmaker. Former Republican Minority Leader Mark Waller, who held Klingenschmitt’s House seat for three terms, said Gardner has often been “regarded as the most talented legislator in (the legislative) body.”

“It’s a no-brainer to support Bob Gardner,” said Waller. “Rep. Klingenschmitt hasn’t demonstrated that same level of principled leadership.”

Former Republican House Speaker Frank McNulty of Highlands Ranch was less diplomatic than Waller when asked why he supports Gardner.

McNulty said Klingenschmitt’s first year in the House was “one of unnecessary controversy.” Klingenschmitt, McNulty added, has done “more showboating than rolling up his sleeves and getting work done.”

“I think that conservatives want to see conservative goals achieved and, contrary to what we see on the nightly news shows in the presidential primary, my experience is, conservative Republicans who vote in primaries want to see things happen,” McNulty said.

Klingenshmitt said he isn’t fazed by Gardner’s support from the likes of Waller and McNulty.

“When liberal Republicans support Bob Gardner, it doesn’t surprise me at all,” he said.

Klingenschmitt’s comments during his online Christian ministry program, known as Pray in Jesus’ Name, have been the subject of multiple controversies since he won the Republican primary for his House seat in 2014. He has called President Obama a “demon” and he has said that allowing gay scoutmasters in the Boy Scouts puts children in danger.

And Klingenschmitt said a Longmont woman’s fetus was ripped from her womb earlier this year because of “the curse of God,” resulting from society’s failure to protect unborn children.

Republican leaders have admonished Klingenschmitt for his remarks on multiple occasions. He has apologized in the past, but he said the GOP should be more supportive of someone who “has the backbone” to speak up on social issues, particularly when he feels religious freedoms are under attack.

“They’ve only said what I’ve said all along,” he said of the Republican Party. “When I speak on my television program as a Christian minister, I’m not speaking for the Republican Party. I don’t disagree with that. But at the same time, if they don’t stand up for religious freedom, they are not promoting the Republican platform. And so I do ask Republican leaders, that if you claim to defend religious freedom that you also do that for me.”

Former Republican state Sen. Dave Schultheis, R-Monument, no stranger to controversy himself, is backing Klingenschmitt’s candidacy. Schultheis once opposed a bill that would have required pregnant women to be tested for HIV so that babies can receive early treatment to prevent transfer of the virus. Schultheis said he didn’t think it was the role of government to protect people who make bad decisions. Schultheis also said the 2013 adoption of a child by former House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, who is gay, was akin to “child abuse.”

The GOP shouldn’t muzzle members like Klingenschmitt, Schultheis said, calling him “a very strong constitutional conservative.”

“We are not like the Democratic Party. We are supposed to believe in individual freedom and freedom of speech,” Schultheis said. “And when you have leadership criticizing him for his speech, it’s contrary to the values we say we stand for. And it’s totally out of line.”

It’s a safe bet the attacks will continue to fly in the months before the candidates face voters.

“If you run for office, any and all manner of things can be said about you with impunity, and is,” Gardner said. “And my opponent has made his campaign about attacking me and not about what he has done, what he will do and what he’s able to do.”

“In my mind, it is nothing but a weakness in a campaign that it would be based on attacking your opponent.”

But Klingenschmitt said Gardner is only “fooling” voters into believing he is a true conservative, when he’s really something far worse – a compromiser.

“There are cowboys and there are compromisers,” Klingenschmitt said. “And the compromisers run away when the fighting gets tough. But you can always tell a cowboy, because he’s got the arrows in his hat.”

– Twitter: @VicVela1