CENTENNIAL — Colorado Republicans on Saturday elected former congressional candidate George Leing as Republican national committeeman. That’s national committeeman, not woman, an emphasis made clear at a tense and sometimes raucous special meeting of the GOP State Central Committee that saw an unsuccessful attempt by some Republicans to nominate a Denver party officer who happens to be a woman for the post.

Leing, who has previously chaired the Boulder County Republican Party, won on the first ballot over two former vice chairmen of the state GOP, Mark Baisley and Don Ytterberg. He is filling a vacancy created by the resignation of former Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp, who gave up the national committeeman post after being named executive director of business advocacy group Colorado Concern.

Former congressional candidate George Leing accepts the nomination for Colorado’s Republican national committeeman on Dec. 12 at a special meeting of the GOP State Central Committee at Valley Country Club in Centennial. Leing won the election to fill the term of former Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp.

Photo by Ernest Luning/The Colorado Statesman

Leing will serve out the remainder of Kopp’s term, which ends on the last day of the Republican National Convention in July. The state party will elect a permanent national committeeman at the April state convention to serve a four-year term starting the day after that.

Leing joins state Republican Party Chairman Steve House and Republican National Committeewoman Lily Nuñez as a member of the Republican National Committee, the governing body for the national GOP. He ran last year against U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, earning the distinction of receiving the most votes nationwide for a losing congressional candidate.

Vowing that he wouldn’t be afraid to “carry conservative principles” to the national party, Leing promised likewise to represent the voices of Colorado Republicans before the Republican National Committee. “It’s about you — this is your voice that’s going to be heard in Washington,” he told the crowd.

“I’m running because I think we need a party that’s open to all,” Leing said, accepting the nomination. “We need a party that’s not constantly changing the rules of conventions. I’m for openness and transparency. I’m going to fight so all our national delegates are seated and able to vote for the candidate of their choice.”

Leing, an attorney whose parents emigrated from China shortly before the communist takeover, said he began to become a “constitutional Republican” when he learned his little sister, who was too young to travel, was trapped in the country and lived under communist rule until she was able to flee.

Republican national committeeman candidate Mark Baisley, a former vice chairman of the state GOP, hams it up while he shows his campaign brochure to former Jefferson County School Board member Julie Williams at a Dec. 12 meeting of the Republican State Central Committee at Valley Country Club in Centennial. Baisley came in second to George Leing, who takes over for Mike Kopp.

Photo by Ernest Luning/The Colorado Statesman

“It tells me I have to be thankful every day for our country, for the Constitution and for the rights we have under it. It also tells me we have to fight for our rights, we have to fight to preserve them everyday,” he said.

After resolving — at least for Saturday’s meeting — a longstanding controversy over who can carry whose proxy votes, Republicans gave Leing 143.87 votes, or 54.5 percent of the total, enough to win outright over Baisley, who had 84 votes, and Ytterberg, who received 36 votes. (Fractional votes reflect that some county GOP offices, usually vice chairs, are split between two or three Republicans.)

But the ballots weren’t cast until after the Republicans settled another dispute, this time over whether Denver County Vice Chair Elaine Brofford could run for the post.

As Leing, Baisley and Ytterberg’s names were being placed into nomination, Huerfano County GOP Secretary Marcy Freeburg, a former legislative candidate, rose to nominate Brofford. “It’s national committeeman,” said House, after doing a double take. “There’s no rule!” Freeburg retorted. “Yes there is,” said House, sounding increasingly weary.

After some consternation and huddling with state party attorney Chris Murray — “Have we repealed the law of common sense?” he later sighed — House declared, “In this particular case, as chair, I rule you cannot nominate a female as national committeeman.”

Routt County Treasurer Brita Horn, state Sen. Larry Crowder, R-Alamosa, and radio talk show host Randy Corporon listen to speeches as the ballots are counted in an election on Dec. 12 at Valley Country Club in Centennial to fill Colorado’s Republican national committeeman position.

Photo by Ernest Luning/The Colorado Statesman

Immediately, hands shot into the air. “Point of order!” at least a few Republicans barked.

“If we adopt a strict interpretation of the bylaws for committeeman and committeewoman, does that mean we have to carry that same strict interpretation every time a ‘chairman’ is referenced?” asked Jefferson County activist George Athanasopoulos. “If we are going with a strict interpretation, we have to apply it uniformly, do we not?”

“A chairman is not a gender-specific term, it is used both for men and women,” House responded. “Wouldn’t that apply to committeeman?” Athanasopoulos shot back. “No, no,” some members of the crowd, sounding annoyed, murmured.

As officials scrambled, flipping through bylaws, Secretary of State Wayne Williams rose and read from the Republican National Committee rules. Then he shook his head and barely smiled. “It doesn’t say committeemen must be male, it doesn’t say committeewomen must be female. That’s what the rules say,” he said with something shy of a smirk. Brofford partisans let out a few subdued cheers.

“If Elaine should win,” said Arapahoe County Republican Lori Horn, “that means we’d have two women, it’s not balanced.”

Noting that the party has had two men and one woman sitting on the RNC for as long as anyone can remember — Colorado Republicans haven’t elected a woman as chairman in at least three decades — a few in the crowd jeered.

State Reps. Patrick Neville, R-Castle Rock, and Justin Everett, R-Littleton, share a moment of levity at a meeting of the Colorado GOP State Central Committee on Dec. 12 in Centennial.

Photo by Ernest Luning/The Colorado Statesman

Within minutes, however, a motion to allow Brofford’s name to be placed into nomination failed by an overwhelming voice vote.

“I’d checked on the RNC rules and knew the answer coming in,” a sanguine Brofford said later. “The next time I do something like this, I’ll hire a parliamentarian to come with me. There’s absolutely nothing in the rules that says that.”

The meeting, at Valley Country Club, was held under increased security, GOP officials said, because the state party has been on has been on what was described by some as “heightened alert” in the wake of publicized threats against Republicans in Colorado. (An Arapahoe County sheriff’s deputy was parked outside the building and leaned against a wall for much of the proceedings.)

“It stems from the two incidents in Colorado Springs this week,” House told The Colorado Statesman. “The one lady who suggested that she should get her dead husband’s guns and shoot Republicans, and the other was the comment by the ACLU member.” (The co-chair of the Colorado Springs ACLU resigned last week after comparing Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump with infamous Nazis in a Facebook post, concluding, “If you are voting for him I will have to shoot you before election day.”)

A grim-looking House added, “You have to take every one of those things seriously these days. As political as it may be, as crazy as it may seem, we’re taking it seriously, so our meetings will have notification to local law enforcement ahead of time and we’re going to have a law enforcement agent here. That’s the way we’re going to handle it.”

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com