Former Colorado Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call is among at least 10 candidates who could be vying to replace state Rep. Jack Tate after the Centennial lawmaker was appointed to fill a vacancy in the state Senate on Saturday.

Tate will take over on Dec. 31 for state Sen. David Balmer, R-Centennial, who is retiring from the Legislature three years into his second term representing Senate District 27 in order to take a job as political director of state campaigns for the Humane Society Legislative Fund, a nonprofit policy arm of the Humane Society. Balmer, who chairs the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee and is co-chair of the Colorado Legislative Animal Welfare caucus, announced in October that he would be stepping down.

Tate, who was elected to his House District 37 seat last fall, won the appointment without opposition.

Before the vacancy committee convened at Valley Country Club to make Tate’s appointment official, potential candidates to take his place, including Call, mingled with fellow Republicans. Although the schedule hadn’t been set at press time, GOP officials said it was likely that the HD 37 vacancy would be filled a few days before opening day of the 2016 legislative session on Jan. 13.

Call, who lost a bid for a third term as state chairman to Steve House in March, wore a big smile as he shook hands and talked with Arapahoe County Republicans. After 15 years concentrating on politics — he chaired the Denver County Republicans before being elected state chairman — he told The Colorado Statesman he was anxious to try his hand at government and policy matters, adding that that was why he got involved in politics in the first place.

“We have a lot of wonderful people putting their names forward to run for Jack’s state House seat,” Call said. “He’s done a great job representing his district and we have a lot of wonderful people putting their names forward. I’m honored to be at least among them, and I’m looking forward to a good discussion about both how we can represent our constituency but also contribute in positive and meaningful ways to the Republican caucus down at the Legislature.”

He’ll have plenty of competition for the seat.

Among those at the meet-and-greet who said they were at least strongly considering a run were Arapahoe County GOP Vice Chairman Jay Ledbetter, an attorney who ran for the House seat last year but didn’t make the primary ballot; real estate broker Jon Roberts; former Deputy District Attorney Dagny Van Der Jagt; commercial real estate broker David Schlatter; management consultant Tom Kim; attorney Cole Wist; and radio talk show host Jimmy Sengenberger, who runs The Liberty Day Institute, a nonpartisan organization that teaches youth about the Constitution.

“I think we need an eye on the future,” Sengenberger told The Statesman. “We are looking at a tremendous number of problems going across this country and in this state. They need to be fixed not just with an eye toward the present but with an eye toward the future, and I can (provide) that link.”

Wist, who hails from a coal-mining family on the Western Slope, said he was alarmed by the federal government’s “declaration of war on the fossil fuels industry.”

“It’s going to have a significant impact on our state in terms of the cost of electricity and the ability of our communities to stay strong,” he said. “We’ve got to have a General Assembly willing to stand up to the federal government in terms of that over-reach and continue to be pro-family, pro-middle class. That’s why I’m running.”

Roberts ran as the GOP nominee in House District 2 last year — he lost to state Rep. Alec Garnett, D-Denver, in the heavily Democratic district — but said his trouncing at the polls didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for public service.

“I’ve just got a fire in my belly to go change what’s going on in our country and our state,” he said. “Instead of sitting on the couch and whining about it and crying about it, I want to be active and involved trying to turn the state back to conservative principles again.”

“The fact that we have so many people here means there’s a rumble here, people are getting involved, and they’re starting early,” said Centennial Councilwoman Kathy Turley, seemingly one of the few Republicans at the meeting who wasn’t considering a bid for the vacancy.

For his part, Tate, a mechanical engineer, said he wasn’t going to endorse a successor but was looking forward to serving in the Senate.

“The enthusiastic support shows how hard I’ve worked at reaching out to constituents and Republican voters and understanding their issues and bringing them to the Capitol,” he told The Statesman. Pointing to what he termed his “varied academic background,” Tate smiled as he said it “allows me to have a breadth of knowledge, even if not a depth. It allows me to be versed in a lot of different subject areas. I think that helps me at the Capitol in terms of being able to digest a lot of things being thrown at me.”

One concern, he said, are growing protests at colleges and universities “where there’s an ambivalence toward free speech and some foundational ideas and principles of our Republic.” The move toward relativism, Tate said, spells trouble for the country’s more than 200-year run as a representative democracy.

“We are the exception, not the rule in human history. That has not happened by accident. It’s happened because of our principles and ideas and values as America. As those become undermined culturally and are no longer shared ideals but are viewed instead as contingent ideas, I am not just fearful what happens long-term to what is an exception in human history.”

Asked what a state lawmaker can do in response, Tate said, “I don’t know. All we all can do is talk, talk amongst community members, show leadership and expand the conversation.”

“I’m looking forward to working with him,” said state Sen. Kevin Grantham, R-Cañon City. “Jack Tate’s a great guy, and he’s got big shoes to fill. David Balmer’s been a great public servant to the people of Colorado and Arapahoe County. Jack’s already proven in one year that he can do the same. He’ll do a great job, and he’ll be a great colleague.”

Former Senate President John Andrews, R-Centennial, one of Tate’s predecessors in SD 37, said he was confident Tate would carry on the seat’s storied tradition. Andrews pointed out that the seat had been represented by former Gov. Bill Owens and then by U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman — Andrews was appointed to fill a vacancy when Coffman was elected state treasurer in 1998 — followed by former state Sen. Nancy Spence before Balmer took over in 2008.

“I know Jack Tate is going to carry the tradition,” Andrews said. “I liked what he had to say today. I like his penetration into the issues of the currents of thought that are shaping American politics in a direction that conservatives ought to be alarmed about. I’m glad to know he’s equally on top of budget arcana and, as he calls it, the cultural relativism and the active undermining of our values by an intellectual elite. Most people in the state Senate don’t have that broad of a view, and I’m delighted that Jack does.”

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com