Shortly before the Republican Women of Weld County’s gubernatorial forum Monday night in Fort Lupton, organizers let the press know new candidate Cynthia Coffman would not be attending. Instead,  she was flying back from Palm Beach, Fla., her campaign confirmed Wednesday.

Coffman had committed to attending a Republican Attorneys Generals Association gathering there and couldn’t re-book her flight to make it back to Colorado in time. The Fort Lupton forum organizers were aware of that, her spokeswoman, Caroline Wren, told Colorado Politics.

Coffman did not attend a Friday night reception at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s private resort,  Wren said.

The International Business Times and the political website Maplight reported on the event at the resort Tuesday and published an itinerary for the RAGA conference, which includes the Friday night reception at Mar-a-Lago. The itinerary noted that cell phone use and pictures were prohibited. RAGA is a political organization that works to elect Republicans and raise money from private donors.

Coffman entered the race for governor the prior Wednesday, and Friday afternoon she was doing phone calls with the press, including Colorado Politics.

Wren said Coffman is a member of the RAGA executive committee, and she felt it was “extremely important” to honor her commitment to be there.

“It was important to her to talk about what’s going to happen in the Colorado attorney general’s race and to talk about George Brauchler,” Wren said, referring to the Arapahoe County-area district attorney who officially dropped out of the governor’s race this past Monday to run for attorney general.

Brauchler did not attend, Wren said.

The RAGA conference continued through Monday. Most of the events were at The Breakers Palm Beach resort, about three miles north of Mar-a-Lago.

“She had been scheduled to attend for a long while and felt it was important to attend,” Wren said, adding that Coffman’s flight did not land in Denver until 7 p.m. Monday, which didn’t give her enough time to make it to Fort Lupton. The dinner started at 5:30.

“It was never really an option for her to attend,” Wren said.

Brauchler also didn’t attend to glad-hand for his new campaign for attorney general.

Walker Stapleton won the event’s straw poll, 45-12, over Tom Tancredo. Other candidates attending were Steve Barlock, Lew Gaiter. Doug Robinson, Victor Mitchell and Greg Lopez.