Colorado Springs Republican Eli Bremer, an Olympian and former chairman of the El Paso County GOP, told Colorado Politics he asked an acquaintance to reserve a series of internet domain names this week to make sure they’re available in case he decides to challenge U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet next year – but Bremer stressed the move was out of prudence and said he isn’t actively considering a Senate run.

Bremer said a friend acting on his instructions registered the domains – six permutations of elibremerforussenate.com – to eliminate the chance he’d discover the web addresses had been scooped up by a rival or a domain-name squatter if he later decided to mount a campaign for Bennet’s seat.

“I considered it a wise move, considering all the questions we’ve been getting,” Bremer said Friday. “My name started getting out there and I started getting some calls around that, so I said I probably ought to grab these.”

While he didn’t rule out a Senate campaign, Bremer insisted he hasn’t been spending any time thinking about a run, though he acknowledged that registering the domains would spark speculation.

“Nature abhors a vacuum, and that’s true in politics,” he said. “There are a number of folks around the state, around the country, looking at it and saying, ‘Who might be interested in running?’

“All I can say is, it’s not something that I’ve been putting any thought into. There’s absolutely no chance of an imminent announcement.”

The domain registrations were first reported by the CATargetBot Twitter account.

Bremer’s name has been in the news recently since the 2008 Olympic pentathlete was appointed in December to a congressional committee charged with recommending reforms to the U.S. Olympic system.

A consultant in several industries and a media pundit, Bremer is married to El Paso County Commissioner Cami Bremer and is the son of former county GOP chairman and congressional candidate Duncan Bremer. His uncle, Paul Bremer, ran the the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq under President George W. Bush after the U.S. invasion.

Bremer was also at the center of a dispute last year that landed the Colorado Republican Party in court after U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, its chairman, told Bremer to add a candidate to an El Paso County legislative primary ballot after the losing candidate complained he’d been treated unfairly at a virtual nominating assembly.

The Colorado Supreme Court sided last spring with Bremer, letting a Denver District Court ruling stand despite the state GOP’s argument that the decision would lead to Colorado courts being overwhelmed by “purely political fights.”

Bennet has yet to draw a Republican opponent for what could be the Denver Democrat’s re-election bid for a third full term. Late last month Buck, who had long been rumored to be a likely Bennet challenger, announced that he won’t run for the seat.

A spokesman for the Bennet campaign declined to comment.

Bremer said it’s too early to give any thought to next year’s elections.

“I think there’s just so much to be done this cycle before we (Republicans) even have a clue what’s going on,” he said. “It’s an unprecedented time with Joe Biden ruling by executive order. We don’t know what that’s going to do, politically.”

He added: “The Super Bowl is this weekend, and it’d be foolish to think you know how that’s going to turn out. Anybody who says they know what’s going to happen next November – it’s not responsible to be making decisions that far out.”