In Tuesday’s primaries, the Colorado Republican Party proved it’s ready for prime time this fall. In surprisingly short order, media outlets were able to call Joe O’Dea, Heidi Ganahl and Pam Anderson the GOP’s nominees for U.S. Senate, governor and secretary of state, respectively. 

They join an excellent slate that includes attorney general candidate John Kellner, the 18th Judicial District attorney; state treasurer nominee Lang Sias, a former state representative; and at-large board of education candidate Dan Maloit. Together, these six candidates offer a serious, compelling case for Coloradans to vote Republican. 

Former GOP chairman Dick Wadhams put it best. “Sanity was restored in the Colorado Republican Party tonight,” he told me. “And Democrats failed miserably in their unethical attempt to nominate unelectable candidates.” 

The apparent failure of embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to even place second against first-time candidate Mike O’Donnell, a businessman and economist, is emblematic of the “sanity” chosen by GOP primary voters. Indeed, Peters was even losing her home county to Anderson as of deadline.

As I recently summarized, GOP candidates who insist on relitigating 2020 election conspiracy theories will impede the party’s ability to win in the midterms. Peters, Colorado’s leading theorist, was recently indicted by a grand jury and a Republican district attorney for an alleged election security breach last year.

Peters’ charges include seven felony counts concerning an elaborate identity theft scheme. She pleaded not guilty. The indictment alleges Peters recruited software engineer Gerald “Jerry” Wood for potential contract work assisting her IT department. Wood underwent a background check, obtained his security badge and returned it when instructed.

Wood’s badge was subsequently used at least twice in May 2021 to access secured election facilities. Images of the election server’s hard drive were made and leaked online. According to the indictment, Wood himself never used his badge.  

Wood provided sworn testimony and corroborating evidence for his alibis, yet that didn’t stop Peters from brazenly accusing him of having “perjured himself on the stand” during a June 18 interview on my KNUS radio show.

Peters’ allegation didn’t last a week. Wood reached out to categorically reject Peters’ outrageous allegations. He and his wife, Wendi, subsequently joined me for an extensive Saturday radio interview.

Then on Sunday, the New York Times confirmed online chatter since last August suggesting 1990s pro surfer Conan Hayes was Wood’s imposter. This news threw more weight behind Wood’s testimony and public comments. Yet Monday night, Peters doubled-down on her perjury accusations in an interview with CBS4 reporter Shaun Boyd. 

“(Wood) knew what was gonna happen with his badge,” Peters claimed, asserting he “wanted (Peters) to use it.”

In 15 seconds — by conceding Wood was not the one who used his badge and was instead impersonated by somebody else — Peters seemed pretty plainly to admit to some of the charges alleged in the indictment. For his part, Wood scoffed at Peters’ counteraccusations. 

“I would ask your listeners to ask themselves, would they ever write a blank check, sign it and hand it to someone they barely know, to do whatever they wanted with it, to put their own finances at risk?” Wood told me on the radio Tuesday. “She’s asking everyone to believe that I would essentially do the same thing by handing her my badge and blessing her to use it for however she wants — for someone to impersonate me and commit crimes in my name.”

Tuesday’s results also reflect how Republicans are not so gullible after all. Democrats poured several million dollars into ads and mailers as they meddled in the Republican primaries. Primary voters made up their own minds, however — and Democrats’ mega-money went down the drain.

As I wrote last week, “(F)or years, Democrats have cried foul about so-called ‘dark money’ in politics — meaning, funds raised for election activities by a nonprofit organization that aren’t required to disclose the identities of their donors. Now, they’re spitting out millions of dollars in ads and mailers in the Republican primary funded by dark money like nobody’s business.” 

Perhaps it’s the Democrats who are the gullible ones.

All told, Tuesday represents the worst possible outcome for the Democrats’ narrative that Colorado Republicans are “extreme.” In the wake of the most astonishing Colorado primary season in memory — one in which Republicans ultimately rejected deceit, insanity and left-wing dark money — the GOP now has the chance of thrusting a red wave against genuinely vulnerable Democrats.