Colorado’s traditional Republican leadership must have consumed a barrel of single malt last week – first in celebration and then in horror. By most measures the party escaped its 2022 primary with a minimum of voter approvals for the delusional lunacy that afflicts much of its base and many of its candidates. Three federal judges, two former U. S. Senators, a pair of premier conservative attorneys and a former chief of staff to House and Senate Republican leaders joined with dozens of less well-known party stalwarts to issue a report: “Lost, Not Stolen.” Their exegesis examines each of the 64 lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign in six battleground states explaining why all but one were dismissed or rejected. They concluded, “There is absolutely no evidence of fraud in the 2020 presidential election of the magnitude necessary to shift the result in any state, let alone the nation as a whole. In fact, there was no fraud that changed the outcome in a single precinct.”

These assertions must have provided a soothing tonic for former Colorado Republican Chair Dick Wadhams and his like-minded collaborators. Of course, the most fervent ‘Stop the Steal” believers cannot be persuaded by mere facts. They continue to attack truth tellers as RINOs who have been duped by ‘those lying, cheating Democrats’. Heidi Ganahl, an ostensibly moderate Republican candidate for governor, played coy on the question of whether Joe Biden was fairly elected during her primary campaign, but both her supporters and critics suspected she knew Biden was legitimately elected America’s 46th president. So, the day following a public declaration finding no fraud during the 2020 election, Ganahl’s announcement that she was selecting Colorado Springs Republican Danny Moore as her running mate for Lieutenant Governor flabbergasted nearly everyone.

Moore, who was elected Chair of Colorado’s Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission earlier this year, was quickly booted for his incendiary tweets and emails alleging fraud in the 2020 election, labeling Biden’s win, “the Democratic steal.” If Ganahl has accomplished anything it is not to cement her support with the Republican party’s Trumpian base, but to guarantee her entire campaign will pivot on whether she and her running mate believe Colorado elections are fair and free. The horror for every remaining Republican candidate is that this controversy will damage them in down-ticket contests. The retired military officer she has chosen has little better than a 50/50 chance of remaining on the ticket until November. Anyone dumb enough to toss social media firebombs from an appointed position, is nearly certain to do the same as a statewide candidate. Easing him out of the way will leave a nasty stain.

If, as now seems possible, Ganahl is a genuinely diehard conspiracy theorist, she’s sure to be asked what she thinks of Colorado’s Dominion Voting Systems and whether she agrees their machines can be remotely controlled with Google Nest thermostats, as was discussed in the Oval office. Or, what of the purported Italian and Venezuelan plots, including the ghostly involvement of Hugo Chavez – moldering ten years in the grave? In addition, there’s Ganahl’s apparent defensiveness on behalf of John Eastman and his links to the Benson Center at the University of Colorado. If nothing else has been accomplished by the January 6 Committee, it has clearly placed Eastman at the center of the anti-democratic machinations behind the Capitol insurrection. It is no small thing that Eastman was alarmed enough to request a pardon from then still President Trump. Now it appears the Trump operation is preparing to toss him under the bus. The University did the same, sacking Eastman from his sinecure. As a Regent, Ganahl will remain dancing on a griddle justifying his behavior.

All this is a political gift to the governor. Jared Polis can cruise above the roiling storm clouds and discuss his plans for a second term undisturbed by a second pandemic. Republican candidates are not so lucky. They will repeatedly face questions about the top of their ticket. Do they agree or disagree with Heidi and/or Moore? Perhaps most at risk will be Pam Anderson, running for Secretary of State. If election denial becomes the anthem sung by Ganahl, Anderson will be in a bind. Her entire campaign is premised on the notion that, when properly supervised, Colorado elections are fair and honest. Recent appeals from Hanks and Peters for a hand recount of their primary defeats is embarrassing enough.

There is ample precedent that voters, when unhappy with the top of a party’s ticket, merrily punish all its candidates. Ganahl will discover running for public office is trickier than peddling Camp Bow Wow franchises. It’s been nearly two hundred years since we’ve witnessed an American political party collapse. Then Republicans replaced the Whigs. Another Democratic rout in Colorado this year could prove fatal for them in 2022.