Volunteers lugged campaign signs and stuffed bags with fliers awash in red this past week at what has become the alternative hive of Republican campaign activity this season. 

The Peak Republicans office near Interstate 25 and Garden of the Gods Road was set up during intense Republican primary election battles locally and is now functioning as a campaign headquarters for many candidates that have not received dollars, volunteers, or other support from the official local party. 

“I have gotten absolutely no assistance or support from the party,” said attorney Shana Black, who is challenging Democratic state Rep. Marc Snyder for House District 18. The House district was recently redrawn and is far more competitive than in previous years. 

Republican candidates, volunteers claim party leadership bias in El Paso County for candidates ahead of caucuses

In one case, Todd Watkins, a primary candidate for El Paso County sheriff who didn’t make the general election, is encouraging voters through social media to “leave the bubble blank” and not to vote for establishment Republicans, which he refers to as Republicans in name only or RINOS.

“The current breed of RINOs have done nothing more than provide a façade behind which Democrat policies are advanced,” he wrote on Facebook. If establishment Republicans aren’t elected to countywide office they won’t automatically hold committee seats within the party and more “truly” Republican representatives can lead the party, he wrote. 

In a letter shared with The Gazette, he went on to explain if establishment Republicans are not in power, the party can be rebuilt as an “America First Party.” 

The move to suppress the Republican vote is really unprecedented, said Jody Richie, a campaign manager for about seven local Republican candidates. The failure for the party leadership to support general-election Republican candidates is also unusual. Despite the infighting, though, she says campaign efforts are going well and she has assembled a list with more than 1,000 volunteers. 

“We are just not letting that get in our way,” Richie said of the infighting.  

Republican Party Chairwoman Vickie Tonkins pushed back on statements she has failed to support candidates in an email to The Gazette, saying that everyday people are stopping by the party offices for signs and literature. 

Earlier this fall, Tonkins seemed to relay a different state of affairs to Richard Randall on his KVOR radio show, saying she was having trouble getting people to volunteer for the Republicans running in the general election.

“People are not responding to those requests,” she said. 

Tonkins also stopped short of endorsing Republicans in the general election, encouraging people to vote their conscience instead.

“I cannot and will not ever again vote for the lesser of two evils because it is still evil, so I am telling people vote, vote for the guy you are for,” she said, saying she was speaking for herself and not the GOP. 

Randall called her out for not endorsing Republican candidates for statewide office during the radio show. 

“You’re helping send Bennet and you’re helping send Griswold and you’re helping send Polis right back for four more years,” Randall said. In November’s election, Sen. Michael Bennet is running against Republican Joe O’Dea, Secretary of State Jenna Griswold is facing Republican Pam Anderson, and Gov. Jared Polis is facing Republican Heidi Ganahl.

El Paso County is critical for statewide Republican candidates to have a chance.

For example, for O’Dea to win Bennet’s seat, he needs to win El Paso and Weld counties by a big margin to help counter the strong Democratic support Bennet is likely to receive in Denver and Boulder counties, said state Sen. Paul Lundeen. 

Campaigns for O’Dea, Anderson, Ganahl and others are working with the alternative Republican Party headquarters to get their message out, said Lois Landgraf, a former state representative who helped organize the office. 

Landgraf is managing Black’s campaign and has organized door-knocking campaigns that have reached 1,500 people in a weekend, despite not receiving lists of local precinct leaders from the party. Precinct leaders typically help with neighborhood-level campaigning like door-knocking.

Tonkins said via email she had given out precinct leader information to campaigns. 

While organizing is going well, Landgraf noted that fundraising for campaigns has been harder this year, likely because high inflation is hitting everyone hard. To comply with campaign finance law, the candidate campaigns have hired Richie Marketing Strategies, Richie’s Company, to fund Peak Republicans activities. 

The official party has not donated to any tight legislative races, such as Black’s. Giving to campaigns and spending money on their behalf is one of the key functions of county parties, said Eli Bremer, a former party chairman. 

Some of the other local competitive legislative races are expected to be House District 17, where political newcomers Regina English, a Democrat, and Rachel Stovall, a Republican, are facing off, and Senate District 11, where Democrat state Rep. Tony Exum is facing Republican state Rep. Dennis Hisey.

Tonkins said the party’s executive committee agreed to raise the funds for campaigns and to date has not raised any money.

The Republican Central Committee’s latest filing report showed it had $68,530 on hand.

Black’s campaign had $6,000 on hand, while Snyder’s had $71,925.76, according to the latest filings with the Secretary of State’s Office. 

While Black is not receiving party support, she said she has worked on campaigns since she was 18 and so she knows how to reach voters without help. Still, the internal hostility has been striking. She has never received even a congratulations on her victory in the primary.  

“I have never seen this type of infighting, where you are not supporting the winners of the primary,” she said. 

A split in the local party has been growing for at least the past two years.

In summer 2020, candidates and party officials confirmed that the El Paso County Republican Party, once the difference-maker in favor of Republican candidates statewide, was playing no discernible role in the run-up to the general election.

Some GOP elected officials have blamed Tonkins and her allies for the divisions. Last November, Karl Schneider, the vice chairman of the El Paso GOP and others called for Tonkins to “resign or be removed” after she sent a scathing email to county Republicans that began with an encouragement to vote in Tuesday’s election, but quickly veered into an extended attack on some of the organization top officers.

Earlier this year, tensions reemerged when Colorado Springs Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn accused Tonkins and her allies of rigging the 2022 party nomination process. Tonkins responded with an email denouncing Lamborn as dishonest and corrupt that was sent to more than 1,200 delegates and alternates who were set to attend the 5th Congressional District assembly.

In this summer’s primary election, El Paso County GOP challengers, most of whom deny the outcome of the 2020 election, were defeated by double-digit margins by establishment candidates. But the winners succeeded largely without support from the local GOP leadership.

Black, Richie, Landgraf and others said the only way for the party to move forward would be change in leadership, but don’t see resolution to the infighting anytime soon and so they expect to maintain the alternative headquarters. 

However, a united party is what many volunteers said they would prefer. 

“We could be twice as effective,” said Kay Rendleman, a longtime party member.