For the first time in six years, both of Colorado’s major political parties will have new leadership after this spring’s party elections.

The state’s Democrats and Republicans are scheduled to begin reorganization meetings starting next month at the county and district levels, culminating in statewide meetings in late March and early April, when they’ll pick state party chairs and other officers to serve two-year terms.

On the Republican side, it’s shaping up to be a heated battle for the direction of the party on the heels of a string of thumpings across the last four general elections after voters have dealt the GOP losing hands statewide, leaving the party with less power in Colorado than at any time since the 1930s.

For Democrats, the contest so far promises to be less contentious, though no less consequential. The party grapples with holding all the reins – every statewide elected official in Colorado is a Democrat, and the party commands historic majorities in both chambers of the legislature – while also pivoting toward an uncertain future, since the current slate of incumbent Democrats occupying every statewide executive office will be term limited in three years.

Colorado Republicans will be choosing their seventh chair in eight cycles – the last GOP state chair to serve two terms lost a bid for a third term in 2015 – and Democrats will be electing only their fourth state chair in the same duration.

Last month, Colorado Democratic Party chair Morgan Carroll, a former state Senate president from Aurora, announced that she’s stepping aside after three terms – having won the last two uncontested – and state GOP chair Kristi Burton Brown, an activist who made her name in state politics leading the charge for a ballot initiative that would have banned abortion, said she’s passing on a run for a second term.

Carroll’s three terms followed fellow three-termers Rick Palacio, the former legislative and congressional aide who ran the party from 2011 to 2017, and Pat Waak, the former congressional nominee who had the job from 2005 to 2011.

Over the same stretch, Republicans have traded leaders more often, with longtime strategist Dick Wadhams serving two terms from 2007 to 2011, followed by Ryan Call, who was the party’s attorney before he ran the show, from 2011 to 2015. Call was denied a third term in 2013 by former Adams County chair and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Steve House – the first time in state history a GOP chair lost a bid for re-election.

House, who didn’t seek a second term, was succeeded in 2017 by former El Paso County chair Jeff Hays, who also declined to run again. In 2019, Republicans elected U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, who split his duties between Congress and heading the party. At the same party meeting, Burton Brown won election as the state GOP’s vice chair.

After Buck announced he wouldn’t seek a second term, five candidates sought the job – Burton Brown, election law attorney and former Secretary of State Scott Gessler, communications consultant Jonathan Lockwood, perennial congressional nominee Casper Stockham and retired businessman and history teacher Rich Mancuso.

It took three rounds of balloting for Burton Brown to win a majority at the GOP’s state central committee meeting two years ago, after three of the candidates – Stockham, Mancuso and Lockwood – withdrew before the final round and threw their support behind her.

When she was elected, Burton Brown was the youngest Republican to head the state GOP and only the second woman to win the job, following Colorado Springs Republican Marian Carter’s one-term stint in the late 1970s. For the first time, Colorado Republicans elected women to all three of their statewide officer posts two years ago, also including vice chair Priscilla Rahn, a former University of Colorado regent candidate, and secretary Marilyn Harris, an Archuleta County GOP chair and unsuccessful legislative candidate.

The Democrats’ state party offices have proliferated in recent years, at this point including 1st and 2nd vice chairs, a secretary and a treasurer, and a slew of additional vice chairs devoted to various party activities, from operations and public relations to geographic, cultural and demographic outreach.

Four candidates have emerged for this spring’s GOP chair election, while three Democrats are bidding to helm their state party for the next two years.

Republicans seeking the state GOP’s top job include two failed congressional nominees, a controversial county party chair and an activist who wants to tear up the party by its roots. Three of the Republican chair contenders have vowed to cancel the party’s participation in Colorado’s semi-open primary system, which allows unaffiliated voters to cast ballots in either major party’s primaries.

The Democrats, meanwhile, will be facing a choice between a state party officer, a seasoned political operative and a longtime party volunteer.

After some jockeying and shuffling – with more likely to come before the state reorg – the Republicans seeking the office at this point are Stockham, who ran unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. House in the 1st, 6th and 7th congressional districts; last year’s 7th Congressional nominee Erik Aadland, a West Point graduate and former project manager in the energy industry; two-term El Paso County GOP chair Vickie Tonkins; and Aaron Wood, founder of the conservative Freedom Fathers group and an organizer behind a heated press conference held on Nov. 30 across the street from state GOP headquarters in Greenwood Village.

Republicans who considered running for chair but have decided against it include Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams and two-time gubernatorial nominee Greg Lopez, who threw his hat in the ring in December but withdrew earlier this month.

Potential chair candidates include former state Rep. Dave Williams, who lost a primary challenge last summer aimed at unseating nine-term U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, and former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who faces trial in March on felony charges related to allegations she helped breach her county’s voting equipment in an attempt to find evidence that Colorado elections are rigged.

In a candidate questionnaire, Stockham, Tonkins and Wood all expressed support for closing Colorado’s primary elections to prohibit unaffiliated voters from participating.

Things are quieter on the Democratic side, with two-term 1st vice chair Howard Chou, veteran political operative Shad Murib and Larimer County party stalwart Tim Kubik in the running for chair.

Both parties’ county organizations hold meetings from Feb. 1-15 to elect officers and bonus members to their state central committees, with the latter apportioned based on the parties top-ticket vote totals in recent elections in larger counties.

The two parties handle the meetings – dubbed “reorgs” – differently, with any registered Democrat allowed to participate in their county elections, while Republicans restrict the proceedings to members of their respective central committees, including precinct leaders and Republican elected officials.

Once those reorgs have taken place, the campaigning begins in earnest for the statewide offices, with Republicans set to convene in late March to pick theirs and Democrats planning to meet on April 1.

Ernest Luning has covered politics for Colorado Politics and its predecessor publication, The Colorado Statesman, since 2009. He’s analyzed the exploits, foibles and history of state campaigns and politicians since 2018 in the weekly Trail Mix column.