The El Paso County Republican Party wants to kick three precinct leaders off the county party’s central committee for their involvement with a campaign organization that uses the word “Republicans” in its name while working to help Republican candidates contact voters.

Those targeted by the local GOP are former state Reps. Lois Landgraf and Kit Roupe, both Colorado Springs Republicans, and longtime party volunteer Candi Boyer, according to documents labeled “Notice of Removal” sent last week by Todd Watkins, the county party’s vice chairman.

Their infractions include continuing to operate a “for-profit business” called Peak Republicans after the state GOP ruled in March that the group couldn’t use the word Republicans in its name, citing party bylaws and a state statute that requires groups using the name of a political party to get permission from the party.

“The Republican Party is not and has never been a for-profit business,” Watkins wrote.

Lois Landgraf Notice of RemovalErnestLuning, Colorado Politics
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“Your business operations vis-à-vis your membership in the El Paso County Republican Central Committee is inconsistent with the intent and purpose of the party,” he added. “By promoting and/or opposing certain Republican candidates for personal gain, your involvement in the political process as members of the party damages the integrity of the process.”

Landgraf and Roupe told Colorado Politics they don’t intend to respond to the notices and expect to lose their precinct leader positions.

“I am being cancelled,” Landgraf said with a laugh. “The whole thing is very odd and ludicrous and inaccurate. It’s true, we were told not to use ‘Peak Republicans,’ but there’s nothing in the bylaws that says that’s a reason for throwing somebody out of office.”

Landgraf said she is puzzled by the party’s argument, since it’s always been common practice for precinct leaders and other Republican Party central committee members – including elected officials – to earn money for campaign work, from building websites and designing mailers to managing races.

“The only thing that bothers me is all the years I’ve given to this party, the eight years I spent in Denver away from my family – to be treated this way is, I don’t know, there really aren’t words,” she said.

Calling the county party’s move “petty” and “kind of arbitrary,” Roupe said: “But I guess it’s a punishment for having helped get Republicans elected.”

Added Roupe: “Our job is to get as much information as possible to the voters. Frankly, if it was me at Republican headquarters, I’d be glad to have some extra hands out there getting Republicans elected. But I guess it’s a criminal offense to be want to be recognized for helping get Republicans elected.”

It isn’t the first time tensions have erupted between the group and the county party.

Landgraf and fellow Colorado Springs Republican Jody Richie – who isn’t a member of the county central committee so doesn’t face expulsion – formed the group in March 2022 in response to complaints the county party wasn’t helping promote Republican candidates whose views didn’t align with local GOP leaders. That included county chairwoman Vickie Tonkins, who became a persistent critic of the group.

Tonkins and her allies maintained that Peak Republicans was acting as a shadow party, a charge Landgraf denied.

“The reason we started Peak Republicans was because Vickie was not being fair, she was being biased toward some candidates from the time caucuses started until we went through assembly,” Landgraf told Colorado Politics. “She wouldn’t put people’s yard signs or literature out at county headquarters, so we started Peak Republicans.”

Tonkins didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

State GOP chairman Dave Williams, a former state lawmaker from Colorado Springs and longtime Tonkins ally, told Colorado Politics that the state party stood willing to “help mediate” the dispute if all sides agreed.

“As this issue is likely to be appealed to the state party, I will reserve judgement until all the facts are presented,” Williams said in a text message. “The state party has communicated to El Paso County that their process needs to conform to the bylaws and (be) administrated fairly so everyone has confidence in whatever outcome is reached.”

Through last fall’s election, the Peak Republicans group distributed campaign material and organized canvases – “for every Republican who wanted our help,” Landgraf said – from its rented office in Rockrimmon. Since then, it’s hosted candidate meet-and-greets, sponsored a Republican presidential debate watch party and used its mailing list to encourage attendance at municipal town halls.

“We ran the ground game for all the candidates – state, local,” Landgraf said, adding that the group served as a clearinghouse to distribute more than 200,000 pieces of campaign literature and saw 85% of its candidate win election.

Days before the November 2022 election, however, Tonkins organized a county party resolution to “censure and condemn in the strongest possible terms” more than 30 current and former elected officials, Republican candidates and party volunteers who had been associated with Peak Republicans. The party also ordered the group to “cease and desist” using the word Republicans in their name and demanded an apology.

A month later, the state Republican Party’s executive committee censured Tonkins in a strongly worded resolution that reprimanded her for shirking her duties by attacking Republican candidates as the election approached, instead of helping them turn out voters. Tonkins, the state party said, “Flagrantly and intentionally violated her duty as county chairman and instead of supporting these seven Republican candidates in the general election, she actively opposed them.”

The state party also told the organizers behind Peak Republicans to apply to use the party’s name under a state law that gives the parties control over the question.

In a decision rendered in March – just days before then-state Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown’s term ended – the state party’s executive committee ruled the group can’t use the word Republican in its name, expressing qualms about allowing a business to share the party’s brand.

Denial of Peak Republicans Application to use the name RepublicanErnestLuning, Colorado Politics
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“While members of the committee expressed their gratefulness for your good work in El Paso County, a number of members were concerned about furthering the divide in El Paso among Republicans and, more specifically, about the idea of granting permission to use the word ‘Republican’ to groups, organizations, or individuals who charge candidates or that are for-profit,” Burton Brown wrote in a March 9 letter to Peak Republicans.

Landgraf said the group decided to keep using the name, in part because she considers the state law an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.

“It was easier to sweep us under the rug at that point,” she said. “When they needed us, they were unanimous in our favor because they knew Vickie was not doing the work for all these candidates – they needed somebody to do the work in the biggest county – but when they no longer needed us, they voted against us.”

Landgraf added that had the state party been firm about the name last year, rather than admonishing Tonkins and encouraging the group to apply to use the word Republicans, it might have been a different story.

“If they had been against us both times – ‘You’re doing great work and we need you, but can you please change the name’ – there’s a possibility we would’ve gone along with that, but under the circumstances, I’m going with the violation of my rights, my freedom of speech,” she said.

Landgraf and her cohorts aren’t the only ones using the words “Peak Republicans” in Colorado, state business filings show.

Roupe registered “Peak Republicans” as a trade name on March 31, 2022. But Colorado Secretary of State’s Office records shows that Tonkins registered numerous variations of the phrase as trade names starting in November 2022 and continuing through March this year.

Among the trade names reserved by Tonkins: Peak Republicans, Peak Republicans United, United Peak Republicans, Pikes Peak Republicans United and El Paso County Peak Republicans.

Williams, who took over as state party chair from Burton Brown in March, told Colorado Politics he didn’t know whether Tonkins had applied to the state party to use the word “Republican” for business purposes.

Tonkins didn’t respond to inquiries about the trade names she’d registered.

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.