Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams is drawing fire from fellow Republicans after the state GOP mailed a brochure to El Paso County voters this week that includes attacks on one of the congressional candidates running against Williams in this year’s Republican primary.

Since announcing his candidacy in Colorado Springs-based 5th Congressional District in January in an email distributed by the state GOP, Williams has faced calls to step down from the party post, with critics citing party bylaws that prohibit the party and its officers from taking sides in primaries, including on their own behalf. Those calls have intensified this week, including from three of Williams’ predecessors as state party chair.

“That’s misappropriation of party funds that donors gave to defeat Democrats in the general, not to be used to by a self-promoter to attack fellow Republicans during the primary,” Jeff Hays, a former chairman of the state GOP and of the El Paso County Republicans, told Colorado Politics after reviewing the mailer.

Williams, Hays added, “needs to be fired by the state central committee and rejected by voters in CD5.”

“It’s totally inappropriate, especially when he’s a candidate in the race,” said Gregg Rippy, a former congressional candidate and the chairman of the Garfield County Republican Party.

Emphasizing that he was speaking for himself and not the county party or any other GOP organization, Rippy added: “We’re in a bad place for the Republican Party right now if we’re spending all our efforts fighting among ourselves. If Chairman Williams hasn’t made us irrelevant already as a party in Colorado, he’s well on the way.”

In an oversized postcard that started landing in mailboxes on Feb. 29, the Colorado GOP tears into Jeff Crank, one of Williams’ primary rivals, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, and The Gazette, at one point accusing the Colorado Springs newspaper of “corrupt campaigning for Nikki Haley and Jeff Crank” and elsewhere describing the two GOP candidates as “insider cronies.”

Crank and Williams — a former state lawmaker from Colorado Springs who took over a year ago as state party chairman — are among five Republicans running for the GOP-leaning seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who announced his retirement earlier this year.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor, is the lone remaining Republican challenging former President Donald Trump for the GOP nomination, including in the March 5 Colorado presidential primary.

The mailer also takes aim at Haley’s endorsement last year by Americans for Prosperity Action — the political arm of the Koch networks’ Americans for Prosperity organization — and links her campaign to Crank, a regional vice president at AFP and a former state director for the conservative group. Crank won an endorsement last week from AFP Action.

Rippy and other members of the state GOP central committee said they’re considering whether to petition for a special meeting of the party’s governing body, potentially to consider a censure motion against William or a vote to remove him from office.

“What he’s doing to Jeff Crank right now, it’s absolutely wrong,” Rippy said.

Williams told Colorado Politics in a text message that the state party, which voted in January to endorse Trump, is simply “defending President Donald J. Trump and exposing AFP for undermining Trump’s re-election chances because of their anti-Trump bias.”

Asked about the attacks on Crank, his primary opponent, Williams responded: “The State Party won’t apologize for standing with President Trump.” He added: “It’s not the State Party’s fault that, as an AFP lobbyist and Vice-President, Jeff Crank was paid to support Nikki Haley on AFP’s national podcast platform and applaud AFP’s endorsement of her.”

Williams rejected criticisms after fellow Republicans took to social media to condemn the mailer.

“The Colorado Republican Party will no longer allow the liberals at the Gazette to deceive voters like they’ve always done,” Williams said in a text message to Colorado Politics.

Colorado Politics and The Gazette are sister publications under the umbrella of Clarity Media, a Colorado-based company owned by Phil Anschutz, who is also targeted by criticism in the Colorado Republican Party’s mailer.

A Feb. 26 email sent by the state GOP blasted Crank for hailing AFP Action’s decision to get involved in the presidential primary as “a courageous one” in a recent episode of the American Potential Podcast, hosted by Crank, that featured an interview with AFP Action senior advisor Emily Seidel.

The email also warned Republicans against listening to “‘Never-Trump’ Americans for Prosperity or their ‘used car salesman’ pitchman, Jeff Crank” and told the GOP’s mailing list not to “give AFP or Jeff Crank your money or contact information.”

Crank, who has never worked as a lobbyist for AFP, told Colorado Politics that he has long been a vocal Trump supporter, including on his podcast, and formally endorsed Trump’s bid for another term last year.

A spokesman for Crank’s campaign denounced the state Republican Party’s attack on the candidate in a statement to Colorado Politics.

“The Biden Administration is using their power to target their political opponents, the Colorado Republican Party shouldn’t follow down that same path,” the Crank campaign’s senior advisor said in a text message. “We must focus solely on electing more strong conservatives to office.”

Since his election as party chairman last March, Williams has drawn as much attention for going after fellow Republicans as he has for railing against Democrats.

In posts to social media and emails blasted out to the state GOP’s mailing list, Williams has criticized all three Republican members of Colorado’s congressional delegation, including chastising Lamborn for budget votes, scolding U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a former state party chairman, for opposing a House speaker candidate, and jabbing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert for switching House districts late last year.

In addition to his involvement in trying to depose the House Republican leader at the beginning of this year’s legislative session, Williams formally admonished a group of GOP state lawmakers and local officials last year for expressing their opinion on a dispute in the Montana legislature.

“From time to time, it’s the responsibility of any organization to hold its members accountable for harmful decisions they make,” Williams said in an email, adding, “Elected Republicans should know better and understand the stakes.”

Kristi Burton Brown, who chaired the state Republican party for two years prior to Williams’ election in 2023, called her successor’s use of scarce party resources to benefit his own congressional campaign “outrageous.”

“Basically, I think his misuse of party resources for his own campaign is inappropriate, unethical, and a violation of the bylaws,” Burton Brown said in a text message to Colorado Politics.

“The central committee always has the recourse of removing the chairman or ordering the chairman to take a leave of absence until his own race is over,” she added. “The bylaws say an officer cannot oppose a Republican candidate in a primary, so this is a direct violation.”

Under the state party’s bylaws, 25% of the central committee’s membership can call for a special meeting. It takes a 60% majority to remove a party officer, but the threshold for a censure is lower, requiring a simple majority.

Republican strategist and former state GOP Dick Wadhams, a longstanding critic of Williams, said Friday that using the state party to malign his primary opponent was “an embarrassment” that “makes the Republican Party look like a third world country, politically.”

“He is absolutely amoral. He has no ethics, there are no ethical boundaries that he observes, no legal boundaries,” Wadhams said, referring to Williams. “The only thing that matters in his mind is whatever he wants to do in terms of pursuing his personal ambition. We have not seen this kind of absolutely unethical behavior before in Colorado.”

Kelly Maher, a veteran Republican consultant and political commentator, said in a text message that Williams is leading the state party into irrelevance.

“If I were one of the few donors to, or candidates left, in the Colorado GOP as Dave Williams lays waste to it, I would be furious that he was using the dwindling resources to bolster his own campaign,” Maher said. “It’s so deeply corrupt.”