Colo. GOP Will Hold 2018 Primary, Including Unaffiliated Voters

The GOP Central Committee voted Saturday by two-to-one not to cancel the 2018 primary rather than open it to unaffiliated voters, party officials said. Members of the committee also voted by the same margin not to sue to overturn 2016's Colorado Proposition 108, which allows unaffiliated voters a chance to participate in party primaries. In 2016, with the national GOP nomination of Donald Trump on the horizon and division among GOP bigwigs, the Colorado GOP cancelled their primary caucuses.

One million voters in Colorado declare themselves "unaffiliated" and both parties want to woo them. Colorado Propsition 108, passed in 2016, allows voters who haven't publicly chosen a party to vote in primaries. Supporters of the proposition said the rule would force officials to try to appeal to moderates.

While the scenario exists that stealth voters from the other party may try to cast primary swing votes for unelectable candidates, Colorado GOP candidates recognized Saturday that voters in the middle were part of the pathway to victory.

But the new election law had a caveat that established parties could shut down primaries with unaffiliated voters upon approval of 75 percent of its central committee. The Colorado GOP didn't choose that path Saturday.

"To win statewide, CO's GOP candidates must appeal to unaffiliated voters. Prop 108 challenges them to begin doing so during the primary," the GOP brass tweeted.

"We're silly if we don't go and try to listen to [unaffiliated voters]," Republican Party State Chair Jeff Hays said last week.

Meanwhile, Colorado Treasurer Walker Stapleton announced Saturday he would join the crowded field of 12 candidates who've announced they're running for Colorado governor.

Politics-watchers say Stapleton's "stealth fundraising" strategies this summer have kept mega-donors from committing to other GOP candidates including Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, Victor Mitchell, George Brauchler, Greg Lopez, Doug Robinson, Steve Barlock, Lew Gaiter and Tom Tancredo. Stapleton was accused of skirting campaign contribution caps by working with an independent expenditure committee (IEC) called Better Colorado Now, "whose primary purpose is to get Stapleton elected," wrote Denver Post reporter Mark Mathews. Better Colorado Now declared a balance of $118,000 in the bank as of the end of July. More donations must be declared Sept. 30.