Attorney General Cynthia Coffman on Wednesday disputed claims that she and two other Republicans “ambushed” state GOP chairman Steve House and threatened to accuse him publicly of cheating on his wife if he didn’t resign.
She did not detail the concerns that prompted her, former Congressman Tom Tancredo and Pueblo GOP chairwoman Becky Mizel to speak with House on Monday night and ask him to step down.
“As someone who was being inundated with information raising some very serious questions, I had no choice but to sit down and lay out the accusations to Steve,” she said in a statement. “There was no joy in this. There were no threats, nor was there any desire for the meeting to become public fodder. At the same time, just sort of sweeping it under the rug wouldn’t have been responsible.”
House admitted he initially agreed to resign to spare his family and the party, and he sent Coffman a tweet saying he was stepping down. But then he decided to stay on the job, saying he wouldn’t be “bullied.”
House issued a lengthy statement Tuesday with his version of events — which Tancredo and others have disputed.
Tancredo and Coffman are not political allies. He is upset, for example, with her positions on illegal immigration.
But Tancredo said that because he, Coffman and Mizel were high-profile supporters of House’s candidacy for chairman, Republicans statewide, including lawmakers, began to approach the three with “grave concerns” about House.
“That’s why we ended up going to him,” Tancredo said.
He and Mizel also would not elaborate on the concerns, and House did not speak publicly Wednesday.
The Republican soap opera has captivated politicos locally and nationally. Colorado is considered a key state in determining which party will control the White House and the U.S. Senate after 2016, and insiders worry about the impact of the internal party strife on the election.
In her statement, Coffman said House and the party’s executive committee need to get together and decide what’s best.
“They need to get past the talk-radio jousting. They need to evaluate the facts and circumstances, and then they need to make the best decision for the Republican Party,” she said in the statement.
The executive committee could meet as early as next week.
But Dick Wadhams, a former two-term chairman of the state Republican Party, said the executive committee doesn’t have the power to oust House, although it could issue a vote of no confidence or such.
“I can tell you with absolute assurance that only the full Republican State Committee can remove a chairman, ” he said.
Wadhams was also critical that the trio hasn’t released what prompted them to demand House’s resignation.
“They have a duty to reveal the charges. They need to put up or shut up,” he said.
It was the Republican State Committee in March that elected House, who took roughly 57 percent of the delegate votes to incumbent Ryan Call’s 43 percent.
Most of the establishment Republicans backed Call, as did several Adams County Republicans who had served alongside House when he was the county GOP chairman. They were not impressed.
“Steve loves the luncheons, the dinners. He’s a showman,” former county chairman Patty McCoy said before the chairman election. “But he’s not a worker. He’s not somebody who rolls up his sleeves.”
Mizel admitted she had concerns about House before the chairman’s election in March, although she did not elaborate. Her bigger worry, she said, was her belief that if Call won re-election, Republicans would resign because they were so frustrated with Call’s management style.
“I take no pleasure in what’s happening to my party,” Call said Wednesday. “But Cynthia Coffman and Tom Tancredo have to answer some questions. It was their endorsement of Steve that legitimized his candidacy.”
Said Tancredo: “My bad.”
Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327, lbartels@denverpost.com or twitter.com/lynn_bartels
