Colorado’s Democratic Party chairwoman on Tuesday accused Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman of improperly giving the GOP a one-week deadline extension for designating candidates for the August primary ballot.
State Democratic Party chairwoman Pat Waak said at least three Republican candidates in state legislative races were allowed onto the primary ballot, even though the party designated them after the date that Democrats were told was the deadline for putting candidates on the ballot.
“I just think it really is an unfair process,” Waak said. “Clearly, we were given a different set of dates and rules than the Republicans were.”
The secretary of state’s office denied the charge, and Waak’s Republican counterpart, state party chairman Dick Wadhams, accused Waak of stirring up a partisan fight.
“It sounds to me like a cheap political shot by the Colorado Democratic Party,” Wadhams said. “I think it’s baseless.”
The fight essentially comes down to this: Waak says Democrats were told they must designate all the candidates for the primary ballot by June 5 and released an e-mail with a secretary of state elections employee saying as much.
But Richard Coolidge, a spokesman for Coffman, said state law and case law are muddy on when the deadline is and that Coffman went with advice from the attorney general’s office to be inclusive. Coolidge said both parties were given the chance to designate new candidates in vacant races after June 5 and released letters to the parties to prove the point.
Complicating things more, the three Republican candidates were selected by vacancy committees after the candidates who had been selected in the district assemblies dropped out.
The three candidates are Mary Lynn Wagner in House District 23, Mary Arnold in House District 29 and Natalie Menten in Senate District 21. All of those districts are in Jefferson County.
Coolidge said the candidates were designated by the June 13 certification deadline.
“Because state law is unclear, we’re deferring to case law that errs on the side of ballot access,” Coolidge said.
The debate is significant, if a bit obscure. Coolidge said for a party to have a spot on the general-election ballot, it must have a candidate on the primary ballot, although it can later change out candidates.
Waak said party leaders are examining the issue to decide what to do next.
Luis Toro, senior counsel with frequent Coffman scrutinizer Colorado Ethics Watch, said he also was looking into the issue but had not found enough information to determine whether Coffman acted inappropriately.
“It’s certainly not clear to us that there’s a violation here,” Toro said. “. . . But until we see further information, we can’t say.”
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com
