Six state senators have challenged Colorado Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call over the ballot process for selecting delegates to the national convention, saying they believe it favors those who support presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
More than 800 Republicans from around the state are running for one of 33 delegate or 33 alternate slots to the Republican National Convention in Tampa the week of Aug. 27.
“Our rules should ensure a smooth, fair and transparent election process that does not give one presidential candidate favor over another,” the senators wrote Monday in a letter to Call. “The proposed delegate ballot fails this test.”
They believe convention candidates should be listed alphabetically on the ballot. Instead, candidates’ names will be listed by the presidential contender they support, with unpledged candidates names listed at the bottom of the ballot, a move that “degrades our grass-roots caucus system,” the senators said.
“No one’s rights are being infringed or prejudiced in any way,” Call countered.
Call added that the accusation that Romney is getting special treatment is “silly.” He said the party’s rules committee is listing the block of Romney supporters first on the ballot because he is ahead in the national delegate count.
Call said that all four presidential campaigns — Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich — were notified of the ballot process. He said Santorum’s campaign did not respond, but representatives of the other three campaigns signed off on it.
A representative of Santorum’s campaign could not immediately be reached for comment.
This is the first year that Colorado Republicans have permitted the election of pledged delegates, who committed to supporting a certain candidate through the first round of balloting at the national convention.
“In the past , we’ve elected everybody as unpledged. You could run a slate of candidates and they were all free agents,” Call said. “This creates more transparencies and more accountability.”
Call said one member of the rules committee proposed an alphabetical ballot, like the one proposed by the state senators, but it died for lack of a second.
Three delegates and three alternates will be chosen from each of the state’s seven congressional districts at their assemblies April 12-13. The remaining 12 delegates and 12 alternates will be elected at the statewide convention April 14 in Denver.
The letter to Call was from the following GOP senators: Scott Renfroe of Greeley, Kevin Lundberg of Berthoud, Mark Scheffel of Parker, Kent Lambert of Colorado Springs, Ted Harvey of Highlands Ranch and Shawn Mitchell of Broomfield.
Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327 or lbartels@denverpost.com
