Former Sen. Mike Kopp (Photo By Helen H. Richardson/ The Denver Post)
A to cancel the GOP presidential poll at the 2016 caucus is facing new questions that may lead to reconsideration of the Colorado Republican Party’s decision.
Mike Kopp, one of two RNC committee members from Colorado, told The Denver Post on Friday that the party misinterpreted how the new national rules work.
The Republican National Committee approved a rule in 2012 to require that states bind their delegates to the winner of a caucus poll. This upended earlier precedent that allowed Colorado’s delegates to go into the national convention unpledged to a particular candidate — regardless of who won the state’s caucus vote.
The concern that the winner in Colorado may exit the race by the national convention, and the desire for delegates to have freedom to choose the best candidate, led to the state party nixing the straw poll.
But Kopp said that rationale is incorrect. He said national party rules allow delegates committed to a candidate who quits to go elsewhere. “You can unbind your delegates if the candidate is no longer in the race,” he said.
Kopp missed the GOP executive committee meeting Aug. 21 when the vote was taken. But knowing what he knows now, he opposes the decision. The new system, he said, means the “delegates get to vote their conscience, but the downside is you leave tens of thousands of potential Republican straw poll voters on the sidelines.”
He said the move “basically negates” the state’s importance in the 2016 political primary contest.
Outgoing Colorado GOP chairman hands the gavel to newly elected chairman Ryan Call at the 2011 state central committee meeting.
Former Colorado GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams is calling for party elders to reconsider the decision at its Sept. 26 meeting in Pueblo.
“Let’s keep the Colorado Republican presidential preference poll as a way to empower those attendees and quantify their support for a presidential candidate,” he wrote in published in the Post. “And, most important, to allow Colorado Republicans to have a strong influence on who we nominate to be the next president of the United States.”
Steve House, who ran for governor in 2014, in March was elected chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. (Provided by Bob Beauprez campaign)
Colorado GOP Chairman Steve House acknowledged that “the rules weren’t completely clear to us” when the decision was made. But he cautioned that the new interpretation may not change the outcome.
He said he has heard from roughly equal numbers of Republican activists who support or oppose the move. “We are going forward as we are today, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
State Sen. Chris Holbert, a Parker Republican, said he supports the move. “Why? Because, if I wanted to be a delegate to the Republican National Convention, then I would want to support whomever I WANTED to support for President,” he . “If you would prefer some type of BINDING straw poll, then you are welcome to that opinion, but then we would disagree on that point.”
