By Kate Martin
Reporter-Herald Staff Writer
Fred Anderson looked at the audience full of his fellow Republicans and didn’t like what he saw.
He saw a group divided by ideology.
It was April 19, the continuation of the House District 51 Republican Assembly. More than 100 delegates had gathered to select candidates for the party’s nomination in November.
Eleven days earlier, Jim Welker, who holds the Loveland district’s seat, announced his retirement from state politics and presented the delegation with political unknown Kevan McNaught as a candidate.
Delegates voted to postpone the meeting to April 19 to get to know McNaught and give other people a chance to explore a candidacy.
Anderson, a former state Senate president, approached the stage to speak on behalf of his friend Don Marostica, a candidate for House District 51. Instead, what followed was a four-minute diatribe questioning the direction and integrity of the Larimer County Republican Party. “I am tired of this litmus test that an individual has to pass in order to be a candidate for the Republican Party,” he said.
Larimer County Republican Party Chairwoman Nancy Hunter said there’s not a divide in the party. She said people discuss and debate, but there is not a split. She said there is no litmus test to be a candidate.
But others disagree.
Former Larimer County Republican Party Chairman and House District 51 Rep. Bill Kaufman said there’s a disconnect between the party leadership and the party’s traditional base: the business community.
A battle last summer over two statewide referendums brought party infighting into the limelight. The local party leadership voted to oppose the measures last summer.
Kaufman said it was the final straw for a segment of the business community.
“For a long time they supported the party without question,” Kaufman said. “They’re questioning now.”
Some business leaders are more than questioning.
Rocky Scott, principal and senior vice president of development for McWhinney Enterprises, recently helped create the Enterprise Group LLC. The business-oriented political organization won’t fund candidates or issues, he said; its purpose is to investigate how they will affect the economic climate in Larimer County.
“There are a lot of discussions going on, and it’s not just Larimer County,” Scott said. “A lot of it came out of the Referendum C and D battle.”
Scott said business leaders do not want to leave a legacy of crumbling school and highway systems.
“A mindless, anti-tax approach would shift the burden to the next generation and would make us fundamentally noncompetitive in the quest to get good jobs for our people,” Scott said.
Members of the local Republican Party have had an ongoing, healthy debate for years — or there is a major rift. It depends whom you talk to.
There has been a conservative-moderate split in the party since the 1980s. Moderates and business leaders “went to sleep” as “right-wing” members took over the party, Kaufman said.
“I’ve had traditional Republicans complain to me about this. They haven’t done anything unfair. They haven’t done anything illegal or unethical that I know of,” Kaufman said.
“God, guns, gays and abortion” is the “litmus test” that party leaders have used recently to choose and encourage acceptable candidates, he said.
Hunter said there is no litmus test to be a candidate in the party. But some disagree, and they point to a recent event to prove their point.
The Christian Coalition of Colorado helped shape the party’s executive committee in 2003, said former party chairman Ed Haynes. The committee manages internal party functions and sometimes participates in vacancy committees.
Haynes said the coalition presented a slate of candidates who were strong Musgrave supporters.
Candidates who did not support Musgrave, or those who could not be controlled, did not make it onto the slate of candidates, Haynes said.
Haynes said it happened in all counties in the 4th Congressional District.
He’s not sure how successful the campaign was elsewhere, but in Larimer County, it worked.
“They were very successful in getting very strong Marilyn supporters on the board, instead of supporting all Republican candidates,” Haynes said.
Haynes said even county elected officials have felt the “sting of unwelcomeness” from the local party if they were a “moderate Republican.”
Three elected county officials were asked for comment. All declined, saying it could hurt their re-election chances.
Reform Party member Eric Eidsness, a former Republican, said he became frustrated trying to contact county party leaders when he was exploring a Republican candidacy against U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave.
He said acceptance into the Larimer County Republican Party boils down to one thing: ideology.
“There is absolutely no encouragement of people who are not Bush-Musgrave-Schaffer hard-line party-liners to run for public office,” Eidsness said.
Some Republicans say disagreements arise from simple discussion.
Bob Schaffer, a former state senator and U.S. congressman who calls himself a mainstream Republican, said he doesn’t think there is a party split. Schaffer lost a primary bid for a U.S. Senate seat against Pete Coors in 2004.
“I think you’ve got a very small number of hypersensitive people who confuse healthy debate with division,” he said.
Some party members have forgotten that the Republican Party is here to elect Republicans, not promote a certain viewpoint, Haynes said.
“I want the party to be the Republican Party, not a litmus test right-wing group that controls things,” he said.
Former Fort Collins Mayor Ray Martinez said, while he thinks the executive committee needs to be “reshaped,” moderate Republicans are at fault because they didn’t get involved at the caucus level.
“If they would’ve stepped up, this wouldn’t have happened,” Martinez said. “It takes everyone at the plate.”
Sen. Steve Johnson, who lives west of Fort Collins and represents state Senate District 15, was the state Senate sponsor for the bill that ended up on the ballot as Referendum C, and a co-sponsor for the bill that became Referendum D.
Billed as a tax increase by some, the state’s saving grace by others, referendums C and D were the dividing line in the Larimer County GOP in 2005.
Opportunity, not charity, is what Republicans stand for, Johnson said. Referendums C and D stood for opportunity: education, health care, better roads.
Threats from the Colorado Club for Growth surfaced early in 2005. The conservative, anti-tax group urged people not to support lawmakers who supported the referendums.
“It was a big gamble, and you know, I knew that, but it was essential that this pass,” the Larimer County senator said. “I just decided a long time ago, I don’t have to have this job. There’s other things I like to do: teaching, being a veterinarian. So I decided a long time ago, ‘I’m going to do what I think is right.’”
Johnson said if Referendum C did not pass, higher education, Medicaid and transportation would have suffered.
“We would’ve been lost,” he said. “It really would’ve been a disaster. We would’ve seen the biggest cut in our budget, probably in the history of the state.”
But many local Republicans didn’t believe the doom-and-gloom projections. On Aug. 24, 2005, the Larimer County Republican executive committee voted to oppose Referendums C and D.
Schaffer believes most businesses were against the referendums. Those businesses that supported the referendums did so for selfish reasons, he said.
“I would bet you would find some connection with a state project and a private interest,” he said. “An interchange that, perhaps, dramatically improves the value of someone’s land speculation.”
Loveland Republican Jack Huffman said, while he believes the state needed more money, abandoning the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights for five years was the wrong solution. He said voter-mandated increases in K-12 education funding were the reason the state had money problems.
Johnson said he realized the local party and businesses were at odds.
“It was a red flag to me that, ‘Hey, something’s wrong here,’” he said. “The business community is our traditional base of support.”
When the party came out against the referendums, it showed the party was not looking out for the best interests of the economy, McWhinney Enterprises’ Scott said.
“I think business people tend to look at the issues more deeply,” Scott said. “Their life every day is to raise money to make things happen for future success. When they see a problem, they act.”
Thus, he and several others formed a limited liability company called The Enterprise Group.
“The writing is very clearly on the wall. If you take care of those key issues (education, transportation and innovation), you will be able to attract and retain jobs for people,” Scott said, “and if you don’t, they will go somewhere else.”
Bill Kaufman alluded to The Enterprise Group in a recent interview. He said there are groups forming all across Colorado, in Larimer, El Paso and Jefferson counties.
“We’re out recruiting business people. We’re going to take the party back,” Kaufman said. “People who are traditional Republicans who want a good business climate but understand that government has a role in that.”
Scott said the group also will look at intraparty races in Larimer County, such as elections for the executive committee in 2007.
State Rep. Kevin Lundberg, when told that businesses were planning to get more involved in local politics, said he was happy to hear more people are interested.
“I think it’s good when people get involved, and I trust we’ll be discussing core values for Republicans and sticking to those values,” the representative said.
How can a party mend if its leaders say there’s nothing wrong?
Hunter, the party’s chairwoman, says she is “not aware” of a split in the party.
Lundberg says the party is closer to unity now than it was 10 years ago.
“There’s always a naysayer on the side trying to stir the pot,” he said.
Johnson said disagreeing with “party purists,” people who think all Republicans should believe in the same issues, can get you on their bad side.
“There is an element of the party that’s purists. You disagree with them once, and they hate you. There are people like that in the party. I get e-mails from them,” said Johnson. “And that’s not a good way to run a party.”
Republicans have lost the majority in the state House and Senate because the party is being too exclusive, Johnson said.
“If you’re going to make the tent smaller, you’re going to make the numbers smaller,” he said.
But you don’t abandon core principles to be more appealing to others, he said.
Schaffer said that some disagreements are good.
“Anybody who thinks Republicans should not be debating central issues of a civil society should go move to a government that is ruled by a monarchy or a single party,” he said. “Maybe Cuba. There’s a good example of where you get one answer and no debate.”
Johnson said Republicans will have to be more accepting to unite the party in Larimer County.
“You have to stop emphasizing the things we disagree with. You have to stop attacking. You have to start focusing on the points we agree with,” Johnson said. “You have to be willing to support some people you don’t always agree with. You have to do those things to bring people together.”
• Referendum C asked voters if the state could keep tax rebates for the next five years to pay for K-12 education, health care, state colleges, transportation and bond payments for Referendum D. Referendum C passed in 2005, 52 percent to 47 percent.• Referendum D asked voters to allow the state to sell $1.56 billion in bonds to build schools and roads, repair colleges and pay for Colorado’s share of the police and fire pension fund. Referendum D failed, 51 percent to 49 percent.
• TABOR, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, limits government tax and spending increases by linking them to inflation and population. Since a recession hit in 2001, Colorado lawmakers have carved $1.1 billion from the budget over three years, much of it from higher education and health care.
Bill Kaufman, former party chairman and former House District 51 representative:
“We are no longer the party of business. We are almost, in some places, a religious organization.”
Nancy Hunter, Larimer County Republican Party chairwoman:
“I think overall the party itself is healthy. People are working hard for their various candidates.”
Ed Haynes, former party chairman:
“There are also elected officials in Larimer County that felt like their feelings, their view of the party, was somehow not important ... if they were a moderate Republican. ... they felt this sting of unwelcomeness.”
Fred Anderson, former state Senate president:
“Before, if you wanted to run, you’d say ‘I’m interested.’ You didn’t have to go through a hierarchy that says, ‘Well, I don’t know if he’s conservative enough.’”
Jack Huffman, Loveland Republican:
“I don’t think that our party is split at all, but we do have a small faction that are much more liberal than others. ... I think it’s normal differences of opinion in a lively organization.”
Steve Johnson, state senator:
“I think this upcoming election is going to be a very bad election for Republicans. The president is very unpopular, the war is very unpopular, people are very turned off by Washington and the corruption. ... So this is the kind of year that we need to come together as a party. But Republicans are not very good at overlooking differences.”
Bob Schaffer, former U.S. congressman:
“The Republican Party is, at its core, about ideas, not about power.”
CORRECTION FOLLOWS Friday's story about the Larimer County Republican Party divide gave an incorrect year for when the Christian Coalition of Colorado reportedly helped shape the party's executive committee. The action occured in 2005.