In the words of La Plata County Republican Central Committee Chair Dave Peters, it’s been a rough couple of months for Colorado Republicans.
Infighting at the state level has trickled down into the La Plata County pond and stirred the waters. Hope Scheppelman, the county party’s secretary and vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party, has been the primary source of agitation.
Scheppelman is a staunch supporter of Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams, who earned infamy after sending out anti-Pride emails that read “God hates flags.” She also backed the state party’s controversial decision to endorse candidates in the June primary elections.
Her devotion to the state party has caused turbulence in La Plata County, culminating last week when Peters announced that the county’s executive committee had asked Scheppelman to resign her county position.
When she refused, an attempt to oust her was to be considered at a meeting Tuesday night held at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4031 in Durango.
With 90 days left before the election, the committee spent the bulk of a two-hour meeting debating a resolution, which passed 18 to 3, to censure Scheppelman.
“That was long and arduous,” one member said under her breath as she left the room.
Peters kicked off the discussion of unity – and Scheppelman – by putting his money where his mouth is.
“Our sole purpose is to get Republican candidates elected, period,” he said. “Our county, just like several other counties, have let division interfere with our main purpose. We all need to calm down and focus on supporting candidates, starting right here tonight.”
To that end, he requested a motion, which passed, to donate an additional $10,000 to the campaigns of Clark Craig and Paul Black, who are running for state Legislature and county commissioner, respectively.
Although party leaders pledged to excise dysfunction and embrace unity, the state of affairs devolved from there.
Scheppelman, wearing an “RNC Delegate” hat and a “Trump Vance” shirt, sat at the far end of a long table with other executive committee members before a crowd of about 60.
The party’s bylaw committee offered up a resolution to censure Scheppelman, a move that is symbolic and “doesn’t have any real teeth,” Peters said.
Although he had plans to remove the secretary through a bylaw revision, Scheppelman publicly pointed out that his process was not in accordance with state laws.
The adopted resolution found that Scheppelman “usurped the power of the Chair,” and “disrespected our organization,” among other allegations.
“You guys are grasping at straws,” Hope’s husband, Steve Scheppelman, shouted from the side of the room.
The discussion confused attendees, many of whom thought a bylaw amendment was still on the table. Some did not understand the effect of a censure or wanted to know more about what Hope Scheppelman had done.
“I don’t know how I can vote on anything that I don’t understand,” Precinct Committee Person Jiri Doskocil said during the meeting.
However, Scheppelman’s opponents unleashed a barrage of claims that informed the concerns raised in the resolution.
Multiple party members said Scheppelman had harassed them through an inundation of emails, text messages and phone calls.
“I had to call the cops on Hope Scheppelman to get her to stop harassing me at all hours of the night and early morning,” former Executive Committee member Lisa Zimmerman said.
Chris Burke, a spokesman for the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed that Zimmerman contacted dispatch on June 10 just before 11 p.m. A deputy responded and left two voicemails for Scheppelman advising her not to contact Zimmerman.
The volume and style of Scheppelman’s communications “rendered our Executive Committee pretty dysfunctional,” Peters said. The assertion was backed up by former LPCRCC Chair Shelli Shaw, who was in attendance and supported the censure.
“There are divisions, and it sucked all the oxygen out of the room,” Peters said.
“The recent infighting within our party has been disheartening,” Scheppelman said, reading a prepared statement in what would be the first of two comments made during the meeting. “We have allowed our differences to overshadow our unity and our mission and our purpose.”
She later said she would refrain from disseminating state-party information to the county officials.
Several other party members were quick to call out Scheppelman’s role in driving the wedge between party factions.
“When they (the state GOP) put out things like ‘God hates flags,’ and you know what they meant, … (the LPCRCC) needs to dissociate them, those people, with our county,” Dale Ruggles said via Zoom, adding: “We cannot be a part of the radical right that, during an election cycle, offends tons of people.”
How many members might those anti-Pride statements have driven away, former executive committee member Ron Bogs asked.
As the meeting wore on, emotions seemed to crescendo.
Several attendees grew frustrated at the lack of decorum.
“If you like to lose elections, keep having these kinds of meetings,” one said.
With the passage of the resolution censuring Scheppelman, party leaders hope to have put the matter to bed.
“We aired it out, we’re going to wash our hands of it, we’re going to focus on candidates,” Peters said.
But, he ended the meeting by informing the committee that he wanted to hire an investigator to look into Hope’s actions, either on the party’s dime or his own.
“They’re just infighting,” Steve Scheppelman said in an interview with The Durango Herald after the meeting. “It’s a joke.”
Peters declined to comment after the meeting and said he would respond to questions via email. He did not respond to a requests for comment Wednesday.
Former Chair Shaw, acknowledging that unity had not yet been achieved, indicated Scheppelman had failed to back all of the goals shared by most La Plata County Republicans.
When it was put to a vote, it was “an overwhelming response,” she said.
Craig, the Republican Ignacio mayor running to represent House District 59, acknowledge the lack of support at the state level but said county-level infighting has not impacted his campaign. He is strategically focusing on cutting through the noise and being the best candidate he can be.
Still, he has a gentle request for party leaders.
“It’s time to sit down and just have a conversation,” Craig said. “… I’m hoping we can get there. I feel very confident that we can.”
rschafir@durangoherald.com
