Infighting continues as a top official in the La Plata County Republican Central Committee is pushing back against a circuitous attempt to oust her from leadership.
Hope Scheppelman, the secretary of the county party and vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party, says the process of adopting a proposed bylaw amendment that would, in effect, remove her is not being pursued in accordance with state law or the county party’s own rules.
Local GOP Chair Dave Peters notified committee members via email July 31 that the executive committee had asked Scheppelman to step down. When she did not immediately do so, he asked committee members to attend a meeting scheduled for Tuesday to consider a recommendation from the bylaw committee.
In an email to The Durango Herald, Scheppelman said she did not decline to resign but asked to see the executive committee’s grievances written in an email so she could review them thoroughly.
The proposed rule change would effectively force a new election for all executive committee members.
But, in a memorandum attached to a post signed by Scheppelman on the county party’s Facebook page, the divisive secretary made an argument that meetings at which bylaw amendments are to be considered must be noticed 30 days in advance.
According to 2015 bylaws posted on the La Plata County GOP’s website, “Notice of any meeting where amendments to these Bylaws are to be presented, must be sent at least thirty (30) days prior to such meeting.”
Notice of the upcoming meeting came six days before the vote is scheduled to be held.
If the party were to properly notice and adopt the bylaw amendment, Scheppelman argues, state law contains provisions dictating that bylaws may not be changed after the first week of February, meaning the changes would not immediately take effect.
Party leaders behind the attempt to force Scheppelman out are pursuing a bylaw amendment because executive committee members may only formally be ousted for cause.
Neither Scheppelman nor Peters responded to requests for comment by deadline Monday.
The wedge driven between Scheppelman and other party leaders appears to mirror a divide at the state party level between far-right conservatives with a proclivity to stir controversy and a more traditional wing of the party.
Scheppelman is a backer of state Party Chair Dave Williams, an agitating politico who is also trying to weather calls for his resignation.
Peters told party members that Scheppelman needed to go for the sake of party unity; conversely, she called for the same in a video posted to YouTube over the weekend that did not directly address the calls for her resignation.
She also sent the Herald a statement from Williams in which he called her a “conservative warrior dedicated to advancing the GOP locally and across Colorado” and said “any attempts to remove her from serving our members are shortsighted and harmful to our Party efforts.”
The bylaw amendment is on the agenda of the La Plata County Central Committee meeting Tuesday evening.
rschafir@durangoherald.com
