BOULDER — Walker Stapleton emerged as the top vote-getter for governor at the Republican state assembly Saturday after a bruising party battle that vanquished his chief rival, but also highlighted his own past drunken-driving conviction and recent petition malfeasance.
Stapleton, the two-term treasurer and a Bush family relative, qualified for the June 26 primary with 43 percent of the vote just days after he entered the assembly contest. The only other candidate to make the ballot through the assembly was former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez, a long-shot candidate who made the case that Latino voters were key to Republicans winning the governor’s mansion in November — and ended up with 32 percent support.
Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, once considered a sure bet for the primary, suffered a devastating defeat. She took only 6 percent of the delegate vote and finished behind first-time candidate Barry Farah, who received 12 percent.
Also missing the 30 percent threshold to make the primary ballot were Steve Barlock, Lew Gaiter and Teri Kear.
Two other candidates, Doug Robinson and Victor Mitchell, still have ballot petitions under review after opting to forgo the assembly and take that route to the primary instead. If they’re successful, that will set up a four-way primary in June on the Republican side.
Stapleton won a clear plurality of votes Saturday in the Coors Events Center. His resounding victory came after Coffman reintroduced news of his 1999 drunken-driving conviction.
And facing new controversy about apparent fraud in how his campaign collected voter signatures to qualify for the ballot through the petition process, he acknowledged the petitioning problems Tuesday. Casting himself as a victim of a political firm hired by his campaign, he withdrew his petitions just five days before the assembly, taking that alternate route to the ballot — forcing a fight for delegate votes with Coffman.
Stapleton labeled himself a “common-sense Colorado conservative” and made his withdrawal a centerpiece in his assembly speech, seeking to tilt the controversy to his advantage. “There’s a one-word answer of why I’m here today: integrity,” he said.
Stapleton — who has refused to say if he will accept President Donald Trump’s endorsement — aligned himself with Trump on the new tax law, emphasizing his early endorsement of the plan.
After the vote, delegate after delegate shook Lopez’s hand or hugged him, telling him that they knew little about him before he spoke. But his words, in urging unification across urban and rural divides and in pressing for more outreach to Latinos, resonated with them.
“I think what I did right was to talk about the future of Colorado,” Lopez, now a business owner, said in an interview. “I think people understood that if we unite, we can definitely have a strong voice.”
Lopez also voiced full-throated support for Trump. He said he supported legal immigration and would work to strengthen border protection, while opposing so-called “sanctuary city” policies such as those followed by Denver and a few other communities in Colorado.
Ezekiah Lujan, a 23-year-old delegate from Leadville, told Lopez it was the best speech he’d heard delivered in the three state assemblies he’s attended.
“He’s just a true conservative — everything he stood for, (supporting) farming and communities, everything just for the people,” Lujan said. “And I didn’t even know his name until he got up there to speak.”
Across the arena floor, Stapleton filled out candidacy papers following the vote. He was visibly exhausted, saying: “I’ve aged about a decade in the last four days.”
“This has been a great opportunity to hopefully unify this party going into November,” Stapleton said in an interview. “When I made the decision I made Tuesday morning, I said I felt great about going to the assembly. And I feel like I won today with my character and integrity intact.”
He brushed off attempts to revisit the 1999 conviction: “I’ve taken the high road. That issue was dealt with extensively when I first ran for office. I was in my early 20s — I made a mistake nearly 20 years ago, and I learned from it, and I’ve moved on. It’s made me a better candidate, a better person and hopefully a better statewide elected official for the last seven years.”
And he turned toward the primary — and, if he’s successful, beyond.
“The threat to matters, to me, is Jared Polis being the Democratic nominee for governor,” Stapleton said, then mentioned the other Democrat to make the ballot at that party’s assembly: “I’ve already run against Cary Kennedy once,” defeating her in the 2010 treasurer’s race.
The Stapleton-Coffman race became nasty in the final hours before the vote, as campaigns and independent political committees bombarded delegates with phone calls, emails and text messages that forced the candidates into a mudslinging match.
Before the vote, Coffman defended her decision to revisit Stapleton’s conviction during a morning address to the assembly.
“I think that people in this room who are delegates need to know that the are issues with that candidate and that if he is the nominee for our party … then the Democrats have all this — they have more than this — and it’s something we need to consider,” she said in an interview.
Coffman became a target for anonymous attacks that highlighted her moderate stances on major issues and called her “not a real Republican.”
In the afternoon, she defended her conservative bona fides. Among those nominating her was Mark “Oz” Geist, a security contractor involved in defending against the 2012 attack on U.S. installations in Benghazi, Libya.
Coffman hit some of the same conservative notes as other speakers, but she also said she offered a better chance at appealing to unaffiliated voters.
“I’m ready to run, I’m ready to serve and this is the call that I hear,” she said.
After the vote — in which she received 154 votes out of more than 2,500 cast — Coffman declined through a spokesman to comment on the results.
