In a statement that is likely to upend a number of Colorado Republican primary races and topple at least one GOP incumbent congressman, State Treasurer Walker Stapleton (running for CO-Gov) announced today that he is withdrawing his petition signatures for the governor’s race on the belief that the company that collected them has committed fraud.
Kennedy Enterprises has long been suspected of deficiencies in gathering signatures for issues and races here in the state, but this is the day their house of cards collapses completely. Stapleton, who barely made the minimum number of signatures required to petition on to the Republican Primary ballot, says his campaign has suspected for a while that Kennedy was lying to them about their petitioners and now has definitive proof. As a result, he is requesting that the Colorado Secretary of State invalidate his petitions; Stapleton will instead compete for top line at the GOP State Assembly this weekend.
Kennedy Enterprises — a GOP firm — has been busy collecting signatures for candidates this year. Another likely casualty of this fallout is six-term Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05), who is today facing a hearing over insufficiency in his own petition signatures. (Lamborn decided to forego the assembly route; invalidation of his signatures will almost certainly remove him from the primary.) The lawsuit alleges (and today presented evidence) that Kennedy used out-of-state petition gatherers to qualify Lamborn; under Colorado law, primary petition circulators must be in-state registered party voters.
There’s no telling who else might be affected. Colorado Pols notes that Polly Lawrence, a promising candidate for the GOP Treasurer’s slot, might also have her petitions rejected. Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, who is relying on the assembly, now has to compete with Stapleton for at least 30% of the assembly votes in a crowded field.
Kennedy Enterprises has in the past been involved in the successful recall efforts against Democratic lawmakers in 2013. They will not be missed by state Democrats.