Caldara and UniParty/Establishment Give Up on CO GOP

With little fanfare the Godfather of the Colorado GOP Establishment, Phil Anschutz, has given up on the Colorado GOP which he has indirectly controlled for over three decades until the rise of the grassroots and President Trump. The signs of his abandonment have been popping up for months.

The Anschutz RINO conservative media empire has been in full retreat. The Colorado Springs Gazette and the Denver Gazette are hidden behind pay walls now therefore the opinion pieces by RINO columnists like Dick Wadhams and Jimmy Sengenberger have little readership or reach. His RINO blog site Colorado Politics is not updated for long periods of time.

His flagship enterprise, the Independence Institute, was once a beehive of activity with almost a score of employees, now just limps along. Anschutz’s Complete Colorado website acted as and looked like a Colorado Drudge Report. Its Page 2 section provided original RINO reporting. The Drudge-like format and most of the original reporting are now a thing of the past.

The face of the Anschutz media empire for over two decades has been Jon Caldara. Originally a quick witted, irreverent firebrand, is now an old, tired, sad, and bald lion in winter.

Anschutz disillusionment with the Colorado GOP dates to the Fall of 2022 and heartbreaking election losses suffered in that year’s midterm races by the Colorado GOP Establishment. Anschutz and his Establishment allies had finally got a GOP election lineup it had long dreamed of with Joe O’Dea for U.S. Senator; Heidi Ganahl for Governor; Pam Anderson for Secretary of State; John Kellner for Attorney General; and Lang Silas for Treasurer.

For the Establishment, there were absolutely no God, guns, anti-gay, climate deniers. Anschutz adamantly believed that this was exactly what Coloradans hungered for. GOP Chair Kristy Burton Brown put together a vague and bland pro-business platform that all Colorado Republicans could run under that would offend absolutely no one. Best of all 2022 was going to be a big Red Wave year nationally and Colorado would be part of the tsunami with business friendly RINOs taking back Colorado from the extreme, socialist Democrats.

The big day came but there was no Red Wave nationally and the beautiful Colorado RINO slate was crushed with individuals losing by overwhelming margins. How could this have possibly happened?

Uncle Phil and his brain trust at the Independence Institute did a long deep intellectual dive and came up with the answer. It was, of course, the fault of Donald Trump. Yes, suburban women in Colorado hated Trump and took it out on the beautiful Republican slate even though none of the Colorado Republicans running for statewide office liked or supported Trump.

This conclusion is outlined and explained in an extraordinary column in Colorado Politics penned by Jon Caldera on May 8th (“Will Open Primaries Rescue Republicans”). According to Caldara suburban women and in particularly the dastardly single moms, hate Trump with such a passion that it “turns to hatred of his political party [the Republicans].” Caldera went so far to state: “Any candidate running with an ‘R’ behind his name in swing districts might as well have a swastika behind his name.”

The concept explains everything. The wonderful 2022 RINO slate did not overwhelming lose because the voters did not like them, but their hatred of Trump blinded them.

Suburban women in Colorado according to Caldara are “pro-gay, pro-abortion, pro-weed and, until the blackouts hit, believe climate change is Colorado, not China, caused.”

Men apparently don’t vote in suburban districts according to Caldara or if they do their votes don’t really count. How Trump won countrywide the popular vote by over a million votes in the 2024 election including all seven swing states is not explained. Colorado women in the suburbs are just a different breed than anywhere else in the country.

So how can Republicans win in a state where  suburban women view Republicans as “Nazis” even the wonderful meek pro-business RINOs that Anschutz adores.

Independence Institute and Jon Caldara have figured it out. In order to save the State and the Colorado GOP we must destroy the political parties and go to jungle primaries just like California.

But didn’t the Colorado voters just reject jungle primaries in the 2024 election along with three other western states? In Colorado, this rejection happened notwithstanding Kent Thiery and the proponents of jungle primaries outspending its opponents by a 10 to 1 margin. Well according to Caldara, Thiery needs to spend millions to bring it back to the people but this time no ranked choice voting.

In Caldara’s view jungle primaries will result in the swing suburban districts persons unaffiliated with either party running and winning. These winners are really RINOs but without any party affiliation. They would then caucus with the rural Republicans and save us from socialist Democrats who are destroying the state.

The mere fact that that is not what happens in any jurisdiction that has jungle primaries is of no importance to Caldara. What, in fact, will happen only candidates with rich backers like Phil Anschutz can win in such a system. The Republican Party apparatus will be destroyed and along with Grassroot Republicans.

For many Republicans in Colorado whatever value the Independence Institute and John Caldara once had is past its due date. Time to put both out to pasture.

— Editorial Board