GOP’s selection of stopgap candidate benefits Rep. Boebert

Republican sources in Colorado’s 4^th District who spoke to Newsmax agreed that the surprise choice Saturday of former Parker, Col., Mayor and past gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez as their nominee in the June 25 special election helps the candidate many do not want to be their nominee for the full two-year term: 3rd District Rep. Lauren Boebert. The controversial Boebert announced she will seek re-election in the 4th District but not vie in the special election to succeed soon-to-be resigned GOP Rep. Ken Buck.

Had the conclave of party leaders picked any of the major candidates seeking nomination for the special election — radio talk show host Deborah Flora, former state Senate President Jerry Sonnenberg, and former state Sen. Ted Harvey, chair of the anti-Biden Super PAC Committee to Defeat the President — it would almost surely have given him or her an advantage in the primary for the full term (also held on June 25).

“Boebert actively lobbied voting members to select a ‘placeholder,’ which was what Lopez campaigned on,” former State Party Chairman Dick Wadhams told Newsmax, “I think that some supporters of the other candidates were reluctant to vote for someone else and it was easy to vote for a placeholder.”

Lopez, genuinely well-liked in party circles, had not only campaigned on serving only the remainder of Buck’s term but signed a pledge that he would do just that.

MAGA Republican Boebert, while widely criticized for embarrassing behavior in public (she and her then-boyfriend were vaping while watching the play Beetlejuice last year) and has been denounced as a “carpetbagger” in the press, nonetheless has a strong following and $1.3 million in her campaign account as of the end of last year. Perhaps more importantly, she is one of 11 candidates competing for the nomination in what is universally considered Colorado’s safest Republican district.

Democrats will select a nominee for the special election later this month.