BY FREDA MIKLIN
GOVERNMENTAL REPORTER
On March 28, former Parker Mayor and two-time candidate for the GOP nomination for Colorado governor Greg Lopez was selected by a vacancy committee to represent the GOP in the upcoming special election to complete Ken Buck’s current term in Congress, which ends this year.
Former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck was in his fifth term representing Colorado’s fourth congressional district (CD4) when he announced on November 1, 2023, he would not seek re-election. Then he unexpectedly resigned his seat nine months early on March 22.
As soon as Buck stepped down, Governor Polis named June 25 as the date for a special election so voters could choose someone to represent CD4 for the rest of this year. That is also the date of the previously set primary in which the Democratic and Republican standard bearers for the same seat will be selected for the upcoming general election on November 5.
All the significant action in CD4 happens in the Republican party because that district has only sent a Democrat to Congress once in 50 years (U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey 2009-2011).
When the Republican vacancy committee for CD4 met in rural Hugo, Colorado on March 28 to choose their candidate for the special election, the betting money was on one of the candidates who was also running in the primary election. Most people who follow politics believed that, with at least eight candidates in the GOP primary for the permanent seat in November, anyone whose name appeared on both the special election ballot and the primary ballot on the same day would have an advantage over the others in the primary.
It took six rounds of voting for Lopez to beat his strongest rival, former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, 51-46. Lopez told members of the vacancy committee that choosing him would keep the playing field even for the primary candidates because he was only a placeholder and would not compete for the permanent job in November.
Lopez told delegates, “I am not looking to run for office and I am looking to only fulfill the last six months of this term. Tonight, it’s (about not) giving an individual advantage over their competition.”
Many saw the choice of Lopez as improving U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s chances in the primary. Boebert could not run in the special election unless she resigned her current seat representing Congressional District Three, which she will hold until her replacement is sworn in next January. (Boebert declined to run for re-election in CD3, instead moving to CD4 where she hopes to replace Buck.) Had she resigned her seat early to compete in the special election, Republicans in Congress could have lost their majority if even one of the multiple other incumbents not seeking re-election resigned before the end of their terms.
Fewer people seem to have noticed that GOP primary candidate Deborah Flora, who also chose not to compete in the special election, also benefited from the vacancy committee selecting Lopez rather than Sonnenberg or any of the other primary candidates seeking the nomination for the general election. Although Flora doesn’t have nearly the fundraising advantage of Boebert, she has garnered strong support from the women of CD4, starting back in 2022 when she nearly made the primary ballot for U.S. Senate and continuing through the present.
On March 26, she launched the Deborah Flora Women’s Coalition, chaired by former Colorado Lt. Governor Jane Norton. The group’s initial membership list includes state Rep. Brandi Bradley, Centennial Mayor Stephanie Piko, National Federation of Republican Women Board Member Barbara Piper, Centennial City Council Member Robyn Carnes, Aurora City Council Members Danielle Jurinsky and Stephanie Hancock, Lone Tree Mayor Pro Tem Wynne Shaw, U.S. Army Lt. Col. and Parker Town Council Member Laura Hefta, Douglas County Coroner Rae Ann Brown, and local Republican activists Lynne Cottrell, Holly Horn, Jill Cullis, and Kathleen Chandler.