Opponents of Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams didn’t have enough support when they voted to remove and replace him at a meeting in August, a judge ruled Wednesday night.The ruling invalidating the votes all but guarantees that Williams will remain chairman through the November election and that Eli Bremer, who claims to have been elected to replace Williams at the meeting last month in Brighton, is standing on unsteady legal ground. Even if an appeal is launched, there’s likely not time before Election Day — Nov. 5 — for it to be resolved.El Paso County District Judge Eric Bentley ruled that Williams’ opponents did not have the necessary votes — 60% of the roughly 400 members of the Colorado GOP central committee — to remove Williams from his leadership when they gathered Aug. 24 at a church in Brighton to oust him as chairman. Williams’ opponents argued that the state party’s bylaws required only the support of 60% of central committee members present at a meeting to vote on removing the chair as opposed to 60% of the entire central committee. Less than half of the Colorado Republican Committee’s members attended the Aug. 24 meeting.Bentley ruled that their interpretation of the bylaws was wrong.“Simply put, in order to remove an officer, there must be a vote of 3/5 of the entire eligible CRC voting membership, and the vote must take place at a meeting called for that purpose,” he wrote in his 21-page ruling. Bentley found that interpreting the rules as requiring only the support of 60% of central committee members present at a meeting to vote on removing the chair would allow a minority of the central committee to depose the Colorado GOP’s leader. He said it’s implausible that those who wrote the Colorado Republican Committee’s bylaws would have intended for that to be the case.Votes to remove and replace Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman and Secretary Anna Ferguson were also taken at the Aug. 24 meeting.“The vote to remove Williams, Scheppelman, and Ferguson was not in accordance with the CRC’s bylaws, and it is accordingly void and of no effect,” Bentley wrote. Bentley’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Bremer seeking to force Williams to cede control of the party. The case was set to go to trial in mid-October. Now, since Bentley has ruled against most of Bremer’s claims, that seems unlikely to happen. Bremer, in his claim to be chairman of the party, has been coordinating with the National Republican Congressional Committee as the GOP battles in Colorado’s competitive 3rd and 8th congressional districts. The NRCC, which opposes Williams, has sided with Bremer in the party leadership fight.Eli Bremer speaks at the GOP state assembly on April 9, 2022, in Colorado Springs. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)Bremer said Thursday morning that he was conferring with his attorneys about next steps. Williams responded to a Colorado Sun message seeking comment with a link to an email he sent to central committee members Thursday threatening retribution against Bremer and El Paso County GOP Vice Chair Todd Watkins, who organized the meeting seeking to remove and replace Williams.“Please know that your true state party officers will seek all legal accountability, in and out of court, against Watkins, Bremer and those who worked in the shadows to sow chaos and orchestrate an unlawful coup against the majority will,” Williams wrote. “While we will seek legal accountability against these failed usurpers, the rest of our state party must unite to defeat the radical Democrats with the remaining time we have left before November.”Williams, a former state representative, was elected chairman of the Colorado GOP in March 2023. But after a string of controversial decisions — including using state party resources for his failed congressional campaign this year, endorsing in Republican primaries and sending out anti-LGBTQ emails — a faction of the Colorado GOP’s central committee has sought his ouster. Most of the state’s Republican congressional candidates have called on Williams to resign, and many campaigns have refused to work with the party because they don’t trust Williams. The Colorado GOP’s central committee will gather in March to select the party’s leader for the next two years. At that time, the committee could replace Williams — whose term is ending — by electing another candidate with a simple majority vote of those present.The Daily Sun-Up podcast | More episodesThe party has struggled to fundraise during the leadership controversy. The party raised $26,500 last month and started September with $354,095.80 in cash on hand. The Colorado GOP reported spending a total of $103,000 in August, none of which appears to have gone to help any Republican campaigns in the state. The party paid Williams’ consulting firm, Fox Group Ltd., $34,000 in August, the party’s single biggest expense last month. The party categorized $26,000 of that as “deferred payment of services.” The remaining $8,000 was categorized as “chairman consulting.”The Colorado GOP also reported paying $25,000 into a trust account for legal expenses from the firm representing Williams in the lawsuit filed by Bremer.The $34,000 the party paid to Williams’ consulting firm in August brings the total the Colorado GOP has paid to Fox Group Ltd. since Williams became chairman in March 2023 to $120,500. Williams’ firm has been paid varying amounts by the party each month, but the sum averages $6,700 a month, or an annual salary of about $80,000.Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams, left, and Colorado GOP Chairman Eli Bremer. (Colorado Sun file photos)Since Williams took over, the party has paid Treasurer Tom Bjorklund’s consulting firm nearly $70,000, including $4,000 in August. Bjorklund told The Sun that the party’s executive board voted to set Williams’ pay at $8,000 a month and his own pay at $4,000 a month.The Colorado Democratic Party reported raising $536,693 in August and spending $276,446, including nearly $70,000 on mailers benefitting Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo’s reelection campaign in the highly competitive 8th Congressional District. The party had about $600,000 in cash on hand to begin September.This is a developing story that will be updated.First published by The Colorado Sun.