County's Republicans butt heads
Mike Potter
Staff Writer
Controversy among Park County Republicans has erupted over a process that led to Wissel’s selection.
(Photo by Kristy Gould)Park County Republicans are engaged in an emotional battle over the propriety of Lillian Wissel's appointment as temporary commissioner and as a Republican candidate on the primary ballot.
Those actions were taken by the executive board of the Park County Republican Central Committee, or PCRCC, in the wake of the May 8 death of Doc McKay, who was county commissioner for District 3.
Specifically, Fairplay Republican Bobbi Gore has challenged the authority of the Park County Republican Central Committee Executive Board to appoint Wissel as the candidate on the District 3 Republican primary ballot. (See her letter to the editor, Page 4.) She points to language in the committee's bylaws while Wissel supporters cite state statute.
Gore had filed to run for that seat, and then withdrew, deciding to throw her support behind Alma Mayor Mark Dowaliby, who has gathered enough signatures to make it on the ballot.
Fairplay Republican Bob Agosti has also criticized the procedure by which Wissel was chosen, saying the process did not include input from the Central Committee members or the public.
Agosti said he believes a number of people are upset with the appointment of Wissel to the seat.
"How can you support an organization that is going to do things behind closed doors in secret," he said of the process in which Wissel was appointed.
He claimed as many as 100 "prominent Republicans" in Park County were upset with the selection process, something Park County Republican Central Committee Chairwoman Susan Pullman disagrees with.
The extent of the emotional involvement in the issue was demonstrated by a June 2 letter to the Park County Republican Central Committee by Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener that was later retracted by Wegener.
In that letter, Wegener said he intended to resign from the PCRCC, saying that the committee had alienated itself from its members. But he rescinded that statement after a conversation with Pullman.
Wegener's letter had been faxed to The Flume to be run as a letter to the editor, but Wegener decided he wanted to pull it. "I wrote the letter and I rescinded it, saying that I didn't want it published," Wegener said on June 3.
In an e-mail to The Flume, he said, "I have found some errors in the information that was given to me."
Pullman told The Flume that after she had a conversation with Wegener on the evening of June 2, Wegener decided to withdraw his resignation.
When asked on June 2 if his resignation had to do with the appointment process in which Wissel was selected, Wegener declined to respond.
The PCRCC
The PCRCC is made up in part by a number of elected Republican officials in the county.
The other members of the central committee are made up of two precinct representatives from each precinct. There are a total of 13 precincts in the county.
"If we get all the positions filled, we should have 26 precinct people plus the elected officials (9, if I counted right) PLUS any special committees, PLUS 5 on the Board, which is at least 40 people," said Pullman in an e-mail.
Precinct representatives are elected at the caucuses, she said.
Pullman said misinformation has been circulating about the PCRCC.
"Not only the members, but also some delegates, thought it was a secret meeting and a secret ballot," Pullman said. That wasn't the case, she said.
It isn't a new issue, she added. The issue arose when Wissel was appointed as temporary commissioner after Jim Gardner passed away in 2006.
Pullman said that the vacancy committee followed the PCRCC's bylaws in selecting Wissel.
According to Article IX, Section C, of the bylaws of the PCRCC: "The PCRCC Executive board shall be the County Vacancy Committee for the replacement of any Republican County Commissioner vacancy. Said vacancy shall be filled within ten (10) days after the occurrence of the vacancy."
Wissel, who is on the PCRCC Executive Board and was thus on the vacancy committee, told The Flume that she has heard the rumors that her selection to the commissioner's seat was a secret appointment, but she said that wasn't the case.
She said she told the vacancy committee that she felt that she shouldn't be allowed to vote.
"I told the board myself that I didn't want to vote, because like any good politician with confidence, I would vote for myself," she said. But the board required her to vote, she said.
She indicated that even if she hadn't voted, it would not have changed the outcome of the election.
"I can tell you my vote didn't count anyway because there wasn't a tie," she said.
The voting record of the vacancy committee members wasn't disclosed.
According to Executive Board Meeting Minutes from the May 15 meeting provided by Park County Republican Central Committee Secretary Mary Ann Melvin, Wissel requested that she not be present at the interviews of the other candidates.
"Five votes were cast, with Lillian Wissel receiving a simple majority on the first ballot. The voting was not unanimous; there was no need for a tie-breaking vote," the minutes said.
The vote to designate Wissel as the candidate on the primary ballot was unanimous, according to the May 15 minutes.
The minutes also say that the interviewees to fill the District 3 vacancy caused by McKay's death were: Mark Dowaliby from precinct 2, Jim Eldridge from precinct 5, Bobbi Gore from precinct 1, Kent Kalb from precinct 6 and Lillian Wissel from precinct 1.
Those executive board members who participated in interviewing candidates to temporarily fill the District 3 seat were Pullman, Melvin, Second Vice Chair Richard Ballinger and Treasurer Joyce Lang, according to the minutes. The fifth board member, Wissel, was not involved in interviewing other candidates, say the minutes.
Wissel appointment to the primary ballot
Gore said that she believes the vacancy committee overstepped its authority when it appointed Wissel to the primary ballot.
The authority to place someone on the primary ballot isn't expressed in the PCRCC bylaws, she said.
Pullman said that the vacancy committee has a choice of either appointing a candidate or letting all candidates petition onto the ballot under a Colorado state statute.
The Colorado Secretary of State's Office directed The Flume to Colorado Revised Statute 1-12-1002 Section 7(b), which gives the vacancy committee the power to appoint someone to a primary ballot.
It states, "candidates for the office shall be designated ad provided in section 1-4-603 or by the respective party central committee vacancy committee..."
CRS 1-12-1002 7(b)applies when the vacancy occured after "the political pary assembly" and "no later than sixty-eight days before the primary election."
CRS 1-4-603 addresses how a candidate can petition onto a primary ballot.
Pullman said that the vacancy committee isn't compelled to just appoint a candidate to the ballot in that situation.
"It is not a 'SHALL' it is a 'MAY' - meaning may select or appoint," she said in an e-mail.
"Our executive board, based on our bylaws, have the responsibility of two vacancy committees. One is to appoint an interim commissioner," Pullman said. The other is to appoint someone to take a place on the ballot if no other Republican candidate is already running, she said.
The reason the executive board decided to place Wissel directly on the ballot was because of the shortened amount of time any candidate had to collect enough signatures to petition onto the primary ballot, said Pullman.
Wissel was appointed on May 15 to the ballot and candidates trying to petition onto the primary ballot had until May 29 to acquire 158 valid signatures.
Despite the shortened time, Alma Mayor Mark Dowaliby earned enough valid signatures to earn a spot on the Republican primary ballot.
Gore also stated that the bylaws forbid an endorsement of a candidate prior to the primary unless the candidate is unopposed. Article III Section C states that "it is the policy of the PCRCC to not support or endorse any Park County candidate prior to the primary (unless unopposed), and to support the candidates put forth by the primary election."
But Pullman said that Wissel's appointment to the primary ballot isn't an "endorsement" of the candidate.
Members of the vacancy committee wanted to put forward the candidate they felt could win in the general election, she said.
"We wanted to give the Republicans a candidate that had experience against any independent or Democrat," Pullman said.