Roberts claims primary threat was made over minority caucus chair race

State Rep. Ellen Roberts (R-Durango) said Monday that she was threatened with primary opposition in 2010 if she didn't remove herself from last week's race for state House minority caucus chair.

"I got a phone call, and it was suggested that if I would back out (of the caucus chair race), things could be easier or things could be harder," Roberts said. "It's no secret that there's a Senate district election coming up in my area in 2010. So there was conversation about what impact my going forward in the caucus chair race would have on that."

Roberts -- who is mulling a potential run for state Senate District 6 in 2010 -- kept her name in nomination anyway. During last Thursday's House Republican Caucus meeting, she lost the minority caucus chair election to state Rep. Amy Stephens (R-Colorado Springs).

Roberts declined to say who called her, but she said it was "basically" the "same folks" who state Rep. Bob Gardner (R-Colorado Springs) said threatened GOP lawmakers to ensure that state Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) was elected House minority whip.

Like Roberts, Bob Gardner didn't name names, though he said that Cory Gardner and state Rep. Frank McNulty (R-Highlands Ranch) had approached him about running for House minority whip as part of an ultimately unsuccessful bid to unseat Assistant House Minority Leader David Balmer (R-Centennial).

Roberts said, just like in Bob Gardner's case, there was also a lot of pressure put on GOP House members to vote against her and elect the more conservative Stephens as minority whip.

"I know that there were a lot of phone calls that were made," Roberts said. "I believe there was -- and similar to what Bob Gardner referred to -- arm-twisting, discussion of potential primaries based on votes. If someone voted for me, that would suggest that they were more in line with a moderate Republican -- which is how I'm usually characterized -- and that could present problems with people for their next election."

Both Cory Gardner and McNulty denied threatening any state legislator with a primary opponent.

"I don't know what they're talking about," Cory Gardner said, referring to Roberts and Bob Gardner. "If people are doing that, then they should come forward with names. ...If they have names, if they have people, then they should say it."

McNulty said Bob Gardner's and Roberts' concerns were ironic as both Cory Gardner and Stephens "both had pretty hard vote counts" showing them ahead in their respective caucus elections.

"I wouldn't even know who would've made that call (to Roberts), because it wouldn't have made any sense. Because the votes were there in the caucus," McNulty said.

"I think threatening primaries is a bad idea anyway," McNulty said. "You need to be able to win on your vote count, and that's what Amy and Cory did, and they should be proud of it."

Roberts, who devoted her regular column in the Durango Herald last Sunday to the backstage maneuvering, said she might have faced a Republican primary challenger for the state House or the state Senate in 2010 even if she had withdrawn from the minority caucus chair race.

"I'm really not hoping to make more of a story than it is," said Roberts, who ran unopposed for re-election this year. "Primaries are a part of our process."

"But again, I think it's really important for the general public," she continued. "I think as a Republican Party right now, it's a really important message for people to hear, that we recognize that we have significant challenges within our party -- both in terms of policies and leadership -- and that we're not all monkey-see, monkey-do."