The embattled chairman of the Colorado Republican Party has called an unprecedented special meeting just weeks before new party leaders are elected to vote on radical new rules to strip grassroots members of their roles and ban his perceived enemies from voting.

It’s a most unrepublican grasp of authoritarian power that would have our founding fathers spinning in their graves and comes from a man who almost cost Trump Republican control of the House of Representatives.

Dave Williams will convene this special meeting of the central committee tomorrow (Thursday) via zoom, to try and pass these and other amendments.

All four of Colorado’s House Republicans weighed in with a statement opposing the chairman’s last-minute move they say would “centralize power in the hands of a few, sidelining the grassroots members who are the backbone of the Colorado Republican Party.”

Williams is trying to create his own fiefdom by stripping the decision making authority from the grassroots central committee and allowing only the leadership on the 25-member executive committee to make those crucial decisions, writes Joy Overbeck in Colorado Politics.

Another amendment would ban nearly every elected Republican in the state from their votes with the central committee.

Why? Because they criticized Williams for wasting party money to campaign against conservatives — almost all of whom won — and for suing the party when they tried to hold him accountable.

Overback writes:

Stalwart Republicans tangle at the Capitol with Democrats bulldozing our rights often into the wee hours. Tens of thousands of regular Republicans voted for these patriots; only a few hundred party delegates voted for Dave Williams. These are the true grassroots, not Williams and his crew. Yet Williams wants to strip all but a few of them of their votes.

The statement opposing the amendments was signed by U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert, Gabe Evans, Jeff Crank and Jeff Hurd.

The lawmakers said it undermined the mission of Republicans, whose success relies on empowering the grassroots party members, not marginalizing them.

From their statement:

This top-down approach risks alienating the very activists and voters who drive our success and who work tirelessly to elect strong conservatives to office. As Republicans, we believe in empowering individuals, not consolidating control among a select few.

The central committee should study these provisions very carefully before giving their power away to an elite few.