A district court judge on Tuesday paved the way for a vote to remove Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams by lifting a temporary restraining order that blocked a group of Colorado Republicans from holding a meeting to consider whether to fire the party boss.

Following an hour-long virtual hearing held earlier the same day, Arapahoe County District Court Judge Thomas W. Henderson reversed an order he issued last month that prohibited Williams’ critics from convening a meeting, writing that the court lacked jurisdiction in the internal party dispute.

In response to Henderson’s new order, the Republicans who have been attempting to oust Williams all summer almost immediately scheduled a meeting on Aug. 24 at a church in Brighton.

“We are very pleased that the court sided with our obviously sound reasoning,” El Paso County GOP Vice Chair Todd Watkins told Colorado Politics. “We are even more pleased that the court has correctly decided to let the (GOP’s state central committee) solve its own problems as we originally intended.”

Williams fired back in an email to Republicans that the party still considers the new meeting called by Watkins to be “invalid and illegal” and urged party officials to attend a different meeting set for a week later on Aug. 31 at a church in Castle Rock.

“Watkins does not get to call illegal meetings and then expand the scope of those fraudulent meetings while stealing the authority of the already existing standing committees that draft the rules or properly credential members,” the state GOP email said.

“Your State Party will not sit idly by while Watkins violates proper process and procedure. If anyone wants a special meeting for whatever purpose then they must follow the rules to do so.”

The party’s response added that the attempt by Williams’ critics to “remove all officers 90 days before an election while also attempting to install fake leadership” is “dangerous and causing harm to our efforts to elect President Trump and our nominees.”

Henderson said in a four-page order that his original restraining order had been “improvidently granted,” based on descriptions of internal party processes made by Williams and his attorney that Williams’ critics argued in court misrepresented the facts.

Williams has faced calls to resign or face removal since January, when the former state lawmaker joined a contested congressional primary while holding on to his party position. Pressure mounted after Williams and the Colorado GOP attacked the LGBTQ community’s Pride Month in June, reaching a crescendo late last month amid complaints state Republicans were failing to support some GOP nominees.

The same day Henderson issued his original restraining order, all but one of the state’s eight Republican congressional nominees, including U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, demanded that Williams shape up or leave office.

Through it all, Williams has maintained that his combative style is what Republicans expected when they elected him to chair the party in early 2023.

Watkins and Jefferson County Republicans Party Chair Nancy Pallozzi spearheaded a move to force a vote to remove Williams in June, but after submitting a petition they said had the names of enough central committee members to trigger a meeting, a Williams ally in the party instead called another meeting in a far corner of the state — and told Republicans not to attend.

Calling the response insufficient, Watkins and Pallozzi called their own meeting, citing party bylaws that allow Republicans to take matters into their own hands if party leadership ignores a request for a vote.

In response, Williams filed a lawsuit to block his opponents from conducting party business at a meeting he called “illegal” and “fraudulent.” As part of that lawsuit, Henderson on July 26 granted a restraining order to prevent the meeting Watkins and Pallozzi had set for the following day.

That’s the order Henderson dissolved on Tuesday, noting that Colorado law and the state GOP’s bylaws left it to the party to determine whether the meeting called by Watkins and Pallozzi “was invalid and illegal, and in turn — whether any meeting of the (central committee) is properly called or not.”

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Order dissolving TRO

“This court lacks, as a fundamental matter, jurisdiction over this case,” said Christopher Murray, a former longtime lawyer for the state GOP, who represented Watkins and Pallozzi at the hearing. Murray argued that under the interpretation of the party bylaws advanced by Williams and his attorney, a state chair who wanted to avoid a vote to remove him could prevent such a vote from ever taking place.

Dave Pigott, a lawyer for Williams, said it was only up to the court to determine whether the state party’s executive committee — a smaller body subordinate to the larger central committee — had the power to enforce its own decisions, including an earlier ruling that Watkins and Pallozzi’s petition was insufficient.

The judge agreed with Watkins and Pallozzi.

“At the time the Court issued the TRO on July 26, 2024, the Court understood that the CRC had already issued a final order addressing the propriety of Defendants’ call for a special meeting, e.g., that is was the CRC that had concluded the call for the July 27, 2024 meeting was invalid and illegal,” Henderson wrote.

“The Court now understands from the briefing, oral argument, and further review of the exhibits to the pleadings in the Court’s file that such a determination has not been made by the CRC, and in fact the CRC has not yet considered the question.”

Williams’ foes told Colorado Politics they expect that at least one-third of the central committee’s membership will attend the newly called Aug. 24 meeting, enough to constitute a quorum.

At that meeting, according to an email obtained by Colorado Politics, members will also be able to vote on whether to retain Williams’ lieutenants, Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman and Secretary Anna Ferguson. If any of them are removed, Republicans can vote in replacements at the same meeting, according to the official call sent late Tuesday.

Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib, said in a text message that his Republican counterparts were devoting their energy in the wrong direction.

“Sounds like instead of trying to win the election, they’re shoveling sand with a pitchfork,” Murib said. “We wish them luck with that.”