By Faygie Holt
Some 500 Republican Party leaders in Colorado are expected to vote this weekend on a new chair to helm the divided and beleaguered state party. One of the candidates is a podcaster that Jewish communal groups say is anti-Semitic.
Republican chair candidate Joe Oltmann has stated that Jewish Democratic officials in Colorado, including Gov. Jared Polis, Attorney General Phil Weiser and Secretary of State Jena Griswald, are evil, “should be hung” and are part of the “synagogue of Satan.”
Oltmann, who withdrew from the Colorado gubernatorial race to run for party chair and who garnered media attention a few years back for claiming that voting machines were rigged in the 2020 election, is facing off against at least four other challengers to replace current GOP Colorado chair Brita Horn. She quit after a year in office.
The other candidates are Curtis McCrackin, Craig Steiner, Jennifer Qualteri and Jeremy Goodall.
In a Jan. 29 letter to Horn and other party leaders, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Colorado, ADL Mountain States and the Colorado Jewish Action Alliance called for the party to take action and denounce Oltmann.
They stated that Oltmann, then a candidate for governor, “repeatedly used dehumanizing anti-Semitic language to describe Jewish elected officials in Colorado, referring to them as the ‘synagogue of Satan Jews,’ and has explicitly called for their execution.
“These statements are not political rhetoric or hyperbole, they are direct advocacy for violence rooted in antisemitic conspiracy theories.”
“Oltmann’s statements do not exist in isolation,” the Jewish communal leaders wrote.
“He has a documented history of promoting conspiracy theories rooted in longstanding antisemitic tropes about ‘hidden elites’ and a so-called ‘deep state’ . . . ”
During a Colorado GOP chair debate last month, sponsored by the conservative Women of Weld group, candidates were asked how they would deal with the media, with the moderator noting that Jewish organizations have called for Oltmann not be elected as the state chair.
In response, Oltmann singled out the ADL, which he said was “100% leftist” and said it was coming after him because he was the strongest candidate and that they are all “radical leftists” who want the weakest candidate to win.
He also took umbrage at allegations that he is an anti-Semite. “I don’t know how to call, am I a self-loathing Jew cuz from a heritage standpoint I’m over 25% Jewish so they tried making me a racist, they tried making me a homophobe.
“They are going to continue to come after the strongest candidate because they know I have the ability to fix the party.”
However, in an April letter by the same local Jewish groups to members of the GOP Central Committee who will be voting on a new chair, made clear that the opposition was due to Oltmann’s “dangerous and repeated anti-Semitic rhetoric and remarks.”
As officials from the ADL, JCRC and Colorado Jewish Action Alliance wrote, “When a candidate normalizes violent language, it lowers the threshold for real-world violence and signals to extremists that such views are acceptable — even encouraged.
“And when a political party platforms an individual who traffics in anti-Semitic threats and rhetoric, it sends an unmistakable message about what the party is willing to tolerate.”
“We call upon you to reject his candidacy for state party chair.
“His election would send a deeply troubling signal to Colorado’s Jewish community about where the party stands at a moment when clarity and moral leadership are urgently needed,” they wrote.
“Colorado’s Jewish community, and all who value public safety, human dignity, and responsible leadership are watching closely.”
Oltmann has reportedly said he will sue the Jewish groups and others.
In an interview with the IJN, Brandon Rattiner, senior director of the JCRC, said that the Jewish community “is concerned about rising anti-Semitism from both parties.”
“We see it with Joe Oltmann running for party chair and continues to share the same thoughts and attacks despite being called out by Jewish officials and the media,” Rattiner said, “ . . . and the rising anti-Semitism from the Democrats where we’ve seen challengers say things that are very out of step of our community and a party platform that singles out Jews and Israel.”
The Colorado GOP leadership has long been plagued by infighting, a move that has only gotten worse in recent years with some continuing to claim that the 2020 election was rigged and others hoping to appeal to a broader base of voters.
As one insider put it, the GOP state leadership is “the sandbox of inter-party fighting and the actual people who go out and win elections don’t want anything to do with it.”
That ambivalence has trickled down to ordinary voters. A recent poll shows the GOP faces weakening support. A poll of likely voters released by the Colorado Polling Institute on April 8 found that the GOP had a 36% “favorable” rating and a “very unfavorable” rating of 14% with 46% saying they had “somewhat unfavorable” views of the party.
The same poll found that the Democratic Party has a 41% favorable rating among likely voters with 38% holding “very unfavorable” views of the Dems. Unlike in many other states, the majority of Colorado voters are registered independents and are not loyal to either party.
The poll was conducted jointly by New Bridge Strategy and Aspect Strategy.
While GOP candidates in Colorado have won on the local level, the Democrats have statewide control with a near supermajority in the state legislature, plus the governorship and US Senate and other statewide offices including Attorney General and Secretary of State.
Local radio personality Jeff Hunt told IJN that the Republicans need someone who has a demonstrated history of winning local elections to lead the party.
But, said the former head of the Centennial Institute, a conservative think tank, “[i]t seems the party has moved away from that, and instead of looking for a strong track record of success and wins, they are looking for someone with grievances.”
Likening it to football, he said, “you want the chair of the party to be like a winning coach of a football team. You’re not going to hire a coach who hasn’t even won a high school title. You want experience.”
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