Defending a slowly shrinking majority, grappling with factional disputes and smarting from a drubbing at the national level, the El Paso County Republican Party meets today to elect new leadership.

A generational contest for chairwoman pits Kay Rendleman, whose political background is mostly out of state, against Cami Bremer, who married into local name recognition.

The winner will succeed Greg Garcia, who said he’s not running for re-election so he can devote more time to his day job.

Though the No. 2 candidates on each slate – Fountain City Councilwoman Lois Landgraf for Rendleman and Colorado Springs City Councilman Darryl Glenn for Bremer – are longtime figures on the local political scene, neither of the top candidates has deep roots in Colorado.

Bremer, 28, moved to Colorado Springs in 2002 and married the son of Duncan Bremer, a former county commissioner. She managed state Rep. Larry Liston’s successful 2008 re-election campaign and her father-in-law’s unsuccessful 2006 bid for the 5th Congressional District seat won by Doug Lamborn. She’s been on the executive committee of the county GOP for two years.

Rendleman, 50, has the longer GOP resume but compiled most of it in California, where she was chairwoman of the Napa County Republican Party and a staffer with Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign. She moved to Colorado Springs in 2002 – “a few months before Cami,” she noted – and coordinated the county’s volunteers in 2002, then managed state Rep. Kent Lambert’s 2004, ‘06 and ‘08 campaigns.

A third candidate, George Ross, is running for chairman without a supporting cast.

The main issue between Rendleman and Bremer seems to be the size of the party organization. Rendleman is aligned with those in the party who think its paid staff has become bloated.

“If your elected officers don’t have the experience and expertise, then you do have to rely on paying for it,” Rendleman said. “But myself and my team have the expertise, so we don’t need to hire it.”

Bremer said modern political marketing and organizing require pros. “We have to present ourselves professionally,” she said.

Both leading candidates are endorsed by significant groups of prominent local Republicans, but it’s hard to detect in either group a particular ideological leaning.

Bremer’s Web site lists Liston and state Rep. Mark Waller; County Commissioner Amy Lathen; County Clerk Bob Balink; former state Sen. Andy McElhany; Garcia; former commissioner Ed Jones; former City Councilman Bernie Herpin; and Jeff Crank, who was involved in two primary donnybrooks – his 2006 and ‘08 battles with Lamborn and Bentley Rayburn for the congressional seat.

Lamborn’s backing Rendleman. So are state Sen. Dave Schultheis; state Reps. Kent Lambert and Marsha Looper; County commissioners Dennis Hisey and Sallie Clark; District Attorney Dan May; Kelly Roth, chairwoman of the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce; and Fountain Mayor Jeri Howells.

Both candidates promised to try to repair the major fault line in the local party: the fiscal conservatives who tend to view the economy as the top priority versus the social conservatives energized by such issues as abortion and gay marriage. The two groups aren’t mutually exclusive, but tensions between them are a subtext of the Lamborn-Crank squabble.

“I’m not naive enough to think that I can say ‘unity’ and people unify,” Bremer said, adding that a Rendleman victory would increase the chance the party “would remain factioned.”

Both candidates placed a high priority on regaining the seats held by the county’s three Democratic state legislators. But Bremer cautioned against focusing narrowly on elected offices, saying fundamentals like voter registration and communicating the party’s message were key.

“Rather than addressing the symptoms, we have to address the core problems,” she said.

“We can no longer take for granted that El Paso County is predominantly Republican.”

Contact the writer: 476-1654 or dean.toda@gazettedev.gazette.comMEETING INFO

The El Paso County Republican Party meets Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Coronado High School, 1590 W. Fillmore St. The public is invited to observe the proceedings, but voting is restricted to members of the party’s leadership and central committee; county, district and precinct officials; and GOP elected officials living in the county.

Cami Bremer Photo by

Kay Rendleman Photo by