A lawsuit filed in Denver District Court this week seeks the removal of Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado) from June’s GOP Primary ballot, potentially ending his decade-plus as representative for Colorado’s 5th Congressional District.
The lawsuit, filed by attorney Michael Francisco representing five plaintiffs who are registered Republicans in the 5th Congressional District, alleges that Lamborn hired as many as eight people from out of state to help circulate petitions to secure the 1,000 signatures necessary to get him on the June 26 Primary ballot. Lamborn skipped the county assembly process, meaning he would need to petition his way onto the ballot.
"Seven of his circulators were registered to vote at the same address at a three-bedroom apartment in Thornton, Colorado," Francisco said. "That would be a violation of city zoning if seven individuals lived there, and more suspiciously, they all registered to vote two different days right before they circulated petitions."
The lawsuit alleges several of the petitioners actually live in Michigan and another apparently has a full-time residence in California. "Everything about this indicates that these were people that came in from out of state to collect signatures and left," Francisco said.
According to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, Lamborn obtained 1,269 valid signatures. The lawsuit alleges that the out-of-state petitioners collected 696 of those signatures. If those signatures are invalidated, it would leave Lamborn with only 573 signatures, 427 shy of the 1,000 minimum requirement. "Doug Lamborn will be taken off the Primary ballot and will no longer be our Congressman because he broke the law," Francisco said.
Lamborn was first elected in in 2006 and has served six terms as the Congressional Representative for one of Colorado’s most reliably Republican-voting districts. No Democrat has ever been elected since the district’s formation in 1972. Lamborn last faced a Primary election in 2008. He is seeking a seventh consecutive term, however he faces formidable challengers in the June GOP Primary, including State Sen. Owen Hill (R-Colorado Springs), who won the nomination to the ballot during the GOP Assembly, and El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn, who was Colorado Republicans’ choice to challenge Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) in the 2016 U.S. Senate election.
"The reason we’re here is because Doug Lamborn made a choice not to go to Assembly, not to face the voters in his district, and to petition on," Francisco said. "And then he made another choice not to use volunteers or people that live in his own district, but to hire people from out of state, which is a violation of the law."
Attempts to reach Lamborn’s campaign were unsuccessful. View the entire lawsuit below.
