Can Maes lose the primary, but be the choice of the vacancy committee?

This Thursday or Friday, I apologize that I’ve forgotten which, a caller to the Caplis and Silverman show raised a very important point about the vacancy committee.

This caller said he was on the vacancy committee, and he was also one of the state delegates that helped give Maes the surprising victory at the state convention.  And I believe he said if he had to appoint a candidate in the event that McInnis would win the primary but then stepped aside, then this caller said he’d vote for Maes.

Not sure just how plausible this is, especially in terms of the letter of the law, whether we’re talking about Republican bylaws, or Colorado Revised Statutes.

But if you think things couldn’t get worse for Republicans, then this scenario is it.  The voters give McInnis a primary win, hoping he will step aside (as Senator Greg Brophy has suggested he should).  And then, furious tea-party elements inside the GOP decide to appoint Maes to the ballot via the vacancy committee, even though he just lost?

If it happened, it’s hard to imagine a party having to deal with a bigger schism, and could do unimaginable damage to the Colorado GOP for years to come.