House Speaker Julie McCluskie on Wednesday made the extraordinary decision to remove two members of her Democratic caucus with whom she has clashed — Elisabeth Epps and Bob Marshall — from the House Judiciary Committee, one of the most influential and prestigious panels in the Colorado legislature.
“Serving on a member’s top choice of committee is a privilege — not a right,” McCluskie, D-Dillon, said in a written statement to The Colorado Sun. “I took this step to address frustrations that the Judiciary Committee needed a reset due to the level of acrimony in the personal relationships on the committee and to help deliver the progressive outcomes our caucus is looking for. My decisions on where to appoint members depend on their respect of their colleagues, ability to collaborate and adherence to decorum, which was clearly violated during our special session last month.”
McCluskie’s comment referred to how Epps interrupted the chamber’s proceedings on the final day of the special session on property tax and other financial relief as she called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Epps left the House floor and joined pro-Palestinian protesters in the chamber’s gallery before proceeding to shout during a speech delivered by Republican Rep. Ron Weinberg, who is Jewish, responding to Epps’ comments about the conflict. The outburst prompted a long recess before Weinberg continued his remarks.
Epps said Weinberg had earlier directed an expletive at her during her remarks in support of Palestinians and in opposition to the Israeli military’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks. Weinberg denies that allegation.
Epps also posted on social media that she had shouted “shame on you” to Judiciary Committee Chairman Mike Weissman, D-Aurora, in a parking garage on the night before the special session ended.
In July, Epps and Marshall, of Highlands Ranch, sued McCluskie, Republican leadership in the House and the chamber’s GOP and Democratic caucuses, alleging “pervasive” violations of the state’s open meetings laws. The lawsuit claimed the caucuses didn’t properly provide notice of meetings and that representatives illegally used a disappearing messaging application to discuss legislative business.
The lawsuit was settled in September.
Epps didn’t immediately respond Wednesday to a voicemail and text message from The Sun. Marshall said he was reviewing the decision.
In addition to removing Epps and Marshall from the House Judiciary Committee, McCluskie removed Rep. Lindsey Daugherty, D-Arvada, from the panel. Daugherty, who is running for a state Senate seat in 2024, asked to be taken off the committee to focus more on her work chairing the chamber’s health committee.
Epps, Marshall and Daugherty were all trained as lawyers.
Democratic Reps. Leslie Herod, Javier Mabrey and Judy Amabile were appointed to fill the vacant spots on the Judiciary Committee. Herod has advocated criminal justice reforms in the past and previously served on the Judiciary Committee, while Mabrey is an eviction defense lawyer. Amabile has worked on the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system.
Epps remains on the State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee while Marshall will continue serving on the Finance Committee.
McCluskie declined to comment further on the House Judiciary changes, saying “I’d like for my appointments to speak for themselves.”
The Judiciary Committee changes come as part of a broader shuffling of committee assignments in the House after the recent departures of Democratic Reps. Ruby Dickson of Greenwood Village, who resigned; Dafna Michaelson Jenet of Commerce City, who was appointed to a state Senate seat; and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, who was elected to Denver City Council.
“Committees are critical to the legislative process and where so much of our work gets done,” McCluskie said in a news release announcing the changes. “With session just around the corner, these committee assignments lay the groundwork to continue doing the work Coloradans elected us to do.”
In other committee news, McCluskie combined the House Health and Insurance Committee with the Public and Behavioral Health and Human Services Committee to create a single Health and Human Services Committee.
McCluskie on Wednesday also appointed Rep. Tim Hernández, a Denver Democrat who was tapped to fill Gonzales-Gutierrez’s seat, to the Health and Human Services Committee. McCluskie appointed Rep. Manny Rutinel, a Commerce City Democrat selected to fill Michaelson Jenet’s seat, to the Energy and Environment and State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs committees.
Dickson’s replacement will be selected by a vacancy committee on Jan. 3.
More background on the clashes between McCluskie and Epps and Marshall
Epps and McCluskie clashed repeatedly during the legislative session this year that ran from January through May.
Epps accused McCluskie of gatekeeping legislation, particularly her unsuccessful bill to ban the sale of so-called assault weapons, and criticized the speaker’s handling of controversial comments from Republicans on the House floor.
The tensions boiled over in the final hours of the lawmaking term, with Epps taking McCluskie to task during a House Democratic caucus meeting.
Meanwhile, the open meetings lawsuit filed by Epps and Marshall was settled in September as House leadership and other state representatives agreed to not discuss public business or take a “formal action” during a caucus meeting without first providing public notice of the gathering and promptly making minutes publicly available.
Also, according to a consent decree reached in the case, two or more members of the House “shall not discuss public business through any electronic means (including, without limitation, any instant messaging platform or application) unless written minutes of such meetings are made publicly available upon request.” Those minutes would have to be released under the Colorado Open Records Act.
Finally, the legislature agreed to pay Steve Zansberg, the lawyer representing Epps and Marshall, $13,000 of taxpayer dollars to cover his fees. Zansberg is a well-known Colorado media attorney who also represents The Sun and the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition.
Fellow Democrats in the Capitol were frustrated by the lawsuit, viewing it as an intraparty attack. McCluskie and Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, were working on changes to the state’s open meetings laws at the time the suit was brought.
Marshall faces a tough reelection bid in 2024. He won in 2022 by just 405 votes in heavily Republican Douglas County. The GOP says he is a top target in next year’s election.
Epps, meanwhile, represents one of the most Democratic districts in the state but faces a primary challenge from Denver attorney Sean Camacho.
Camacho already has the endorsement of eight House Democrats, including Dickson, who stepped down after the special session citing the “sensationalistic and vitriolic nature of the current political environment.”
While most of the Democrats who have already endorsed Camacho also backed Epps’ primary opponent in 2022, Katie March, it’s highly unusual for members of the same caucus in the legislature to publicly support pushing out one of their colleagues. (Epps beat March, a top aide to then-House Speaker Alec Garnett, by about 1,100 votes, or 6 percentage points.)
Camacho’s new House Democratic endorsers include Dickson and state Rep. William Lindstedt, D-Broomfield, who hadn’t been elected at the time of the Epps-March matchup, as well as Daugherty.
Epps has acknowledged her loss of support at the Capitol on social media.
“I’m lonely,” she posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, “but surely you didn’t think the apartheid defenders were ever — or ever could’ve been — my friends, right?”
The 2024 legislative session begins Jan. 10.