There will be at least 21 members of the Colorado General Assembly this year who at some point were appointed to the House or Senate by or through a vacancy committee made up of a small number of party insiders, according to a Colorado Sun analysis.
That includes 12 state representatives and nine senators. All but three are Democrats.
The number — which represents about a fifth of the 100-member General Assembly — is down from last year, when 29 legislators had at some point landed a job in the General Assembly thanks to a vacancy committee.
Each of the state’s 100 legislative districts has a vacancy committee ready to convene should a representative or senator resign or die in the middle of their term, or when someone is running for office and have made the ballot but exit the race before election day. Vacancy committees are made up of a few dozen party insiders elected through the caucus and assembly process, which is sparsely attended.
The number of vacancy committee members typically is less than a half a percent of the registered voters in a legislative district.
For instance, a vacancy committee that appointed a Democrat to a state Senate seat last week had just 42 voting participants. (A few people on the committee didn’t show up.)
The decrease in lawmakers appointed by vacancy committee at the Capitol so far in 2024 isn’t too surprising given that it’s the first year of the 75th General Assembly. It probably won’t last. The number is likely to grow in the second year (Each General Assembly is counted in two-year increments.)
Another factor that may be playing a role is the increased scrutiny of Colorado’s vacancy appointment process. The scrutiny began in 2018 when The Sun started tracking the number of vacancy-appointed members of the legislature.
There have been a handful of attempts at changing the way vacancy appointments are made, but most have failed.
There was an unsuccessful push for special elections to replace vacancy appointments.
Separately, state Rep. Bob Marshall, a Highlands Ranch Democrat, unsuccessfully brought a bill last year that would have asked voters to bar vacancy-appointed lawmakers from running for reelection to their seats. Marshall’s proposal aimed to eliminate the power of incumbency that comes with vacancy appointments. Most people appointed to fill a legislative vacancy are ultimately retained by voters.
Despite the failures, people, even some appointed by vacancy committees, say they want change.
All seven Democrats who were seeking the vacancy appointment last week in Senate District 31 said during a candidate forum before the vote that they don’t support the process as it currently stands.
“I’d like to make changes to it,” said Denver Director of Policy Matt Ball, who ended up winning the vacancy appointment. (There were about 100 voting members of the Senate District 31 vacancy committee.)
Other states are split on how to fill vacated legislative seats. Half use appointments and the other half use special elections, according to an analysis by the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures.
Colorado is one of just a handful of states that handle appointments by partisan committee. In other parts of the country, county commissions or the governor are responsible for filling legislative vacancies.
Here are the House members this year who were or will be appointed directly into the chamber by vacancy committee or appointed to the ballot by vacancy committee:
- Rep. Steven Woodrow, D-Denver
- Rep. Meg Froelich, D-Arapahoe County
- Rep. Junie Joseph, D-Boulder
- Rep. Kyle Brown, D-Louisville
- Rep. Manny Rutinel, D-Commerce City
- Rep. William Lindstedt, D-Broomfield
- Rep. Lorena Garcia, D-Adams County
- Rep. Chad Clifford, D-Centennial
- Democratic representative for House District 41 to be appointed
- Rep. Mandy Lindsay, D-Aurora
- Rep. Ron Weinberg, R-Loveland
- Rep. Andrew Boesenecker, D-Fort Collins
The Democratic vacancy committee in House District 41 is set to meet Jan. 22. It will select a replacement for Iman Jodeh, who resigned when she was appointed by a vacancy committee to the Senate.
Here are the Senate members this year who were at one point appointed to a legislative seat by a vacancy committee:
- Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, D-Pueblo
- Sen. Marc Catlin, R-Montrose
- Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco
- Sen. Cathy Kipp, D-Fort Collins
- Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Commerce City
- Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village
- Sen. Iman Jodeh, D-Aurora
- Sen. John Carson, R-Douglas County
- Sen. Matt Ball, D-Denver