Littwin: State Senate 'Clean Up Time' Swept Baumgardner Out

DENVER, CO – By Mike Littwin for The Colorado Independent. As you’ve probably heard, Randy Baumgardner, the oft-accused sexual harasser who survived an expulsion vote last session, has now resigned from the state Senate. But only after considerable, um, encouragement.

It’s kind of fitting, I guess, but you could say Baumgardner was basically harassed out of office.

It’s a new day, with new consequences. No one could have imagined a year ago that Baumgardner would have been forced to resign, that Steve Lebsock would have been expelled, that the #MeToo movement would have dominated the last session of the legislature.

Democrats are in the majority now, and they wanted Baumgardner out last April. The Republican leadership, which had done all it could to protect Baumgardner when it held a one-vote majority, is now in the minority and probably relieved to see him go.

When Lebsock was expelled from the House, by a stunning 52-9 vote, it was the first such expulsion in more than century. Just before the vote, Lebsock, in his last act as a legislator, changed his affiliation from Democrat to Republican so Republicans would be able replace him. It was that kind of year, a year that no one wanted to see repeated.

READ MORE in The Colorado Independent

Sen. Randy Baumgardner, a Hot Sulphur Springs Republican, on the Senate floor on March 26. (Photo by John Herrick)