Dems turn up heat on GOP
Senate President Grantham thought lawmakers already resolved problem
Democrats are ramping up pressure on the top Republican in the Colorado General Assembly to address sexual harassment at the state Capitol after a female lawmaker went public this week with a previously filed complaint against a male colleague, pointing to what she sees as broader inaction on the issue.
State Rep. Susan Lontine, DDenver, filed a complaint in November that state Sen. Larry Crowder, R-Alamosa, pinched her buttocks on the House floor and made a lewd sexual remark on another occasion. Crowder denies the allegations.
An outside investigator determined in late December that Lontine’s allegations were “more credible” than Crowder’s denials.
Lontine, who first described her complaint to The Denver Post in November, said she hoped to resolve the matter in private but decided to go public late Thursday because she believes Senate President Kevin Grantham is attempting “to gloss over this serious issue.”
“I didn’t see a bit of leadership or indication that he was going to do anything,” Lontine told The Post in an interview.
But in a subsequent interview with The Post, Grantham seemed baffled by the criticisms, insisting that he believed the two lawmakers had resolved things among themselves and that Lontine preferred to keep the matter private. Grantham added that he hadn’t received a copy of the investigative report — the complaint was filed with House Speaker Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, who he says didn’t provide him with its findings.
“I’m being asked to take disciplinary action on a report I haven’t received yet,” the Cañon City Republican said.
But Duran said Friday that in a meeting with Grantham and other Republican Senate leaders during the first week of January, she talked about the findings of the Crowder investigation and argued that it was their role to handle any response.
Duran and Grantham dispute how the investigation should then have proceeded, with each saying it was the other’s responsibility to advance the report to the Senate leader, though Duran said Friday she was planning on sending him a copy.
The latest allegations come against a backdrop of rising criticisms from Democrats about how Grantham is handling a separate complaint against Sen. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs.
a rare move, Senate Democrats demanded Baumgardner’s resignation Thursday, days after Minority Leader Lucia Guzman, D-Denver, removed herself from the disciplinary process.
By disclosing her complaint, Lontine said she hoped it will “have some impact and put some pressure on the Senate about this issue.”
Grantham suggested that what has transpired this week could have the opposite effect, at least in the Baumgardner investigation. He said he wanted Guzman to help make the decision on discipline.
“Now we’re back in limbo,” he said.
The #MeToo movement exposed what some believe is a pervasive culture toward sexual harassment at the state Capitol, and the latest allegations boost the tally of Colorado lawmakers facing allegations of bad behavior to five.
House and Senate leaders outlined steps to address the issue — including an independent review of the Capitol’s climate and harassment policies — but the two chambers diverged on how to handle the complaints.
In the Democratic-led House, the two lawmakers who faced formal comIn plaints involving inappropriate behavior were immediately removed from their committee leadership posts. Grantham did not do the same with Baumgardner or Sen. Jack Tate, who also is under investigation for harassment, because Grantham said he would not “react off the cuff.”
Duran, who also came under fire for her actions, later dismissed a complaint against Rep. Paul Rosenthal, a fellow Denver Democrat, but still stripped his vice chairmanship of the local government committee. A separate series of complaints against Rep. Steve Lebsock, D-Thornton, remain under investigation, but Duran has called for him to resign.