Top GOP lawmaker may take action soon
Fellow Republican state senator could be disciplined
Senate President Kevin Grantham, the top Republican in the Colorado legislature, said Monday he expects to make a decision by the end of the week on whether to discipline a fellow GOP lawmaker after a sexual harassment complaint.
The movement follows a week when Grantham faced significant pressure to take action against state Sen. Randy Baumgardner, of Hot Sulphur Springs, who faces a substantiated complaint that he slapped and grabbed the buttocks of a legislative aide multiple times during the 2016 legislative session.
Five Colorado lawmakers have faced complaints involving sexual harassment in recent months as part of a scandal that is escalating partisanship at the Capitol.
An independent investigation into a harassment complaint against Sen. Jack Tate, R-Centennial, has been returned, but Tate declined to comment Monday because he had not read it.
The Senate president blasted Democrats for creating a “partisan circus” with the call for Baumgardner to resign and pushed back against those who suggested he is delaying action in the case.
Baumgardner is a former Republican majority whip and chairman of two committees who is sponsoring the top Republican bill this session.
Grantham, of Cañon City, said “progress is being made” despite the pressure.
“Unfortunately we are seeing, honestly, some outside threats to the integrity of this process — partisan political pressure to make quick decisions and snap judgments on these complaints,” he said. “We want to be deliberate, we want to be exacting with what we are going to do.”
The Colorado General Assembly’s workplace harassment policy does not require disciplinary action to be made public, and Grantham has declined to pledge to do so in Baumgardner’s case. But he suggested Monday that he expects the final outcome to become apparent.