State Sen. Randy Baumgardner stripped of committee positions

State Sen. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs, has been stripped of several committee positions in the Colorado legislature as punishment for findings in a recently released report substantiating harassment allegations against him.

Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-Cañon City, said in a letter that he was removing the northwest Colorado legislator from the Capital Development, Transportation Legislation Review, Water Resources Review and Wildfire Matters committees.

Baumgardner is chair of the Capital Development Committee — which meets year-round. The rest of the committees meet in the interim between legislative sessions.

“I will appoint his replacement on each of these committees at a later date,” Grantham wrote Tuesday.

The news, first reported by radio station KUNC, comes after Senate Democrats vowed last week to revive their effort to expel Baumgardner in light of findings in the report, which was compiled by an outside investigator.

An earlier attempt, in April, by Senate Democrats to expel Baumgardner this legislative session failed mostly along party lines. That came after an outside investigation by the Employers Council found that he more likely than not slapped the buttocks of a legislative aide multiple times in 2016.

Grantham, however, blasted the Employers Council investigation as having “inaccuracies, bias, conflicts of interest and inconsistencies.”

But last week, a new investigation by Littletonbased Alternative Dispute Resolution — which Grantham said was done “in a much more professional manner” — substantiated two additional harassment complaints against Baumgardner. One was filed by a male staffer and supported by others alleging the lawmaker created a hostile and offensive work environment, and another accused him of acting inappropriately with a female intern.

As part of Baumgardner’s punishment, Senate Majority Leader Chris Holbert, R-Parker, also on Tuesday appointed Sen. John Cooke, R-Greeley, as vice-chair of the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee — a position that had been held by Baumgardner.

Baumgardner voluntarily stepped down as chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee in February, following sexual harassment allegations against him that surfaced in November. However, he remains a member of both the Transportation and Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy committees.

“Senate Democrats have been clear from the beginning what our expectations have been,” Senate Minority Leader Leroy Garcia, DPueblo, said of his caucus’ calls for Baumgardner to resign or be ousted.

Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled Senate say they worked with Garcia on the discipline handed down this week and characterized it as extensive.

Baumgardner is one of three Republican senators who have been accused of sexual harassment since the fall. The punishment he is now facing is the most extensive of the three.

Baumgardner has denied the allegations against him.