The Senate Ethics Committee will investigate complaints that Democrat state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis has repeatedly mistreated her legislative staffers when the new session begins in January.
Meanwhile, fellow Democrat leaders are removing the lawmaker from all committees and have refused to fund further staffing of her office.
That means her constituents in District 17 that includes parts of Boulder County, Longmont, and Lafayette won’t have any representation on the Health & Human Services and Local Government & Housing Committees.
With Lewis’s reputation being so brutally tarnished by tales of her own foibles, they won’t have much of a state senator to speak of anyway.
The Political Workers Guild of Colorado that represents legislative staffers first requested the ethics investigation and are also demanding her resignation.
From Colorado Public Radio:
“PWG is making this request because the actions and lack of accountability by Jaquez Lewis have been drastic. Jaquez Lewis has consistently shown that she does not have the ability to manage an office, sit in a leadership role as chair, and show basic respect and decency to staff and her colleagues,” states the organization’s letter to Senate leaders Saturday.
Democrat leaders are mum about forcing her resignation, but insist they agree her behavior is not in agreement with their core values of protecting worker rights. Like forcing staffers to do yardwork, tend bar at her house party, knock on doors for candidates running against people she doesn’t like, and that’s just the most recent complaints.
She’s also been accused of withholding pay.
In a text message to public radio, Lewis chalked it up to miscommunication and said she was sorry if her actions hurt anyone.
She said she is proactively taking steps to hire what she called a non-partisan, non-political trained management consultant, who she would pay personally or from campaign funds, who her staff can work with and go to when they have issues.
“The path forward from here is to investigate my side and all sides of the story have not been told,” her text added.
Cringe.
Taxpayers are no longer on the hook to pay Lewis’s staff, but she can still hire aides paid for with campaign funds.
Lewis won reelection with 67% of the vote against Republican Tom Van Lone, because those 63,000 Democrats voters are apparently okay with her history of staff complaints.
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