DENVER – As the Colorado Senate debated the fate of Sen. Randy Baumgardner over sexual harassment charges in a rare evening session, Sen. Lucia Guzman was thinking of sunrise on Good Friday, a time of atonement and healing.

The resolution to expel Baumgardner failed in a 17-17 tie after a four-hour hearing. In speech after speech, personal stories and feelings were reflected in the ripples and waves caused by sexual harassment, the defining issue of this General Assembly.

A month earlier House members expelled Rep. Steve Lebsock of Thornton. Rep. Faith Winter of Westminster was one of his five accusers, and other lawmakers were witnesses or her close supporters.

Democrat Guzman, a Denver pastor, took a sunrise walk of reflection and sacrifice with other pilgrims up a steep hill in New Mexico, a centuries-old spiritual tradition on Good Friday.

She reflected on the sacrifice she had already made. Guzman stepped down as Senate majority leader with just two months left in her final term because she couldn’t make a difference on sexual harassment issues in the statehouse.

“I sacrificed my elected leadership position because I had lost my faith and belief in the process toward justice in the process,” she said.

But she said her sacrifice was not as great as the women who had come forward to accuse male legislators.

Lebsock was expelled on a 52-9 vote. But lawmakers said it was his effort to get back at his accusers and fellow lawmakers that pushed them to vote against him.

Two then-fellow Democratic House members, Alec Garnett of Denver and Matt Gray of Broomfield, said they had been wearing bullet-proof vests in fear of Lebsock’s retaliation against them for siding with his accusers.

Lebsock denied all the charges. Baumgardner denies he ever grabbed or slapped the buttocks of an aide who says he did it four times during the 2016 session. Other allegations of misbehavior are pending against him.

He called the months since he was accused some of the most difficult of his life and said hearing the accusations against him has been “torture.”

But he hoped some good could come out of it, however.

“It has led to a lot of serious thought for me and maybe for some of you about how something we might say in this building can offend people or make them feel uncomfortable, even if it wasn’t intended,” the Republican from Hot Sulphur Springs said on the Senate floor.

“It has made me look in the mirror a lot harder. It has made me want to make sure the standards of my conduct that I bring to this work is beyond reproach.”

Sen. Don Coram, Republican of Montrose, said the accusations have been torture for Baumgardner’s family, as well.

Baumgardner’s 13-year-old son has taken it especially hard; his grades have tumbled and he’s being bullied at school because of the negative publicity about his father, Coram said.

“Is the evidence strong enough in this case to put that young man through that?” Coram asked soon after telling fellow senators that he found the case to be built on speculation and hearsay without evidence or solid witnesses.

The issue isn’t settled yet. The legislative session doesn’t end until May 9.

An independent report on the culture of the Capitol is due this week, and lawmakers say they will review it and take further steps to ensure a respectful atmosphere among lawmakers, staff and others who convene there.

Leaders from both parties have said the current system needs to be improved, without discouraging victims from coming forward.

Guzman said this session has been the most trying the General Assembly has seen in decades, but it was “the best of times” because it presented hope lawmakers could right the wrongs of the past.

“Members on all sides of the aisle are hurting, angry and sad,” Guzman said.

Four other male legislators have been accused. Sen. Jack Tate of Centennial and Rep. Paul Rosenthal of Denver have had complaints dismissed without repercussions beyond the humiliation of having been accused.

The allegation against Rosenthal was said to have occurred before he was a lawmaker, and the accusations against Tate did not amount to sexual harassment, even if they were true, Senate Republican leadership said in closing the case. Sen. Larry Crowder, a Republican from Alamosa, stands accused by Rep. Susan Lontine, a Democrat from Denver, of touching her on the bottom and telling an offensive joke to group she was in. All three men denied the charges.

Republicans have accused Sen. Daniel Kagan of Cherry Hills Village of using the women’s restroom, which he said was an accident because the door wasn’t marked at the time and he was new to the Senate.

Sen. Cheri Jahn of Wheat Ridge, a Democrat until she switched to unaffiliated in December, said expulsion should be reserved for only the most severe cases. She said Lebsock “crossed the line” by making threats and making sure people were afraid of him.

She said the bar had been lowered this session.

Jahn cited the case of Rep. Donald Valdez of La Jara, who briefly tried and failed to introduce a resolution to expel fellow Democratic Rep. Jovan Melton of Aurora after the two men quarreled last month.

“A couple of representatives got into it, and what comes out of one of their mouths instantly?” she said, setting up a paraphrase: “You cannot talk to me that way and I’m going to file a resolution to have you expelled.”

Senate Democrats said after the Baumgardner hearing they won’t let the issue go until the statehouse has a better sexual harassment policy.

At the end of each Senate floor session for the 43 consecutive working days leading up to Monday, a Democratic senator would speak out on sexual harassment on the floor as Republicans left the chamber.

It had been 48 days – one day shy of seven weeks – since Democrats submitted the resolution calling for Baumgardner’s dismissal to Senate President Kevin Grantham of Cañon City.

After the vote on Baumgardner, Senate Democrats reconfirmed their commitment to the #MeToo movement.

Senate Minority Leader Leroy Garcia of Pueblo stated that the outcome was “a shameful affront to both the victims who have come forward and those subjected to harassment in workplaces across the country.

“Nobody should be exempt from the consequences of their actions – elected officials least of all.”