Last January, Colorado Republican state Sen. Randy Baumgardner of Hot Sulphur Springs was flying high.

He was the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, and in that role was the sponsor of Senate Republicans’ top priority bill for 2018: Senate Bill 1, which eventually put $495 million into the state’s transportation backlog.

What a difference a year makes.

Friday, incoming Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert of Parker announced assignments for the 10 major committees – and Baumgardner wasn’t named to any of them.

Holbert told Colorado Politics that the decision is a continuation from the 2018 session, when Senate President Kevin Grantham of Cañon City removed Baumgardner from several committees, in effect keeping him away from official business at the state Capitol for the duration of 2018.

Baumgardner stepped down as chair of the transportation committee during the 2018 session, following a report from an outside firm that found credible an allegation that he had sexually harassed a legislative aide. However, Grantham said at the time he believed the investigation was flawed and took no further action.

After a second firm found credible a second allegation – this time sexual harassment of a nonpartisan Senate staffer – Grantham removed Baumgardner from all other committee assignments, including the Capital Development Committee and three interim committees on water, wildfires, and the transportation legislative review committee.

Grantham told KMGH-Denver7 back in May, “It’s never pleasant meting out punishments of this sort to colleagues, but the three of us who were tasked with making this decision are comfortable that it was justified in this case.” The other two senators involved in that decision included Holbert and then-Senate Minority Leader Leroy Garcia of Pueblo.

Holbert explained that once Baumgardner had been removed from the interim transportation committee, he could no longer sit on the transportation committee, either.

Holbert said he informed Baumgardner of his decision last Friday and that the senator was comfortable with it.

There are 16 members in the Senate Republican caucus. Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling, who served as president pro tem in the 2018 session, has the most committee assignments, with three: State, Veterans and Military Affairs; Appropriations; and Agriculture and Natural Resources.