Sen. Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, who announced he would resign his western slope Senate district seat on Jan. 10, is leaving the Joint Budget Committee as of Monday, prompting the Senate GOP caucus to scramble to find a replacement to join the influential panel.

The committee is already well into its work on the 2023-24 budget with a full schedule of briefings and hearings on state agency requests.

Senate Republicans are scheduling a time, probably next week, to choose a successor to Rankin, who has served on the committee for the past decade, beginning when he was in the House and continuing after he was appointed to the Senate in 2019. 

Among the names that surfaced for the JBC seat is Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, who told Colorado Politics she’s interested in transportation and human services budgets and pointed to her past experience as an executive director and as a Weld County commissioner who worked on county budgets, including eliminating county debt. 

Another scramble is underway to choose a Republican who will represent Senate District 5, which will be the district’s new number – and with new boundaries – as of Jan. 9. The district previously covered northwestern Colorado but has shifted south, with the northern boundary in Garfield County and south to Gunnison County.

The leading contender at the moment appears to be Rep. Perry Will, R-New Castle, who lost a close reelection bid last month for his House District 57 seat. Will was unavailable for comment.

Among those not chasing the seat is Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, whose home was drawn into the new Senate District 5 following the redistricting process. Coram would have been up for reelection in 2022 but Rankin kept the seat since he was elected to it most recently, in 2020. 

“With the state of the party as it is right now, in such disarray, and the almost cult-attitude we have, that it’s okay to lie and slander, I don’t want to be associated with that,” Coram told Colorado Politics.

At the county and state level, the party is lacking in leadership and understanding, he said.

“I’ve moved on,” he added.

Coram was censured by the Montrose Republican Party after he endorsed Democratic candidate Adam Frisch for Congressional District 3, where incumbent U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Silt, ultimately won a surprisingly close race against her Democratic challenger.

Coram lost in the June primary to Boebert, who eked out a 554-vote win last month that is now the subject of an automatic recount by the Secretary of State. Frisch already conceded the race, noting that recounts do not alter outcomes.  

While former state Rep. Gregg Rippy has also been mentioned as a possible candidate. He was among the candidates in 2019, when Rankin was chosen for the Senate vacancy. Rippy told Colorado Politics after redistricting that his home was drawn into the new Senate District 8, which will be represented by Senator-elect Dylan Roberts, D-Eagle, come January.

Rippy is also the chair of the Garfield County GOP. A date for that vacancy meeting has not yet been announced.