Ten years ago, gun rights groups launched recalls against two Democratic state senators, which resulted in the election of two Republican senators and a narrowing of the Democratic advantage by two seats.

The recalls were over the Democrats’ votes on gun control, bills that capped ammunition magazines to 15 rounds or less, required universal background checks and required those seeking firearms purchases to pay for those background checks.

With a half-dozen gun control-related bills introduced in the 2023 session, and more expected, Democrats are proposing legislation that would change the recall process. Most notably, the proposed legislation would limit who gets to be a candidate when a recall election makes it to the ballot.

House Bill 1185 would limit who can run as a candidate to replace a recalled official, if the election is for a partisan seat. Under the measure, which won an 8-3 party-line vote in the House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee on Monday, only a person from the same party could be a candidate for a recalled seat. 

If a seat is held by an unaffiliated official who is recalled, the candidate for that seat would also have to be unaffiliated, under the bill.

The measure, which was introduced on Feb. 8, is viewed as something of a preemptive strike, should gun rights groups decide to launch recalls of Democrats supporting the gun control bills announced in the past week. 

In 2013, Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs and Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo were both recalled by voters, and replaced by Republican Sens. Bernie Herpin and George Rivera, respectively. Neither held onto the seat for long. Rivera lost to Sen. Leroy Garcia in the 2014 election and Herpin lost to Sen. Michael Merrifield, also in 2014. 

That year, Republicans took control of the Senate and held it for the next two years, the last time the General Assembly had split control. 

HB 1185 also addresses what’s happening in Walsenburg, where the entire city council and mayor are facing a recall, which if successful could leave the town without any means to appoint replacements. In Florence, the entire city council resigned a year ago over allegations of corruption, leaving only the mayor, and questions about how to replace those six council members.

HB 1185 would allow the city or town clerk to call an election in the absence of a quorum.

Rep. Lindsey Daugherty, D-Arvada, told the State Affairs committee Monday that “outside interest groups” initiate recall elections at the local level. These elections are expensive and take a lot of staff time, and more often than not, these recalls fail, Daugherty said. The municipality then has to eat the election costs.

Her bill would require that members of a recall petition committee be registered electors within the municipality.

“If you can’t find three people to serve on a recall committee, the municipality shouldn’t have to spend taxpayer dollars on a recall election,” she said.

Only one person testified on the bill: Karen Goldman, a former city clerk and former secretary of the state Senate, who represented both the Colorado Municipal League and the municipal clerks association. She noted the situation in Florence, where the mayor was eventually able to call for the election. 

“If you think this is a one-off, there’s a small statutory town” going through the same thing, she said, referring to Walsenburg. That recall election is scheduled for May.

Rep. Ken DeGraaf, R-Colorado Springs, initially attempted to split the bill into two, with the municipal portion in one bill and the recall in another, and later sought a title ruling, which was rejected.

Two recalls are in process in 2023, including the one in Walsenburg. A recall petition for a member of the Elizabeth School Board, in Elbert County, is currently underway. A member of the Cripple Creek City Council was recalled a month ago. 

In 2022, 11 recalls were launched, including against the governor, secretary of state, state Sen. Kevin Priola, and two members of the Colorado Springs City Council. While none of those made it to the ballot, a pending recall election for the District Attorney in the San Luis Valley prompted his resignation. Only two of the 11 recall elections got in front of voters last year and were successful, for a school board member in the Buffalo School District (Logan County) and a recall of a Rio Blanco County Commissioner. 

Recalls have become a common tool for disgruntled voters and special interest groups who disagree with policy positions to take out their frustrations, rather than over malfeasance or other violations of elected office. A 2019 report by the Pew Trusts on the Colorado recalls that year, which included challenges to Polis and two Democratic state senators, said “[g]rowing partisanship has made both Republicans and Democrats willing to embrace once unthinkable political tactics, such as recalls.”

Howard Schweber, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison also said in the Pew report that “as ideological positions become more extreme, the fact that the other party is in office becomes more intolerable.” That aversion isn’t irrational, Schweber said, as partisanship can lead the party in power to enact more extreme policies.

Kristi Burton Brown, chair of the Colorado Republican Party, said “it’s the Democrats way of preventing citizens from speaking through a recall. The point of a recall is to allow a new person to represent them, and sometimes that’s a person of a different political party.” Democrats have been angry about recalls for years, she said, and they view this as an opportunity, with overwhelming majorities, to take away the ability for Republicans to hold them accountable. 

Whether the party might challenge the bill legally will be up to the next party chair, Burton Brown said, but she also said she believes the measure could be unconstitutional. “To take away the right of citizens to have the option of a second party on the ballot sounds unconstitutional,” and that she hopes the governor takes that into account should the bill arrive on his desk. 

House Bill 1185 now heads to the full House.