A Democratic Adams County House District 31 vacancy committee will meet Thursday evening to choose a successor to Rep. Said Sharbini, D-Adams County.

Sharbini, who served one year in the House after being elected to his first term in 2022, resigned in December, citing financial pressures and the toxic environment of the state House.

The vacancy committee will meet at 5:45 p.m. for a candidates’ forum and then at 6:30 p.m. for the election. The election is expected to conclude by 7 p.m. due to other party business on the agenda.

There are at least two candidates in the running: Julia Marvin and Jacqueline Phillips. Both have filed to run for the seat in the 2024 primary election.

Phillips and Marvin are both from Thornton and have experience in local government. Marvin won a seat on the Thornton City Council in 2019 and ran for mayor, unsuccessfully, last year. She earned a degree in news broadcasting and political science from the University of Colorado Boulder and has worked as a legislative aide at the state Capitol.

She currently works in marketing and public outreach.

Phillips, an attorney, specializes in special education law. She earned her law degree from the University of Denver and a doctorate in special education, focused on emotional and behavioral disorders, from the University of Northern Colorado. She’s also taught special education at several colleges, both in Colorado and Hawaii.

Phillips served on the Thornton City Council from 2015 to 2022, but was removed by the council in 2022 for failure to meet residency requirements, which she claims was politically motivated by a “bully bloc” on the council.

She told Colorado Politics she had a one-year contract in Alamosa but that she maintained her residence in Thornton. 

The Northglenn-Thornton Sentinel reported in December that she had purchased a home in Alamosa for the duration of that contract, and that led to a 5-3 decision to remove her from the council.

The selection by the vacancy committee will produce the 29th current member of the General Assembly initially chosen by a vacancy committee rather than the 77,000 voters in each district.