Distractions often take attention away from policymaking at the state Capitol, and in this year’s legislative session, small and large side attractions unfolded over 120 days.

Minority leadership in the House

The 2024 session kicked off with a bang, putting the spotlight on the House Republican leadership, when Rep. Mike Lynch, a Republican from Wellington, took the reins as House minority leader at the start of the new session.

That leadership role was short-lived, as news of Lynch’s 2022 DUI arrest became public.

In announcing his resignation from the top GOP position, Lynch encouraged fellow members not to “get behind the wheel when impaired.”

Lynch, who is running for the 4th Congressional District, said in a Jan. 24 letter to the caucus, “As I step aside from the role of Minority Leader, I do so with optimism and a deep sense of gratitude for the trust and support you have shown me throughout my tenure. I have full confidence in the abilities and commitment of our caucus members to carry on the important work we have started.”

Compelled to pivot quickly, Republicans replaced Lynch with Colorado Springs Republican Rose Pugliese, who was chosen via a secret ballot, winning 11 out of 19 votes on the second round.

After the session, Pugliese said she did not expect to take a leadership role mid-session the way it happened, but, she said, “I was happy with the process.”

“We had a lot of good, collective bipartisan wins in the session,” she said.

Faith Winter seeks treatment

In early April, Sen. Faith Winter, a Democrat from Westminster, announced she would be taking a step back to enter a rehab facility tied to alcohol abuse.

Winter, who is in her second and final term in the state Senate, has been battling several health issues, including an auto-immune disorder, over the past year. She also suffered a traumatic brain injury last year after hitting a curb while riding her bicycle to the state Capitol. That injury required surgery.

Senate colleagues and Capitol observers recalled incidents, in which Winter had fallen multiple times, many suspecting alcohol abuse as the reason.

The tipping point happened on April 3, when Winter attended a Northglenn City Council meeting allegedly drunk. Winter attended the meeting to answer questions about a proposed mental health transitional home slated to open in Northglenn.

After the meeting, Winter released a statement, stating, “I deeply regret my behavior last night. I made a mistake and I am truly sorry for any inconvenience or discomfort I caused.”

“I take full responsibility for my actions and I am committed to making things right. I especially apologize to the City of Northglenn and the citizens that came out. I deeply care about your thoughts and community. I am now under the care of medical professionals and receiving treatment for my substance abuse disorder,” she said.

The fallout from the incident is not over. On April 29, the Northglenn City Council unanimously voted to send an ethics complaint to the state Senate, formally requesting that Sen. President Steve Fenberg launch an ethics complaint against Winter.

The council also criticized Democratic lawmakers at the Capitol for allegedly ignoring Winter’s problems for years.

Following the complaint, Fenberg said, “Senator Winter is an important and valued leader in the Senate Democratic Caucus. We will continue to support her as she seeks the treatment that she needs. All elected officials are responsible for holding themselves to a high standard, and I take any accusation of a Senator’s misconduct seriously. Once we receive the complaint, I will take the appropriate next steps as our Senate rule on ethics requires.”

A gun in the bathroom

Amidst intense debate and disagreement over proposed gun bills this year, Rep. Don Wilson, a Republican from Monument, left a loaded 9mm Glock handgun unattended in a state Capitol bathroom.

In a statement after the April 11 incident, Wilson said, “I want to be clear that I take full and complete accountability for the incident.”

“I made a mistake and am very sorry,” he added.

The issue of mishandling guns has come up repeatedly at the state Capitol. In 2014, a Republican lawmaker left a loaded handgun in a House committee room, where the public had been just moments earlier. Meanwhile, a lawmaker dropped an un-holstered handgun — the weapon wasn’t loaded — in a hurry to get to a House floor vote just outside the House chambers. And in January 2023, a lawmaker’s truck was broken into at the state Capitol parking lot and two firearms were stolen.

The impeachment attempt against Jena Griswold

The U.S. Supreme Court and national politics made their way into the state legislature this year as Republicans targeted Secretary of State Jenna Griswold over her actions in the case that sought to remove former President Donald Trump from Colorado’s presidential ballot.

The case, which divided the Colorado Supreme Court, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which unanimously threw it out, ruling that Colorado could not use its election laws to disqualify Trump from the primary ballot. The justices overturned a contrary decision by the state Supreme Court in December.

After the nation’s highest court ruled, state Republicans said Griswold should have been held accountable.

“She has destroyed the integrity of the office,” said Rep. Ryan Armagost, R-Berthoud, one of the sponsors of the impeachment resolution against Griswold.

In outlining the case against Griswold, Armagost argued that Griswold “improperly exercised” her authority by “inserting herself” in the case against Trump.

Before the hearing, Griswold issued a statement that accused House Republicans of “(embracing) election conspiracies and political games.”

State Democrats called the impeachment efforts a “sham inquiry.”

On April 10, after five hours, the House Judiciary Committee killed the resolution on an 8-3 party-line vote.

House turns away families of victims of Hamas

In February, House Speaker Julie McCluskie made headlines after she turned away families of victims of Hamas from the chamber. In contrast, the Senate welcomed them.

Rep. Ron Weinberg, a Republican from Loveland, questioned McCluskie’s actions, saying he received prior approval for the event and even sent out press releases to announce the event.

Weinberg said McCluskie called him shortly before he arrived at the Capitol on Feb. 4 to tell him the visitors would not be allowed on the House floor.

In a statement, the House speaker said she was worried that members on both sides of the aisle would fail to “rise to the occasion.” She added that she was also worried continuing to “bring this issue into” the House would harm the chamber’s ability to work together.

Progressive Democrats criticize own caucus leaders

In the final days of the legislative session, Colorado Democrats criticized caucus leaders over the latter’s handing of bills and social media attacks.

Thirteen Democrats — almost all lawmakers of color — met with McCluskie and Majority Leader Monica Duran behind closed doors. The meeting was not announced, so reporters from Colorado Politics and The Denver Post entered the room to observe.

On May 4, progressive Democrats accused their caucus leaders of slow-walking priority legislation and coddling Republicans. The same thing happened last year, when progressive Democrats also castigated their own leaders.

Unlike last year, the Democratic leaders pushed back, suggesting their party isn’t all innocent. 

“There’s enough blame to go around on both sides,” Duran said at one point.

“This is the hardest part of the session,” McCluskie said in response to frustrations over delaying the bills. “We have to hang in there with one another, keep talking to each other about the bills that are in front of us. There are never enough hours in the day.”

McCluskie asked the group for patience.

Several Democrats also claimed that some Republicans were bullying them through X, formerly known as Twitter. One Republican specifically named by the Democrats said it was her who had called names, while the majority party has shut down Republicans’ speech.

‘Illegal alien’ and other unspeakable words

During the waning days of the session, Colorado Republicans accused Democratic leaders of censorship, saying the latter have provided them with a list of words they are prohibited from using during floor debates. Democrats had shut Republicans down when they uttered them. 

The list came from a memo issued by the Biden Administration to the Executive Office for Immigration Review. According to the memo, the Library of Congress stopped using the term “illegal alien” in 2016 because it is was deemed pejorative, and several US Supreme Court cases have adopted the term “noncitizen,” instead of “alien” because the latter term is associated with hate groups.

The list provided to House Republicans includes terms such as “illegal,” “alien,” “invader(s),” “interloper,” “squatter,” and “fresh off the boat,” and recommends using terms like “migrant,” “immigrant,” and “new arrivals” instead.  

Duran, the majority leader, acknowledged that the Republicans had asked her for the list several months before because they wanted to know what they could and couldn’t say. Duran said it wasn’t a demand — more of a “suggestion to a friend,” arguing words may be hurtful to some people.

It was the latest battle to erupt at the state Capitol over speech — or, more specifically, over words that the majority party deems offensive. In the past few months, Democrats and Republicans also clashed over using a transgender person’s birth name, which activists refer to as “deadnaming.”

A group also filed a federal lawsuit against Democratic lawmakers, alleging they suppressed — during public hearings — the free speech of those opposed to a measure that would provide a specific avenue for transgender individuals convicted of felonies to legally change their name.  

Marianne Goodland, Marissa Ventrelli and Michael Karlik contributed to this story.