Saying the alleged behavior of Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis directly conflicts with their core values, the Democratic leaders in the chamber said they will “honor” any formal request to investigate the claims against the Longmont legislator. 

The Democratic leaders also said they have revoked Jaquez Lewis’ ability to hire state-paid legislative aides and that she won’t sit on any committee in the upcoming session. 

“Colorado Senate Democrats greatly value our legislative aides, who provide critical support to each of our offices and to our work to build a Colorado where everyone can thrive,” Sen. James Coleman and Sen. Robert Rodriguez, who are both from Denver, said in a joint statement. 

Coleman is the incoming Senate President, while Rodriguez is the chamber’s majority leader.

“In recent days, we have worked alongside Senate President Steve Fenberg to address complaints made against Senator Sonya Jaquez Lewis concerning mistreatment of her staff. Elected officials have the responsibility to hold themselves to a high standard,” they said. 

The duo said they will be able to attend to calls for an ethics inquiry after lawmakers are officially sworn in on Jan. 8.

An association of legislative aides at the Colorado state Capitol earlier demanded the resignation of Jaquez Lewis and asked Senate Democrats to review the lawmaker’s actions and convene an ethics committee if she refuses to resign. 

The duties that Jaquez Lewis had been asking her aides to conduct “shows a lack of respect and decency,” the Political Workers Guild said.

“Jaquez Lewis has consistently shown that she does not have the ability to manage an office, sit in a leadership role as chair, and show basic respect and decency to staff and her colleagues,” the group added. “Allowing Jaquez Lewis to stay in the Democratic Caucus is a reflection of the Caucus and their values.”

The Political Workers Guild “is an open-model minority union that represents legislative aides, campaign workers, and political organizers who want to fight for dignity in our workplaces.” It is organized under the Communications Workers of America Local 37074.

In a sternly-worded Dec. 3 email obtained by Colorado Politics, outgoing Senate President Steve Fenberg told Jaquez Lewis, who was reelected to her second and final term last month, that he had received “new concerns” about the senator’s treatment of her legislative aides. 

“This is now clearly a recurring issue that we have tried to address with you,” Fenberg wrote.

“It is imperative that you do not engage in any behavior that could be reasonably perceived as retaliatory in nature towards past legislative aides or interns, legislative aides in the building, staff, or Senators. Engaging in any retaliatory behavior may constitute a violation of the Workplace Expectations policy,” the president said. 

Colorado Public Radio had reported during the spring that four former aides complained of their pay being withheld, that the senator set unreasonable work schedules and otherwise prohibited them from interacting with other people “in the Democratic sphere.”

She was removed from a bill dealing with wage theft during the 2024 session as a consequence of that behavior and barred from using Senate partisan staff to help her hire aides. Last January, she was stripped of her leadership of the Senate Local Government and Housing Committee by Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, a Democrat from Denver.

Fenberg said the problems dated back to the 2023 interim, but that he has continued to receive concerns about how Jaquez Lewis treats her aides. 

According to the  Colorado Sun, a workplace misconduct complaint filed on Nov. 15 with the Office of Legislative Workplace Relations alleged she paid an aide, who was a Hispanic man, to do landscaping work and tend bar, and that she paid him with a campaign check. She did not report those expenditures in her campaign finance reports. She also paid the aide to knock on doors for an Adams County commissioner candidate in the June primary who faced off against the wife of one of Jaquez Lewis’ legislative rivals, according to reports.  

“Out of respect to those employees’ privacy, I do not wish to comment in detail on HR matters,” Jaquez Lewis told the Sun. “I will note that all campaign work by my staff this cycle was the choice of those individuals and was fully compensated. That compensation is reflected in checks that they were paid. I regret that there was an oversight in filing these payments in TRACER. I am amending the reports to reflect these payments.”

The lawmaker has not yet done so.

The legislative rival is believed to be Sen. Kyle Mullica, D-Northglenn, whose wife, Julie, was elected to the Adams County Board of County Commissioners in November.

Jaquez Lewis can use campaign funds to pay aides during the 2025 session. She easily won her reelection bid in November. As of Oct. 28, she had just over $19,000 left in her campaign account. 

One of the more progressive members of the Senate Democratic caucus, Jaquez Lewis has sponsored legislation on gun restrictions and pushed for a ban on new oil and gas drilling.