Sonya Jaquez Lewis suggests ethics complaint is aides’ veiled attempt at collective bargaining
Plus: A revised estimate of how bad the budget situation is. Support and opposition for Senate Bill 3 is statistically tied, poll shows.
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State Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis is suggesting the ethics complaint lodged against her by five of her former staffers, and the allegations of mistreatment they have shared with the media over the past year, are really part of a veiled attempt by Colorado Capitol staffers to get collective bargaining power.
The Longmont Democrat made that claim in her formal response to the ethics complaint that was filed by four of her former legislative aides and a former campaign manager through the Political Workers Guild, the union representing Democratic political staffers.
The five-member Senate Committee on Ethics is investigating the complaint and has until later this month to determine whether there’s probable cause to believe Jaquez Lewis has violated the Senate’s ethics rules. The senator’s response is a key part of making that determination.
“This complaint is no more than a compilation of incidents unsupported by actual facts that are meant to focus attention on valid universal aide issues by scapegoating one senator,” Jaquez Lewis wrote in her Jan. 31 response. “I am being dragged through the mud for political ends. With false allegations, the PWG is using me to showcase its concerns.”
Jaquez Lewis said the complaint is “full of distortions and falsehoods and should never have been assigned to an ethics committee.”
“I understand that the Political Workers Guild is upset,” she said. “They want collective bargaining.”
Other highlights from the senator’s response:
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ETHICS COMMITTEE SKEPTICAL OF SENATOR’S RESPONSE
The Senate Ethics Committee appeared highly skeptical of Jaquez Lewis’ response.
Committee Chair Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, called it “very challenging.”
“This isn’t about other senators,” Gonzales said Tuesday of Jaquez Lewis’ attempt to deflect blame. “This isn’t about other offices.”
Sen. Dylan Roberts, a Frisco Democrat on the Ethics Committee, said he was alarmed at the lack of contrition in Jaquez Lewis’ response.
“The document, I don’t think anywhere contains any sort of apology,” he said. “I understand the senator has every right to dispute the allegations and provide justification for that, but there is no denying that a multitude of aides feel victimized for a variety of reasons. And there’s no apology for that — that feeling — even if it is a misunderstanding in the senator’s point of view.”
Roberts said he was also confused how to balance Jaquez Lewis’ earlier public statements in support of an ethics investigation with her claim now that the complaint “should never have been assigned to an ethics committee.”
Jaquez Lewis hasn’t been at the Capitol since the Ethics Committee met Tuesday to review her response. She was excused Wednesday and Thursday from the Senate, complicating Democrats’ efforts to pass Senate Bill 3, their marquee gun bill this session.
The committee next meets at 8 a.m. Tuesday and will spend two hours sifting through the evidence against Jaquez Lewis. It must make a probable cause determination by Feb. 20.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: There will be no Unaffiliated on Tuesday. Enjoy your Presidents Day weekend. See you back here next Friday!
THE NARRATIVE
Colorado’s budget shortfall is now $1.1B
Colorado’s looming budget shortfall just keeps getting worse.
Under new estimates provided to the Joint Budget Committee on Wednesday, lawmakers could need to cut as much as $1.1 billion to balance next year’s budget. That’s up from the ballpark estimate of $1 billion that lawmakers have been using to describe the budget gap in recent months.
And the budget picture could deteriorate even further in the coming days.
The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing is expected to provide new forecasts for Medicaid use, a report that lawmakers fear will exacerbate the state’s financial woes.
The shortfall report issued Wednesday marks the most complete accounting of the budget deficit since the quarterly revenue forecasts in September. During the December forecasts, legislative analysts pegged the shortfall at $672 million — but that figure didn’t include at least one major expense: the $350 million voters required the legislature to spend on law enforcement through Proposition 130.
The latest forecast also factors in additional spending approved by the JBC during midyear budget adjustments, known as supplementals.
Keep in mind: When budget writers talk about next year’s shortfall, they’re referring to what would happen if the state continued “business as usual” in the 2025-26 spending plan. That means covering the growing costs of health care and K-12, as well as giving typical inflationary raises to higher education, state workers and Medicaid providers.
If lawmakers don’t change the state’s financial trajectory with ongoing cuts, Colorado would deplete its $2.1 billion reserve entirely by 2029. And that’s if the economy keeps growing.
If the country descends into a moderate recession, the state would run out of money to pay its bills during the 2026-27 budget year.
P.S.: Close readers might notice a discrepancy between the $1.1 billion figure we’re reporting and the $1.3 billion gap mentioned in the JBC memo detailing the shortfall.
During Wednesday’s meeting, JBC Staff Director Craig Harper told the committee there was a mistake in one of the figures used to estimate future expenses. Health, life and dental insurance costs are only expected to go up $31 million next year, not $277 million as the memo mistakenly said. (The $277 million is the total general fund cost of those benefits, not the year-to-year increase.)
PURPLISH: The billion-dollar budget hole
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THE POLITICAL TICKER
OBITUARY
Former state Rep. Rod Bockenfeld, R-Watkins, has died from complications of brain cancer. He was in his late 60s.
Bockenfeld served three terms in the Colorado House, including a stint on the Joint Budget Committee. He missed much of his last year at the Capitol — 2024 — because of his health issues.
Before being elected to the legislature, Bockenfeld was an Arapahoe County commissioner.
ELECTION 2025
Nicole Hensel, the executive director of New Era Colorado, the liberal nonprofit that seeks to get young people involved in politics, will run in 2026 to be Jefferson County’s next clerk and recorder.
“Over the past few weeks, we have watched in horror as communities are torn apart and billionaires take control of our government for their own benefit,” the Democrat said in a written statement. “We know that democracy is under threat from unchecked power, corruption and rolling back rights. But also there are the quiet forces of regular people staying home instead of turning out, of people feeling like no one is fighting for them.”
Jefferson County’s current clerk, Democrat Amanda Gonzalez, is running in 2026 to be Colorado’s next secretary of state.
PERSONNEL FILE
Joe Jackson, a former executive director of the Colorado GOP and staffer to U.S. Reps. Ken Buck and Greg Lopez, is now working as a senior communications adviser for Republican U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming.
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GUNS
Voters are split on support of Colorado ban on manufacture, sale of semiautomatic guns with detachable magazines
Registered Colorado voters are split on their support of a measure to “ban the manufacture and sale of semiautomatic firearms and shotguns with a removable magazine,” according to the results of a poll conducted by a conservative firm.
Forty-seven percent of those polled said they support the legislation, while 45% said they oppose it. Six percent said they neither support nor oppose the measure, while 2% said they were unsure of their opinion.
The poll was conducted by Arc Insights, a national pollster that has focused on Republican races and issues, which surveyed 603 registered Colorado voters on Feb. 4 and 5. The poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points. A spokesperson for the pollster said the group conducted the survey on its own dime and not on any group’s behalf.
Given the margin of error, the support and opposition for the bill is statistically tied.
The poll was aimed at testing the waters on Senate Bill 3, which would ban the manufacture and sale of certain semiautomatic rifles, shotguns and pistols. The measure is complicated, but the Arc Insights questions about the legislation, in our view, was a close enough explanation of what it would do.
Keep in mind: The poll was conducted before Senate Bill 3 was significantly watered down in the Colorado Senate early Friday to include a major exemption. (Details here.)
When broken down by party registration, 79% of Democrats said they support the measure, while 15% said they oppose it. For Republicans, just 17% said they support the measure, while 74% said they oppose it. Among unaffiliated voters and those registered to third parties, 43% said they support the measure, while 48% said they oppose it.
The pollster found that despite the support for the bill, only 20% of those polled thought it would have a “major impact” on reducing crime in Colorado, while 25% said it would have a “minor impact,” 40% said it would have “no impact at all” and 6% said they were unsure of its impact.
When asked their opinion on banning firearms that are used for self defense, “like semiautomatic pistols,” 61% of those polled say they oppose such bans, while 29% said they support them. (Senate Bill 3 would only affect a small number of handguns.)
Seventy-seven percent of those polled said they oppose banning rifles and shotguns that are used for hunting, while 15% said they support such a ban. (Depending on which rifles and shotguns someone uses for hunting, Senate Bill 3 may or may not affect those weapons.)
Compared to other issues that should be addressed by Colorado lawmakers, 36% said “banning the manufacture and sale of semi-automatic firearms and shotguns with a removable magazine” should be a high priority, while 20% said it would be a low priority and 40% said it should not be a priority at all.
Eighty-two percent said they don’t think criminals would respect Senate Bill 3 if it passes, while 7% said they would.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
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