8 DECEMBER 21-27, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Another Dome Run A RECORD NUMBER OF LAWMAKERS ARE LEAVING THE COLORADO LEGISLATURE. HERE’S WHY. BY HANNAH METZGER “Welcome to junior high.” That’s the warning Adrienne Benavidez received from a fellow legislator when she was elected to the Colorado House of Rep- resentatives in 2016. When she asked her colleague what he meant, he replied: “You’ll see.” And she did. During her six years in offi ce, Benavidez juggled racist jokes and sexual harassment, far from the decorum one might expect from the state government. Things seemingly got even worse after she left in early 2023. This year’s legislative session was rife with controversy and confl ict, from offensive comments about Black legislators “playing the race card” and transgender people “ly- ing to themselves” to the special session devolving into legislators yelling over one another about the Israel-Hamas war. Some call the recent atmosphere the worst they’ve ever seen. “No one there signs up to be part of the drama, but there is going to be drama,” Benavidez tells Westword. “I knew when I left that there was a wider range of ideolo- gies that would be present in the legislature this session, from the far right to the far left. I wasn’t hearing anything from leadership as to how to address those different perspectives.” Benavidez is one of eight state legislators who resigned in 2023 — the most in a single year since the Legislative Council Staff’s database began tracking resigna- tions in 2017. Apart from 2019, when three leg- islators resigned amid allegations of inappro- priate conduct, every year from 2017 to 2022 saw only two to three resignations, usually because the legislators were elected to other local offi ces or appointed to federal positions. That is, until this year. Of the eight legislators who resigned in 2023, two left for other positions and one left after it was revealed that she didn’t live in the district she represented. The other fi ve resigned apparently because they simply did not want to be there, either vaguely stating that they wanted to move on or not giving a reason at all. The two most recent resignees were more explicit with their reasoning. Representative Ruby Dickson, the youngest legislator in the state when elected in 2022, served only one year in the Capitol before stepping down, calling the political environment unhealthy. “It has recently become clear that the sensationalistic and vitriolic nature of the current political environment is not healthy for me or my family,” Dickson said in her resignation announcement on December 1. “I am stepping aside now to allow someone more suited for the rigors of the current mo- ment to step in.” Less than three weeks later, on Decem- ber 18, Representative Said Sharbini an- nounced his resignation; he’ll be leaving the legislature as of December 31. Another fi rst- year lawmaker, Shar- bini said his primary reason for stepping down was the fi nancial strain and low pay, but he also criticized the “vitriol and lack of col- legial behavior” in the Capitol. “The polarized and contentious atmo- sphere has hindered constructive dialogue. This has made it in- creasingly challenging to effectively serve the constituents and fulfi ll the duties of this es- teemed offi ce,” he said in his resignation letter. Dickson’s and Sharbini’s resignations came mere weeks after chaos erupted during the special legislative session. That day, Democratic Representative Elisabeth Epps said “Free Palestine” dur- ing her remarks on a bill, prompting yells and insults from Republican members. When Democratic leaders let Republican Representative Ron Weinberg respond in a lengthy speech on the fl oor, Epps repeat- edly yelled over Weinberg that his speech was “out of order,” resulting in fl oor work pausing for around an hour as leadership tried to address the confl ict. During the talks, Epps called the Republicans “fascists” and told some Democrats that they’ve “shamed us” and would have supported slavery in the past. Dickson and Sharbini had both fi led to run for reelection in July, before the events of the special session. They did not respond to inquiries from Westword about what prompted their resignations, but Dickson reportedly endorsed Epps’s recently announced primary challenger in the 2024 election. Other legislators openly condemned Epps over her actions that day, including Democratic Representative David Ortiz, who posted on social media that Epps was “inspiring the more vitriolic petulant parts of us.” He tells Westword that the Capitol has become “toxic.” Epps says the legislature is focusing on her to distract from the state’s “complicity” in letting tax dollars fund the confl ict in Pal- estine. “I think ‘toxic’ is a fascinating word choice, because white phosphorus is toxic, and there is literal white phosphorous gas being deployed on humans right now, and it’s NEWS KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS One legislator calls the climate in the Capitol “the worst it’s ever been.” HANNAH METZGER
