{"id":37933,"date":"2022-10-11T16:12:31","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T22:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/denver-judge-halts-recall-effort-targeting-senator-who-quit-gop-to-become-a-dem\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:41:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:41:04","slug":"denver-judge-halts-recall-effort-targeting-senator-who-quit-gop-to-become-a-dem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/denver-judge-halts-recall-effort-targeting-senator-who-quit-gop-to-become-a-dem\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver judge halts recall effort targeting senator who quit GOP to become a Dem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"State
State Sen. Kevin Priola, center. (Jesse Paul\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A Denver judge on Monday temporarily halted the recall effort against state Sen. Kevin Priola, giving Democrats a better chance of keeping their majority in the Colorado Senate for at least the duration of the 2023 lawmaking term.<\/p>\n

Denver District Court Judge Marie Avery Moses ruled that the recall organizers must wait until Jan. 9 to initiate their effort to oust Priola. That\u2019s when the 2023 legislative session begins and when Priola will begin representing Senate District 13.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear what happens to the recall petition signatures that have already been collected, though it appears they must be scrapped. It\u2019s likely that tens of thousands of dollars have already been spent by the recall organizers, who said they were on track to collect enough signatures to force a special recall election.<\/p>\n

Priola currently represents Senate District 25 in the northeast Denver suburbs. The Henderson lawmaker was drawn into a new district \u2013 District 13, which stretches along U.S. 85 into Greeley \u2013 as part of last year\u2019s once-in-a-decade redistricting process.<\/p>\n

Republicans launched the recall effort against Priola in August after he changed his party affiliation to Democratic from Republican, citing the GOP\u2019s embrace of 2020 election conspiracies and inaction on climate change.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s Office ruled the recall should happen in Senate District 13, since if the recall organizers were successful in collecting the roughly 18,000 voter signatures they needed to force a special election to oust Priola the election wouldn\u2019t happen until early next year at the soonest. But a group affiliated with Democrats and defending Priola against the recall sued, arguing that the recall should take place in Senate District 25 \u2013 at a minimum \u2013 since that\u2019s the district Priola currently represents.<\/p>\n

Moses, the Denver judge, found that state elections officials likely erred when they decided the recall should take place in District 13, which leans in the GOP\u2019s favor. Senate District 25 is a political tossup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recall Petitioners have argued that if they are not able to circulate a recall petition until January 2023, they will likely be represented by Sen. Priola throughout the entire 2023 legislative session,\u201d Moses wrote in her ruling. \u201cWhile that may be true, such a timeline is consistent with (the Colorado constitution).\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThe secretary\u2019s approval of the recall petition directed at future SD 13 electors and the secretary\u2019s concomitant determination that current SD 25 electors no longer have the right to petition for the recall of Sen. Priola likely violate the fundamental constitutional rights of current SD 25 electors to recall, or not recall, their elected state senator.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge\u2019s ruling makes it likely that if the recall effort is renewed in Senate District 13 after Jan. 9, the special election to oust Priola won\u2019t happen until after the legislative session ends in May \u2013 and only if the recall organizers are successful in collecting signatures to force the special election.<\/p>\n

With Priola, Democrats hold a 21-14 majority in the Senate. Priola is not up for reelection this year \u2013 his term ends in January 2025 \u2013 but Republicans were hoping to pick up a handful of Senate seats in November and end the Democratic control of the Capitol that\u2019s been in place since January 2019.<\/p>\n

Priola\u2019s party-affiliation switch guarantees Democrats 13 Senate seats in January, compared with seven for the GOP. Of the Senate seats up for election in November, three are considered solidly Democratic, five solidly Republican and seven are toss-ups.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s ruling upholds the rule of law and the integrity of our independent redistricting process, and I am pleased the Court agreed that this special-interest-driven recall effort was built on a faulty premise,\u201d Priola said in a written statement. \u201cThe voters of Senate District 25 deserve a say in who represents their interests at the state Capitol, and today\u2019s ruling ensures deep-pocketed partisan interests won\u2019t be allowed to take that right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, said in a written statement that allowing the recall against Priola to move forward \u201cwould have created a cascade of ridiculous recall efforts every redistricting cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRecalls are an important process meant to root out politicians guilty of corruption or malfeasance, not for political operatives and special interests to seek revenge against lawmakers they disagree with,\u201d Fenberg added.<\/p>\n

The Secretary of State\u2019s Office said it \u201cis currently reviewing the ruling and has no further comment at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suzanne Taheri, a Republican attorney representing the recall organizers, said it\u2019s likely she will appeal Moses\u2019 ruling. Michael Fields, a senior adviser at the conservative dark-money nonprofit Advance Colorado Action, which is funding and organizing the recall effort, said recall petition signatures will continue to be gathered as the appeals process plays out.<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

organizers must wait until Jan. 9 to initiate their effort to oust Priola<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[266,28,29,774,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-political-candidates","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37933"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83842,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37933\/revisions\/83842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37933"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}