{"id":38741,"date":"2022-08-25T17:10:05","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T23:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/republicans-initiate-recall-of-colorado-senator-two-days-after-he-announces-hes-becoming-a-democrat\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:46:17","slug":"republicans-initiate-recall-of-colorado-senator-two-days-after-he-announces-hes-becoming-a-democr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/republicans-initiate-recall-of-colorado-senator-two-days-after-he-announces-hes-becoming-a-democr\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans initiate recall of Colorado senator two days after he announces he\u2019s becoming a Democrat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Kevin Priola, R-Henderson, and Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, listen as the Senate Health and Human Service Committee hears debate on a bill that would change Colorado&#x2019;s vaccine exemption rules on Feb. 19.<\/span>Jesse Paul\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A group of Republicans on Wednesday initiated a recall against Colorado state Sen. Kevin Priola, two days after the Henderson lawmaker announced he was leaving the GOP to become a Democrat.<\/p>\n

The recall effort, backed by a deep-pocketed conservative nonprofit, kicks off a flurry of legal questions, namely whether the recall will be focused on Priola\u2019s current state Senate district or the one he will begin representing in January. Priola was drawn into a much more Republican district during last year\u2019s once-in-a-decade redistricting process.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s Office was investigating this week, with the help of the Colorado Attorney General\u2019s Office, how the recall will play out. It\u2019s possible the situation could end up before a judge.<\/p>\n

The first step in a recall process is submitting a petition to the Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s Office. The petition has to be accepted before the recall\u2019s organizers can begin collecting signatures to try to force a special recall election.<\/p>\n

About 18,000 signatures from voters in Priola\u2019s district \u2013 again, it\u2019s unclear if it\u2019s his old or new district \u2013 would be needed to force the special election. The signatures would have to be collected 60 days after the petition is approved.<\/p>\n

Priola represents Senate District 25 now, but come January he will represent Senate District 13, because of last year\u2019s redistricting process. (While the 60-day signature gathering period won\u2019t be over before the new year, the recall election will likely have to take place in 2023.)<\/p>\n

While Priola\u2019s current district is a tossup, the new Senate District 13 leans 4 percentage points in Republicans\u2019 favor, according to a nonpartisan analysis of election results in the district from 2016 to 2020.<\/p>\n

The recall\u2019s supporters want the recall to happen in District 13.<\/p>\n

Priola\u2019s term ends in January 2025.<\/p>\n

Advance Colorado Action, a conservative nonprofit with millions of dollars to spend, said it\u2019s supporting the recall. An issue committee called \u201cRecall Priola\u201d has been formed to raise money for the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters in Senate District 13 deserve to decide who they want to represent them,\u201d Michael Fields, a senior adviser for Advance Colorado Action, said in a written statement. \u201cMy guess is they\u2019ll pick someone they can actually trust and who more closely reflects their views.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recall committee is made up of two Republican voters from state Senate District 13: Louisa Andersen and Jeff Sloan.<\/p>\n

The Colorado GOP is supporting the recall effort, said Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cKevin Priola lied to voters and broke the trust of those who elected him,\u201d Burton Brown said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

Priola said earlier this week that he wasn\u2019t surprised Republicans were talking about trying to recall him as soon as he announced he was becoming a Democrat. He said he will defend himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s strange how the way you affiliate changes people\u2019s perceptions of you,\u201d Priola said Wednesday, citing the millions of dollars spent on his 2020 re-election race.<\/p>\n

Senate President Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat, told The Colorado Sun earlier this week that Democrats will come to Priola\u2019s defense if a recall is initiated against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I\u2019ve said in the past when these clowns have done this, recalls should be done for corruption and malfeasance, not because you disagree with someone,\u201d Fenberg said.<\/p>\n

The petition language submitted to the Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s Office to initiate the recall process claims Priola \u201cdoes not represent the views of (his) district.\u201d<\/p>\n

The language cites Priola\u2019s vote in favor of new road-usage fees to pay for transportation projects, support of Proposition CC in 2019 and backing of a 2019 bill making personal-use possession of most drugs a misdemeanor. The recall language also notes that Priola was a co-sponsor of an unsuccessful 2018 bill backed by Democrats and Republicans that would have paved the way for a supervised drug-consumption site in Denver.<\/p>\n

Priola, who often voted with Democrats in the Legislature even when he was a Republican, cited concerns about the GOP\u2019s embrace of 2020 election conspiracies and the party\u2019s unwillingness to work on legislation to combat climate change as driving his decision to become a Democrat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot continue to be a part of a political party that is OK with a violent attempt to overturn a free and fair election,\u201d Priola wrote in a letter Monday announcing his decision. \u201cThere is too much at stake right now for Republicans to be in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u2018It\u2019s strange how the way you affiliate changes people\u2019s perceptions of you,\u2019 says Sen. Kevin Priola<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4170,394,15,233,28,826,774,728,1126],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-citizens-initiative-and-recall","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-colorado-state-senate","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines","tag-political-campaigns","tag-political-candidates","tag-political-systems","tag-politics-general"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38741","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=38741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84115,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38741\/revisions\/84115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38741"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}