Rep. Weinberg drops bid for leadership amid allegations of impropriety. It’s progress. (Opinion)
Do not despair about Rep Ron Weinberg s gross behavior but rejoice that brave women came forward to share their experiences and hastily shut down his political advancement Do I know for certain that Heather Booth an elected school board member from Elizabeth and Jacqueline Anderson the former vice chair of the Mesa County Republican Party are telling the truth in their letter recounting Weinberg s inappropriate remarks No but if MeToo taught us anything it s that the cost of speaking up in politics is high and remaining silent is rewarded These brave women appear to have no motive other than to do the right thing by coming forward Also others witnessed the remarks Weinberg has denied that he made sexual remarks to the women and has hired an attorney However he also promptly stepped down from his bid for a leadership position for Colorado House Republicans No doubt House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese s pledge to investigate the complaint pressured Weinberg This is progress The MeToo movement hit Colorado s state Capitol hard in culminating in the unprecedented ouster of one lawmaker Rep Steve Lebsock who was accused of making unwanted sexual advances to interns and another lawmaker However sparse people remember that two other lawmakers faced a reckoning for their bad behavior and that one of them remained in office and served out his term as if nothing had happened Rumors about the other lawmaker s bad behaviors swirled but nothing else came to the surface At the time I wrote a column describing working at the Capitol as a gauntlet of sexual harassment unwanted advances alcohol-fueled inappropriate remarks and just plain old sexism The worst part was the complete lack of accountability for elected bureaucrats There was no human guidance department to consider a complaint and while accountable to the citizens politicians seemed secure in their knowledge that no one would dare to speak out But that has changed The Colorado General Assembly now has a robust process for considering complaints In the wake of the Lebsock saga lawmakers created workplace expectations to give employers and employees at the Capitol standards The House and Senate ethics committees have investigated everything from lawmakers driving drunk or appearing at events intoxicated to a senator s mistreatment of her staff and subsequent creation of a fake letter of promotion There are holes in the safety net The ethics committee doesn t have purview over the complaints about Weinberg the events happened before the man was elected to the Colorado House to represent District in Larimer County The policies don t apply to journalists or lobbyists working in the building Despite those holes accountability continues to come for Colorado lawmakers who behave badly Yes voters invariably have elections to hold elected leaders responsible for their choices but voters can t exercise that power if they aren t informed Formal investigations help empower people No one is circling the wagons to defend Weinberg or sitting idly by hoping the charges are forgotten The process is not perfect Bad behavior will continue But women and men now know they don t have to tolerate obscenity The women who spoke up have their own power in this state and I applaud them for using their positions to ensure other women don t suffer the nonsense Weinberg spewed their way Megan Schrader is the opinion editor of The Denver Post Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns editorials and more To send a letter to the editor about this article submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail
