Colorado’s Appointment System Tested as Districts Lose Multiple Lawmakers

By Marianne Goodland | The Denver Gazette

Two vacancy committees that will convene in the next month or so will have an interesting challenge: Picking a new state senator and state representative who will represent the same geographic area.

The vacancy election for Senate District 25, represented by the late Sen. Faith Winter, D-Broomfield, will meet on Dec. 23 at 6:30 p.m. to pick a replacement. The meeting will be livestreamed. Winter died in a car crash a few weeks ago.

Reps. William Lindstedt, D-Broomfield, and Jenny Willford, D-Northglenn, are planning to run for the Senate seat. 

Lindstedt already filed the candidacy paperwork for the Senate District 25 seat for 2026, given that Winter was term-limited. He noted in an announcement Monday that Winter endorsed him in June.

“The best way to carry on the legacy of Senator Faith Winter is to continue my campaign to serve the constituents of Senate District 25 in the upcoming vacancy process,” Lindstedt said.

Willford filed in July to run for her second term in House District 33, with no challengers to date.

The Senate district includes Broomfield, Northglenn and Westminster, and is wholly contained within Adams County.

With the announcement Sunday that Rep. Shannon Bird, D-Westminster, is stepping down to focus on her congressional run, a two-county vacancy committee will have the job of filling her House District 29 seat.

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