In November 2022, a month after Colorado state Rep. Hugh McKean died of a heart attack, McKean’s longtime partner called his replacement for the coming term, Ron Weinberg.
Amy Parks asked Weinberg about allegations she had heard about him sexually harassing women at a prominent conservative leadership event earlier that year, Parks told The Denver Post. Weinberg denied the allegations, Parks said, and the two talked about the Loveland-based House seat that Weinberg had been appointed to fulfill as the successor to McKean, the late House minority leader.
Weinberg had beat three candidates for the vacancy committee’s appointment earlier that month. Parks had nominated one of the other contenders, Kristy Hall, and she said that she told Weinberg in the call that he needed to improve his behavior or he risked losing his next election.
According to Parks, Weinberg replied that if Hall challenged him again, he would “kick her in the pussy.”
Taken aback, Parks told him that sounded “Trumpy.”
“Trump uses his hands,” Weinberg replied, according to Parks. “I use my feet.”
Parks said she took the comment not as a physical threat but as a crass warning that he would easily defeat Hall. It was part of a pattern of inappropriate comments and behavior that Weinberg exhibited during his time as the chair of the Larimer County Republican Party, according to nearly a dozen people who experienced or witnessed interactions with Weinberg.
Those accounts have come to light a few weeks after three women publicly accused Weinberg of making sexually inappropriate comments at Leadership Program of the Rockies events in 2021 and 2022. While Weinberg has denied those allegations and questioned why they were being raised now, The Post found that officials — both at the leadership program and in Larimer County — were aware of his alleged behavior before he entered the legislature.
Weinberg declined to comment when reached by phone. He did not respond to questions sent by email Monday morning. An email sent to his attorney last week was not returned.
Several people, including former party officials and volunteers, alleged to The Post that Weinberg frequently berated board members and volunteers for minor slights, like arriving late or disagreeing with him. A Republican colleague in the House, Rep. Brandi Bradley, said Weinberg has made inappropriate remarks as a legislator.
She filed a complaint with House Speaker Julie McCluskie on Friday accusing Weinberg of copying a master key to doors in the Capitol. In January, McCluskie wrote to the House’s top Republican that House staff had investigated Weinberg for accessing another lawmaker’s office without her permission, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Post.
Four women who have known or worked with Weinberg in Larimer County — Tasha Carr, Nancy Rumfelt, Kristin Grazier and another woman who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation — told The Post that they’d blocked his phone number or knew not to pick up if he called late at night, when they suspected he had been drinking and was more likely to yell. Several people approached the Larimer County GOP to raise concerns about the lawmaker in summer 2023, a few months after he’d joined the legislature and departed his local party post.
Grazier, who succeeded Weinberg as county party chair, said: “It would be fair to say I’ve experienced bullying (and) abusive, offensive and disrespectful behavior.”
“It was more than once,” she said. “It was many times, and it was to varying degrees.”
After a reporter reached out to Weinberg last week, eight people who worked with or volunteered for the party under him then contacted The Post. All praised his leadership and said they’d never seen him act inappropriately or yell at anyone.
Several questioned the political motives of those alleging otherwise.
“I’ve never seen him ever do anything, say anything, to a person that was bad,” said Kathy Nelson, who said she met Weinberg in 2020 and then volunteered for the party. “He does have a leadership personality — he’s not a shrinking violet. But as far as anything mean or too forceful or nasty — no, nothing like that.”
Cyndi Fronapfel, who worked for the party under Weinberg, said he would at times raise his voice in excitement or call people out. But she said none of his behavior struck her as inappropriate, and she defended him as a motivated and passionate leader.
Others, though, described being berated by Weinberg at meetings and on phone calls. Former volunteer Kristi Smiley said Weinberg called her after a meeting at Colorado State University and yelled at her, as her husband listened on.
The gist of the call, she said, was that she was worthless and could either back Weinberg 100% or leave.
Carr said Weinberg yelled at her after she questioned him in a meeting, prompting her to get up and leave. She provided emails sent to or about Weinberg in 2021 and 2022. In one, she said his texts were inappropriate. He replied, saying they weren’t.
In another, he apologized for an interaction the previous night and for his “blunt approach.” In a third, from January 2022, Carr wrote a lengthy email to other party officials about Weinberg’s “bullying, abusive and controlling behavior, as well as embarrassing or sexually inappropriate remarks.” She wrote that the board needed to get involved.
Challenging ‘style of communication’
More than year later, in summer 2023, Carr, Smiley and at least four other people approached the Larimer County GOP about Weinberg. Though most of the public testimony was about his behavior, some also criticized his decision to sign a letter supporting a transgender legislator in Montana, who had been barred from that state’s House floor after a tense debate about gender-affirming care. Weinberg’s signature on the letter earned him a reprimand from the Colorado Republican Party.
The concerns about his behavior prompted the county party’s board to adopt a new policy setting conduct expectations for its members, Grazier, the board chair at the time, said. It also required them to treat each other with respect and directed them not to use “force, threat, humiliation” or other inappropriate means to try to persuade or influence someone, according to a copy reviewed by The Post.
The board briefly debated taking a vote to distance itself from Weinberg but decided against it, Grazier said.
Hall, Weinberg’s onetime opponent who was serving on the board then, said the board took a vote of no confidence in him. Grazier demurred when asked about that, citing the confidentiality of executive session meetings. She said the board’s deliberations could be interpreted as a no-confidence discussion, though she denied that such a vote took place.
Weinberg was repeatedly asked to speak to the board, Grazier said, but declined. Hall said the board wrote him a letter.
“We communicated to Mr. Weinberg that we in no way supported his style of communication and the inappropriate language that was being used with women,” Hall said. “And we expected things to change.”
The new allegations come after three women accused Weinberg earlier this month of sexually harassing them at a conservative organization’s events in 2021 and 2022. Two women — Jacqueline Anderson and Heather Booth — publicly accused Weinberg of making sexually inappropriate comments to them at Leadership Program of the Rockies events.
A third woman released an anonymous statement making a similar accusation. All three accounts included allegations from the same Leadership Program event.
The third woman, who spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity, said Weinberg seemed intoxicated and pressured her to steal a flag and leave a hotel bar with him in February 2022. The woman repeatedly refused and grew increasingly uncomfortable with Weinberg’s persistence, she said, until a bystander intervened and walked the woman to her room.
The bystander, a man who also requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, confirmed the woman’s account to The Post.
The woman said she woke up the next morning “totally disgusted” and reported the allegations to Luzon Kahler, the vice president of the Leadership Program of the Rockies’ 2022 class. The woman said she later spoke with the program’s president, Shari Williams, and that she was told that Weinberg would be banned from future events and that organizers were aware of other concerns raised about him.
In a brief phone call last week, Kahler said she didn’t have time to talk and then hung up. Williams did not return messages seeking comment.
Lawmaker disputes ‘false accusations’
Weinberg has denied those allegations of harassment.
“False accusations have been made against me and they are simply not true,” he said in a social media post earlier this month, prior to being contacted for this story. “These claims, nearly four years old, were never mentioned when I ran for office. Now, the moment I announce my run for Republican leadership, they suddenly surface. I will not be intimidated by political smear tactics.”
On Facebook, he’s also shared several letters signed by legislative staffers praising him.
Sandra Aste, the current chair of the Larimer County Republican Party, did not return an email seeking comment for this story. After the harassment allegations were reported publicly this month, the party wrote on social media that the accusations were “deeply concerning on multiple levels.”
“We understand the seriousness of this situation and the impact it may have on the parties involved and our community,” the party wrote.
All three of the sexual harassment allegations were sent to Weinberg’s House Republican colleagues earlier this month, after Weinberg announced that he would pursue a legislative leadership position.
He later dropped his candidacy for minority whip. The harassment allegations were forwarded to the House’s Workplace Harassment Committee, and Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, the chamber’s top Republican, said on social media that legislative leaders “take these allegations seriously.”
In an interview Friday, Bradley, a Littleton Republican who had also vied for the same leadership position, accused Weinberg of making inappropriate comments to her.
Bradley said she’d previously raised concerns to House leadership about Weinberg’s behavior. Later Friday, she filed an ethics complaint with McCluskie, a Democrat who is the House’s top official, accusing Weinberg of “belligerent” behavior while under the influence of alcohol.
She also accused him of copying a master key to unlock doors in the Capitol. She provided emails to The Post between Bradley and the Colorado State Patrol, which provides security for the building, referencing a January investigation into the matter.
In her January letter to Pugliese, McCluskie wrote that Weinberg had entered another lawmaker’s office without that legislator’s permission. He told leadership he did not have his own master key but had taken a key from a senior House staffer. McCluskie wrote that if Weinberg had a master key, he must turn it over. She called the matter “very serious,” warned that Weinberg might face disciplinary action and said it was “imperative that Rep. Weinberg never does this again.”
Weinberg didn’t respond to a separate email about Bradley’s allegations sent Monday afternoon. Earlier, Bradley accused leadership of not doing enough in response to her concerns.
In a statement from earlier this month, Pugliese and Rep. Ty Winter, the assistant minority leader, said that Bradley’s assertions that they hadn’t responded to her were “patently false.” They indicated that Bradley needed to file a complaint with the harassment committee and that members “are only accountable to each other and their constituents.”
Pugliese declined to comment further Monday, pointing to the caucus’ previous statement. Through a spokesman, McCluskie declined to comment on Bradley’s complaint.
Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.
