January 11, 2011 07:09 AM UTC

Suzanne Williams' Political Situation Deteriorating

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

Lynn Bartels of the Denver paper Tweeted this evening that Sen. Suzanne Williams of Aurora will not take the position of chair of the Senate Transportation Committee when the session begins Wednesday. Our best understanding of the situation would have prefaced that with “probably,” but this has been a development increasingly likely in the past few days.

The reason for this is simple enough; there is a growing sense among many Democrats that Sen. Williams is not responding to questions following her head-on collision in Texas, which killed a pregnant mother and injured several others, in a way that suggests she understands either the criminal or political gravity of her situation. Sen. Williams now faces a grand jury probe in the Texas county where the collision occurred, and whether or not that process will be conducted fairly given the obvious political implications is an unknown question.

But the facts of the accident as they have been disclosed so far, particularly as they relate to seat belt laws that Sen. Williams pushed for here in Colorado, and as-yet unresolved actions by Sen. Williams immediately following the crash, in all likelihood do make it politically infeasible for her to serve as chair of the Transportation Committee. It’s not really possible to forecast beyond that, but there is a growing recognition that this might not be all Sen. Williams loses.