Former City Council member Julia Marvin was selected Thursday night by a Democratic vacancy committee to represent Thornton and the surrounding area in the Colorado House this year, weeks after her predecessor resigned.
Marvin, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Thornton last year, beat fellow former council member Jacque Phillips on a 9-7 vacancy committee vote. Because the seat was last won by a Democrat, the vacancy committee was controlled by the local Democratic party.
Marvin replaces former Rep. Said Sharbini, a first-term legislator who resigned in December because of low legislative pay and recent upheaval in the Capitol.
Marvin will join her new colleagues in the House immediately. The legislature reconvened last week for its annual four-month session, and the House District 31 seat has sat empty in the wake of Sharbini’s resignation.
Marvin is the fourth House Democrat to be selected by a vacancy committee in recent months, following in the footsteps of Reps. Tim Hernandez, Chad Clifford and Manny Rutinel. A quarter of the 100 legislators in the Capitol were at one point appointed to a legislative seat via a vacancy committee.
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