December 22, 2011 11:17 PM UTC

McNulty Sacks Gerou (Female) For Becker (Male)

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• by: Colorado Pols

That news in a press release from Colorado House Republicans this morning:

This morning, Speaker of the House Frank McNulty announced that state Rep. Jon Becker will chair the House Appropriations Committee.

“As a freshman member of the Joint Budget Committee, Jon has a keen understanding of our state’s fiscal needs and has done his part to put the brakes on out-of-control spending,” McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, said.  “With Rep. Gerou now chairing the Joint Budget Committee, and Jon at the helm in House Appropriations, we have the perfect team to move our state forward.”

Which is another way of saying that erstwhile chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, the same Rep. Cheri Gerou, is not the chair anymore. Now, we haven’t seen any reaction from Rep. Gerou on this change–maybe she’s fine with it. Heck, maybe she asked for it, although we’d say Rep. Gerou should have also been quoted in this press release if so. The fact remains that House Speaker Frank McNulty has replaced one of the most powerful women in leadership positions under his control (the Joint Budget Committee elects its own chair) with a, well, a man. And that’s not doing McNulty any favors messagewise right now, folks.