DENVER — Gov. Jared Polis could face a possible censure and loss of privileges from the Colorado Democratic Party on Wednesday night after a formal complaint about his reduction of Tina Peters’ prison sentence caught fire early this week.

Hundreds of Democratic elected officials, volunteers and voters have asked the state party to formally censure Polis, alleging that his commutation decision is “incompatible” with the party’s values. The complaint, which was released Monday, asks party officials to condemn Polis’ decision to have Peters released on June 1 and find that it amounts to “conduct detrimental to the interests of the Colorado Democratic Party.”

Besides a censure, the complaint asks that the party limit Polis’ appearances at state party events like early June’s DemFest, including not allowing him to speak at or attend them.

In a statement, Democratic Party spokesman Andrew Nicla said state Chair Shad Murib “believes the matter should be heard and considered” by the party’s central committee at a meeting Wednesday night.

The committee could then vote on whether to reprimand Polis or take other actions sought in the complaint.

“Given the urgency of the issue and the remedies being sought, (Murib) believes the most productive path forward is for the (central committee) to consider the matter directly,” Nicla wrote. Murib was among the Democrats who criticized Polis’ decision after it was announced Friday.

The potential rebuke is the latest in a wave of scathing criticism from Democrats against Polis after he announced he was reducing Peters’ original sentence of nearly nine years by roughly half for convictions related to an election data-breach scheme. The former Mesa County clerk and ally of President Donald Trump will end up serving about 20 months in jail and prison, with her release now coming roughly 30 months earlier than her prior parole eligibility date.

“The Colorado Democratic Party has consistently defended election workers, election administration, and public confidence in democratic processes,” the complaint’s authors wrote. “Granting clemency to one of the nation’s most prominent election denial figures directly undermines those efforts and weakens the Party’s credibility on issues of democracy and election integrity.”

In a statement Tuesday, Polis spokesman Eric Maruyama said Polis understood that other Democrats disagreed and were disappointed, but the governor “made the decision he felt was right, not popular.”

Ian Coggins, an official with the Denver Democrats, drafted the complaint letter over the weekend. Of the hundreds of people he sent the letter to, none has said they felt it was inappropriate, he said in an interview.

Coggins said the commutation was “icing on the cake” after a series of recent rifts between Polis and the broader party. That has included the governor’s efforts to comply with an immigration subpoena and his veto of a pro-union measure last year.

Coggins said the official party complaint seemed to be the strongest venue available to condemn Polis’ actions, especially since a special legislative session — with the goal of a censure by the General Assembly — seemed out of reach.

“He is the highest elected state official of the party in the state,” Coggins said. “It kind of reminds me how there were a number of folks, especially in the GOP, saying you have to condemn Trump. ... We have to do the same thing, too, and say as a party, ‘This does not represent us.’ ”

Nearly 600 people have signed complaint

The complaint had attracted nearly 600 signatories by Tuesday afternoon, though that total included unaffiliated voters.

A dozen Democratic lawmakers had signed on, as had a number of candidates and local officials. They included elected leaders from Denver, Thornton, Superior, Westminster, Edgewater, Adams County, Lakewood and elsewhere.

State Sen. Lisa Cutter, a Jefferson County Democrat and early signatory to the complaint, said Peters’ commutation sent “a really bad message, at a really bad time.”

Democrats, aside from Polis, lined up early to oppose any kind of clemency for Peters, including in a letter signed by every Democrat in the Legislature in March. The former clerk had become the face of election conspiracies and attempts to undermine voting systems, Cutter said. Cutter also noted that the judicial process still had not finished playing out for Peters.

She said that “every single Dem I’ve spoken to is mad about this.”

“There are certain things where (Polis) feels like he needs to override the will of the legislature, override the will of the party, override the judge that sentenced her,” Cutter said, while stressing that she didn’t personally dislike Polis and praising good things he’d done. “There’s a lot of hubris that is shocking.”

In the governor’s office statement Tuesday, Maruyama said Polis agreed with a recent Colorado Court of Appeals decision that found Peters’ speech had influenced the length of her initial sentence.

“One of the great things about the Democratic Party is that we are a big tent, and there is space to debate and disagree. No clemency decision should be granted only on whether it will be popular,” Maruyama wrote.

Still, by cutting out the judicial branch and waiting until after the legislature had adjourned its session, Polis was “just ignoring” the other two coequal branches of government, said Sen. Chris Kolker, a Centennial Democrat and another signatory.

“This was a pointed message to a lame duck governor, saying we don’t agree with this,” Kolker said.

The complaint, which was first reported by Colorado Public Radio, came days after Polis announced that he was commuting Peters’ sentence and that she would be released on parole early next month.

Peters’ attorneys plan further appeal

The former clerk has become a cause célèbre among right-wing Trump allies and election conspiracists, and the president had repeatedly pressured Polis to release her, including by taking actions against Colorado.

The two men also spoke about her sentence during a phone call last year, according to The New York Times.

Peters still plans to appeal the underlying convictions, her attorney Peter Ticktin said in an interview Tuesday. The deadline for her to file an appeal to the state Supreme Court is later this week.

Though Peters released a statement last week saying she was sorry, Ticktin said she wasn’t contrite.

“I don’t think that she was showing contrition for what happened,” Ticktin said. “I think she realizes that it was a mistake and things could’ve been handled in a better way.”

Peters may also be eligible for payment from the Trump administration, Vice President JD Vance suggested Tuesday.

He indicated that Peters should receive “some compensation” from a $1.77 billion fund established by the U.S. Department of Justice that seeks to provide settlements for people who suffered what the department described as “weaponization and lawfare.”

“Tina Peters is a person who’s about to get out of prison, thanks in large part to the president’s good work in Colorado,” Vance told reporters. “This is a woman who, at worst ... committed misdemeanor trespassing, and someone threw the book at her.”

Peters, who as clerk sought to give an outside party access to secure voting equipment, was convicted of multiple felonies, including three counts of attempting to influence a public servant. A jury also found her guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state.

Peters’ case was brought by state prosecutors, not by the Biden administration, which pursued prosecutions against people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol following Trump’s 2020 election loss.

Asked about Peters’ eligibility for a settlement, the White House referred comment to the Justice Department. Representatives for DOJ did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday.

Ticktin said he still needed to examine whether Peters was eligible for the settlement, as she wasn’t prosecuted by the Biden administration but rather, in his characterization, by a “globalist judge” in a “captured state.”

Polis had mulled pardoning Peters for months before the appellate decision came down. Starting last fall, other elected officials in the state came to believe that he would soon take action on her sentence, and the governor later repeatedly mused that her sentence was too harsh.

As required by law, his office consulted in January with the judge who sentenced Peters. In March, to assuage angry lawmakers, the governor’s office privately said he would wait out the appeals court before making a decision on Peters’ sentence.

Ultimately, that decision came two days after the Legislature adjourned for the year, effectively neutering Democratic lawmakers’ ability to formally respond to him — as they had privately discussed doing earlier in the year.

Two Democratic candidates in the spring primaries, congressional hopeful Melat Kiros and attorney general candidate David Seligman, have since called on the Legislature to reconvene to take action against Polis. The day after Polis’ announcement, someone also launched a website calling for his impeachment and directing people to call lawmakers.

But a special session is not likely, given the hurdle.

Short of a governor’s call, the Legislature can gather for a special session only if two-thirds of both the House and Senate support it. Reaching that threshold would require every Democrat in the Capitol to get on board, plus at least one Republican in each chamber.

Senate President James Coleman and House Speaker Julie McCluskie both declined to comment on the party complaint Tuesday. They earlier issued a statement opposing Polis’ commutation.

Still, lawmakers have made no secret of their displeasure with Polis, with many signing on to the complaint or releasing statements criticizing the governor last week. Some, like progressive Democratic Reps. Javier Mabrey and Jenny Willford, said Tuesday they wouldn’t attend bill-signing ceremonies with the governor in the coming weeks.

“The overwhelming public outcry we’ve seen is a testament to how poorly the governor has handled this,” Rep. Steven Woodrow, a Denver Democrat who signed the complaint, said in a text message. For his part, he said he would attend bill-signings with the governor.

“When our republic came under assault from a corrupt administration, he quickly folded,” Woodrow said. “People are justifiably outraged.”

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