Rep. Green announces she will resign in June
State Rep. Gwyn Green
LAKEWOOD – State Rep. Gywn Green Monday told her House colleagues she will resign her District 23 seat effective June 1, forgoing the last 18 months of her third term.
Green, a Democrat who has championed children’s issues in the House, said she is leaving because of health issues and to spend more time with her grandchildren.
“It is time to leave you and let someone who has the health and the stamina fill this seat, such an important seat for my district” Green told her colleagues in the House as announced her decision from the House floor.
“Now, though I will miss you, I will be able to attend my grandchildren’s awards ceremonies, attend their sports, see their plays and spend more time with them, with my children and with my husband.”
Green’s district encompasses a swath of north Lakewood from Sheridan Boulevard to Youngfield Street and stretches into Golden.
She championed children’s safety issues, health care and education issues in her four and a half years in the state legislature.
She first was elected to the legislature in 2004, defeating Republican challenger Ramey Johnson by a scant 41 votes. Green and Johnson went toe-to-toe again in 2006 and Green won by a wider margin in a pivotal election that widened the Democrats hold on the state legislature.
Green was re-elected last November, easily out-polling Republican Mary Lynn Wagner with 56 percent of the vote after campaigning as “Fightin’ Granny Green”.
In her years at the legislature, Green sponsored a bill to have courts evaluate sexual predators to determine whether the offenders present a danger to the community. She also sponsored bills to increase funding for services for victims of crime, and another to hold insurance companies accountable for 100 percent restitution if they unfairly deny coverage.
“I have fought hard for those who need it most,” Green said.
The Colorado Public Health Association, The National Association of Social Work and the Colorado Society of Clinical Social Workers all have honored Green with their Legislator of the Year awards.
The former Golden City Councilwoman has served as an alternate board member of the Denver Regional Council of Governments and as a representative to DRCoG’s Commission on Aging. She also was a founding member of Communities for Transportation Solutions. She has served as a board member of Citizens Involved in the Northwest Quadrant to Protect Our Local Heritage, the National Association of Social Workers Aging-Issues and Health-Issues committees.
Green, who has lived in Lakewood and Golden for 40 years, worked as a medical social worker at Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital in Denver.
” It truly breaks my heart to leave you,” Green told fellow House members. “I will miss you, I will laugh at my memories, I will carry you in my heart.”
A vacancy committee will be convened by the Democratic Party to find a replacement.
