Douglas County Commissioner Lora Thomas, who will be term-limited on the county commission at the end of the year, has filed to run for House District 43, which includes Highlands Ranch.

Thomas’ name had been mentioned as one of several Republicans interested in running for the 4th Congressional District seat held by the retiring U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Windsor. 

No one else has filed to run for the HD43 seat, including the incumbent, Rep. Bob Marshall, who became the first Democrat to represent the northern Douglas County district when he won in 2022. The redistricting commission rated the district a plus 7.4% for Republicans in 2021. 

Thomas said Monday that “the people of Highlands Ranch have made it clear that when it comes to the issues that matter most to them — public safety, the continuous rise in the basic cost of living and determining the quality of their children’s education — Bob Marshall and the Democrats are failing them on all fronts.”

Thomas added that she’s been working to reduce property taxes for Douglas County residents and would continue to focus on that as a lawmaker.

Marshall told Colorado Politics that Thomas filing to run for the seat makes it “more likely” that he will run for a second term. Marshal said that, given her contentious history in elected office, both with the commission and county coroner, he does not think Thomas would contribute well to the environment in the state House.

Thomas has tangled with her fellow Douglas County commissioners, who she is suing to recoup nearly $6,000 legal expenses after they accused her of creating a hostile work environment while she was running for Douglas County sheriff in 2022. A third-party investigation cleared her of that accusation. 

The two commissioners, George Teal and Abe Laydon, then asked the county attorney to investigate Thomas for misconduct, which she was also cleared of. In 2023, Teal and Laydon then censured her and stripped her of her county credit cards so that she could not travel on county business.

Marshall has taken on changes to the state’s open meetings laws both before he was elected and since taking office in 2023.

He sued the Douglas County School Board for violations of the open meetings law, and the board was ordered last year to pay Marshall more than $100,000 in legal fees.

At the state Capitol, he teamed up with state Rep. Elisabeth Epps, D-Denver, accusing House members of violating the open meetings law in a number of ways, including the use of encrypted messaging apps. The lawsuit, filed against House leadership of both caucuses, was settled with a commitment from House lawmakers to stop using the apps and halt meeting in secret.

Marshall and Epps were both removed from the House Judiciary Committee by House Speaker Julie McCluskie, who cited discord on the committee as the reason. Marshall told Westword he felt he was being “disciplined” by leadership and cited colleagues as saying it appears to be “retaliation” for the lawsuit.” However, McCluskie said in a statement that the committee change was also to “guarantee” more “progressive” outcomes.

Marshall was one of seven House Democrats who voted against Senate Bill 23-303, the measure that became last year’s Proposition HH, the Democrats’ solution to soaring property taxes. Voters rejected the ballot measure, which Gov. Jared Polis championed, by 18 percentage points.

Marshall, however, voted for the property tax bill offering relief to homeowners that Democrats pushed for during the recent special session.