COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A bipartisan committee looking into the infamous "kick" in the Capitol is recommending that Rep. Douglas Bruce be censured for kicking a newspaper photographer during a morning prayer service earlier this week.

The wording of the censure is still being worked on but the committee is also asking for Bruce to make a formal apology. Speaker Andrew Romanoff will consider the committee's recommendation, and will ultimately decide what action the House would take.

Bruce, a Colorado Springs Republican representative, walked out of the committe hearing Friday without issuing a comment to reporters.

The kick, which Bruce had described as a nudge, occurred on the floor of the House on Monday morning, before Bruce was even sworn in. Bruce is a midterm appointee who was not sworn in until several hours after the kicking incident.

The freshman legislator said he wants the photographer to apologize for taking his photo when he was asked not to. The Rocky Mountain News photographer had full access to the House floor at the time and photographers are allowed to photograph anything they want on the floor.

Bruce said the photographer goaded him and was at fault for creating a disruption. Bruce told lawmakers on Friday he was trying to preserve "order and decorum" in the House.

A panel of three Republicans and three Democrats was formed to investigate the incident and make recommendations to Romanoff, a Democrat.

The vote to recommend censure was unanimous. The vote on the apology was 5-to-1, with some lawmakers expressing doubt about requiring Bruce to apologize when he doesn't think he did anything wrong.

Bruce was defiant before the panel, saying the "paparazzi" were hounding him.

"I categorically state I did not violate the order and decorum of the House," he said.

Meanwhile, the El Paso County GOP on Thursday denounced a letter in which Bruce criticized a candidate who was hoping to replace him on the county commission. Bruce gave up his commission seat after being named to replace state Rep. Bill Cadman in the Legislature.

In a letter to members of a county committee that will vote Saturday on filling the vacant commission seat, Bruce accused candidate Amy Lathen of lying and flip-flopping.

"Do you want a two-faced commissioner who takes both sides of issues?" Bruce wrote. "Not me ... Maybe she learned her 'Both Ways Amy' technique at the politician-training school she admits attending."

Bruce could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.

In an article printed in August in the Colorado Springs Independent, Lathen was quoted as saying that if elected, she would vote in favor of putting a tax-increase measure on the ballot.

Bruce wrote that Lathen later said she would never vote in favor of a tax increase.

"He is distorting this issue completely and lying about what I said," Lathen told The Gazette on Thursday.

Lathen said she would vote for a ballot issue since citizens can't petition to put county issues on the ballot but that she would never vote for a tax increase itself.

"The statements in the letter personally and recklessly attacking Amy Lathen are not accurate and truthful," the El Paso County Republican Party said. It said Bruce's letter conflicts with its year-old ethical campaigning policy that calls for honesty, integrity and respect.

The other candidates for commissioner are Ken Bull and Michael Burton, both of whom declined county GOP officials' request to sign letters denouncing Bruce's letter.

"I don't speak for Doug Bruce," Bull told The Gazette. "I don't have any idea what he had in mind in writing that letter."

"I don't have firsthand knowledge of either side of the issue," Burton said. "It is just hearsay. I'm not going to touch that with a 10-foot pole."