State Sen. Greg Brophy Officially Running For Governor
PARKER, Colo. (CBS4) - State Sen. Greg Brophy held a rally on Sunday to announce that he is the latest Republican joining the race for governor.
Brophy said he's confident that he will be able to challenge Gov. John Hickenlooper, who had to deal with some difficult and divisive decisions the last legislative session.
Brophy told CBS4's Howard Nathan he was planning on getting out of politics in December but then came the last legislative session with a number of what he says are wrong moves by Hickenlooper, such as supporting gun control and costing rural farmers a higher electric bill; also taking $1 million a year away from rural classrooms. Brophy said the icing on the cake was Hickenlooper's non-death penalty decision on convicted mass murderer Nathan Dunlap.
"I have called that a gutless and shameless move. I mean it would have been a little more understandable if he had just done a straight commutation of the sentence instead of taking this middle route that leaves everybody hanging out there in the air," Brophy said. "That was wrong and the wrong way to handle that situation, of course. He should have just done the right thing. The courts had decided that he deserved the death penalty. The jury said so, the courts all said so. All the governor needed to do was sign off on it. That have would have been the right thing to do."
Brophy said he would have signed. He joins a Republican group that is starting to get crowded. Former U.S. Rep Tom Tancredo has announced that he running and Secretary of State Scott Gessler is also expected to announce his candidacy.
Brophy will be taking his campaign to Pueblo and Aspen on Monday.
The head of the Colorado Democratic Party issued a statement on Brophy's run saying, "If Republicans are trying to redefine themselves, they're not working very hard at it. So far, Tancredo, Gessler and Brophy bring more of the same, outdated and failed policies of the past that are too extreme for the average Coloradan."
