Ethics probe spurred thoughts of bolting GOP, Bradford says

By Charles Ashby
Saturday, February 11, 2012

Rep. Laura Bradford’s statement to a Grand Junction television station Friday that she never considered leaving the Republican Party because of ethical questions GOP leaders had over her recent traffic stop is contrary to what she told several media outlets during the past week.

When confronted Saturday about the statement, Bradford said the station quoted her out of context.

“I didn’t know if I had a party that wanted me, and that is what was driving me to wonder, ‘Do I have a party that wants me?’ ” the Collbran Republican told The Daily Sentinel on Saturday. “That’s what drove me to think, ‘If I don’t have a party that wants me, and I can’t be effective, and I’m going to be neutered and diminished for my job and what I can do,’ yes, I was considering leaving the party during those hours when the whole thing turned political.”

In the television interview Friday, Bradford said an unknown reporter shouted a question down a hallway at her asking if she was keeping all of her options open.

“I turned, and I said, ‘Certainly,’ ” Bradford told KKCO. “They inferred that options meant party change. I never spoke the words that party change was on the table.”

But in numerous recorded and unrecorded interviews with The Daily Sentinel over the last week and a half, Bradford said several times that not only was she considering becoming an unaffiliated voter, she was considering becoming a Democrat, and she was considering resigning her seat.

Bradford repeated that threat to other media in the state, including the Denver Post, which also reported it has her making such statements in a recorded interview.

Earlier this month, Bradford said she was 95 percent certain of what she would do, but she needed more time to think about it.

In a Feb. 9 recorded interview with The Sentinel and The Associated Press, Bradford responded in the affirmative to two direct questions about whether leaving the party was something she was considering.

“That’s that last 5 percent,” she said at the time. “By making a change to any other thing obviously has significant ramifications on the length and future of my political career. I know that.”

Bradford now says she is not planning to leave the party and is seeking re-election for a third term in the Legislature. In January, she filed her intent to run in House District 54 with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.

Bradford’s threat to leave the party became a significant state issue because the GOP controls the 65-member House by a one-vote majority.

If she became unaffiliated, any House member could have called for a new leadership vote, toppling House Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, from the center podium. Such a call would have made Bradford the swing vote on who would be speaker and which party would control the chamber.

Bradford’s initial threat to leave the party came Feb. 9, a few days before a House Ethics Committee held its first meeting to investigate whether she was drunk when a Denver police officer pulled her over Jan. 25, and if she invoked a little-known legislative privilege that prevented police from detaining her long enough to see if her blood-alcohol level exceeded the legal limit.

Denver police initially said Bradford invoked the privilege, but later recanted and apologized to the Republican lawmaker in the process. Regardless, McNulty convened an ethics committee to investigate the matter, but that panel said Friday it had no evidence to show she had broken any legislative rules.

In the two weeks before that panel dismissed the ethics complaint, Bradford openly showed her anger at the party. She repeatedly said the ethics panel shouldn’t have been formed and complained about being treated poorly by members of her own party, including being suspended as chairwoman of the House Local Government Committee by McNulty.

On several occasions during that time, she rebuffed McNulty when he tried to speak with her, and she often was seen sitting on the Democratic side of the House chambers while other lawmakers debated bills.

In the Feb. 9 interview, Bradford also said the prospect of becoming an independent voter and allowing the Democrats and Republicans to share leadership was worth considering.

“I think that’s a great option,” Bradford said. “I think the citizens, not just in Colorado but everywhere … are fed up way past here with politics and politicians and the process. Maybe that is an option that allows this body to perform in a more nonpartisan or bipartisan way.”