State Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, is a gun-toting, Prius-driving, conservative cyclist who wants to be your next governor.
Brophy is one of several Republicans hoping to unseat Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper in November. He was in Durango on Thursday attending the La Plata County Republican Assembly. He’s counting on rural areas outside the Denver-metro area to give him needed delegate support at the State Assembly on April 12. The county assembly picks delegates to the state meeting.
Brophy said he plans to pull ahead by working harder than anyone else. Candidates who earn 30 percent of delegate votes at the state assembly automatically get on the ballot, but he still expects a June primary contest.
He spends a lot of time calling delegates and pitching himself as the answer to Colorado’s problems. Brophy’s top issues are public safety, education and transportation.
In a crowd of conservatives, Brophy differentiates himself by being the only one from outside the Denver area. He’s traveling the far-flung corners of the state, asking for support.
“The people in the rest of the state, the part that I’m from, kind of want a governor that cares about them,” he said. “
Brophy called the State Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee’s decision not to fund Fort Lewis College’s science building reconstruction an example of strong-arming by Hickenlooper. The governor has promised to cut wait times at Department of Motor Vehicle offices statewide, along with other information technology projects.
Brophy criticized Hickenlooper’s decision to keep K-12 school district funding slightly down while enrollment has increased. About $1 billion in school funding has been cut since the start of the economic downturn. Brophy said he’ll fund schools by reforming entitlements, especially Medicaid.
Colorado expanded Medicaid health insurance as part of the Affordable Care Act. The federal government pays 90 percent of the costs for three years, and then it goes to a 50-50 percent match with the state.
“So if you want to know where all of your money’s going and why the schools aren’t getting it, that’s why,” he said. “Gov. Hickenlooper and the Democrats in Denver decided to spend that money on Obamacare.”
He’s opposed to common core, a national standards-based educational reform, and favors individual school boards running the show locally.
“It occurs to me then that centralized planning from Denver isn’t any better,” he said. “I actually trust the locally elected school board that represents the community to do that.”
The only other place to get education funding is from public safety – courts and prisons – something Brophy opposes.
“There are hardly any folks in prison that I want out walking around with my daughters,” he said.
Brophy has worked in the state Legislature since 2002. He’s been married for 23 years and has three children.
smueller@durangoherald.com
