Station:   KNUS, 710 AM

Show:      Kelley & Company

Guests:    Brophy

Link:        http://kelleyco.podbean.com/

Date:       February 6, 2014

Topics:     Gubernatorial Primary Debates, Forums, The Denver Post, Tom Tancredo, Secretary of State Scott Gessler, Trackers, Budget, Term limits, Ethics Complaint, Ethics Commission, Secretary of State Office Budget, Bail Out, Gun Control,

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HOST STEVE KELLEY:  Good afternoon!

STATE SENATOR & GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE GREG BROPHY:  Hey, Steve.

KELLEY:  Sorry to make you wait.  We just had to, you know, get through the rundown there, we’ve got a great show lined up.  I hope you can stay tuned for a while.  But–.  [laughs]

BROPHY:  You know, I’ve got to go in and sit in Ag Committee and talk about water, here, in about 15 minutes.  But it sounds like your discussion of the former president [Bill Clinton] and Elizabeth Hurley could be interesting..

KELLEY:  Has that captivated you at all on any level?  I mean, now we all know of Bill Clinton’s history, but now Tom Sizemore is mysteriously backing away from this.  Is this the Clinton machine?  Is this covering his career?  What’s your sense?

BROPHY:  Yeah, I don’t know.  Why don’t we let sleeping dogs lie, and start working on the things that matter to people today, here.

KELLEY:  We can’t do that!  This is talk radio, Greg.  Listen, okay, let’s talk specifically because we’ll get you on to your Ag meeting and so forth.  By the way, I’m looking at your website.  Is that you on the bike, out there?

BROPHY:  Yes!

KELLEY:  Wow.

BROPHY:  I’m an avid – I am, like, all-Colorado. I am a gun-toting, bicycle riding, Prius-driving farmer.And I think the people across Colorado –.

KELLEY:  Wait a minute!  [facetiously] Prius driving!  Hold on!  This interview could be over.  He’s driving a Prius!  No, I’m totally kidding!

BROPHY:  [laughs] I have a Prius.  I have a big, giant pickup, a couple of—well, three giant tractors.  I’m uh, like I said, I’m all-Colorado.

KELLEY:  You actually still farm some of the land out there in Wray.  Is that right?

BROPHY:  Corn and melons, and I’ve got some wheat growing right now. It likes this moisture.   Hopefully, it’s under a bed of snow so the cold isn’t hurting it.  Just trying to make a living.

KELLEY:  Yeah, well, we’ll be happy to accept an invitation to pheasant hunt sometime, out on your land, maybe.

BROPHY:  One of these days.

KELLEY:  All right.

CO-HOST BILL ROGAN:  Greg, this is Bill.  Do you have any plans on campaigning on your bicycle?

BROPHY:  Absolutely.  The day after I win the Republican primary I am going to embark on a state-wide bicycle ride, and I am just going to shock everybody in Colorado.  “The Republican candidate is doing what?

KELLEY:  I love it.  We love that idea.  I remember way back in the day, uh, Governor [Dick] Lamm I think, walked across the state, or something.  This is — Hey! This is 2014.  And it looks like a beautiful bike you’ve got there.  To the primary–.  [interrupting] Yeah, go ahead.

BROPHY:  I am an avid cyclist, and I have a very nice carbon fiber bike and love to ride that thing, although I haven’t seen it in about three weeks now.

KELLEY:  I see.  To the primary, though.  Um,–.

BROPHY:  Yes.

KELLEY:  The fact is you’re being quite critical – we had Senator—excuse me.  We had Secretary of State Gessler on yesterday.  We’ve had Tom Tancredo on.  We try to have everybody on. I think this is your second time with us here.  Now, you are being critical – you’re on record on being critical of both Tancredo and Gessler for not being willing to debate in a primary setting.  Talk about that.

BROPHY:  Yeah, well, I think that Republican voters deserve to hear from their candidates in that kind of a setting.  It lets the people know, Steve, that we understand the issues of today and actually have solutions for those issues.  And it lets people hear us defend our record, talk about the things we’ve stood for in the past, what our plans for the future are.  And believe me, if Secretary Gessler thinks that the Democrats are going to give him a pass on his budget problems with his office, or his ethic problems with his office, he’s fooling himself!  So he might as well get ready to defend that now, in front of everybody.  The same goes for Tom Tancredo.  If he thinks that the Democrats aren’t going to bring up your record in the fall, you’re fooling yourself!  You might as well start talking about these things now, get good at it, tell people that you know what it is you stand for, and you stand by the things that you’ve done, or that you’d do something differently, if you had it to do over again.  And make your case to the voters of Colorado.  I think they deserve that.

KELLEY:  But the argument they’re putting forth– and it’s reasonable, given especially what happened last time, is this idea of self-inflicted wounds, that the left, or Hickenlooper in this case – your opponent, ultimately, is going to lift out and use as ammunition anything that comes out of these primaries.

BROPHY:  Well, none of the self-inflicted wounds came out debates.  They came out of filming of trackers, of — and people asking questions of the candidates, and the candidates not being able to answer them in a way that resonated with the people of Colorado.

KELLEY:  Well, I would say – I would jump in — I would only say, Senator, just Bob Beauprez suffered a little bit of a sling or an arrow – whatever you want to say – the idea of “Both Ways Bob”—that came out of a primary and was used heavily against him.

BROPHY:  Yeah, and apparently he didn’t have the ability to respond to that.  Again, if you thing the Democrats are going to give any of us a pass come September, you’re fooling yourself.  So we might as well get ready to talk about the things that we believe in, the things that we have done, our history, our plans for the future.  We’ve got to start practicing it now, because that’s now you get good at this stuff.  So, the guys that aren’t willing to debate are either afraid to stand up for their record, number one.  Or, number two, they’re not prepared to discuss the issues and the potential solutions for those issues at this time, and you know what?  It’s time to do that, because the people of Colorado are going to start deciding here, real soon, who the candidate for governor is going to be on the Republican side.

KELLEY:   This Quinnipiac poll that came out here,– I think, frankly, it’s a little premature but at the same time0, I don’t like the headline, either.  “Governor Hickenlooper with a – holding a comfortable lead over GOP challengers in the governor’s race.”  Well, that’s because we don’t know who his direct opponent will it be.  Will it be Greg Brophy?  And you’re, in this poll, ten percentage points behind.  You’ve got six percentage points behind the Governor for Scott Gessler, and Tom Tancredo is about seven or eight – or nine, actually.  Go ahead.

BROPHY:  Yeah, and PPP [Pew poll] had me absolutely tied with the Governor, and they’ve been more accurate in the past than other polls. But, once we zero in on the race between Governor Hickenlooper and whoever the Republican candidate is, it will actually start to matter what the polls say.  Because right now, with so many people in the race, and a  poll of just registered voters and not likely voters, I don’t think you learn a lot from that.  What you learn from that is that, my numbers, over the course of what, now—nine months of Quinnipiac polling – have stayed very flat.  So, I’m not going up or down in their eyes.  Tom Tancredo’s numbers are actually going down in Quinnipiac’s polling, so his trend is in the wrong direction.  That’s not surprising to me.  I’ve been on – I think I’ve been on your show before saying I, you know, I like the guy a lot.  I appreciate his service.  I just don’t think he can win a general election in the state of Colorado in 2014.  And I think I can.  And I think that I can appeal to the middle voters of Colorado. But first, I want to, on the same stage with everybody else, appeal to the Republican voters, and talk about my plan for Colorado, about my background and my history, and ask for their support, with everybody else on the stage so they can see the differences between us, see how we interact with each other, see how we respond to tough questions.  I’m ready for that.  I wish the other guys were.

KELLEY:  Who, um,– who do you want to go after most to – I’m not going to say ‘discredit’.   Who do you want to challenge?  Let’s put it that way.  Who do you want to challenge most, of those five other guys out there?

BROPHY:  Well, I think we need to ask and have the hard questions answered by Tom Tancredo.  Why did you vote for gun control back in 1999?  Why did you break your term limits pledge? What makes us think that we can trust you now?  Why do you think you can win a general election in Colorado?  Secretary Gessler, explain to us how it is that you need to have your budget bailed out by the state of Colorado, when every other Secretary of State in the history of Colorado has balanced their budget successfully as Secretary of State.  Explain to us how improper use of office resources for personal political gain was okay back in 2012, when the Ethics Commission found 5-0 against you and ultimately you paid the money back.  You’re going to have to answer–.

KELLEY:  Folks we’re having a one-way debate right here!  This is—this is–.

BROPHY:  You’re—you are going to have to answer these questions—

KELLEY:  Sure.

BROPHY:  –sometime.  I would rather that you answer them successfully in March than not answer them successfully in September and give us four more years of John Hickenlooper.

KELLEY:  Ah, okay.  This is very interesting.  Why – let’s turn the question on yourself.  What are you asking yourself?  Uh, I know that sounds like an odd question.  But, if you were to ask these questions of these other candidates, where do you think your weak spot is?  Or do you have a weak spot? And where do you think you need to shore up?

BROPHY:  You know, I need to be able to talk with Republican voters about, you know, my record as a legislator, why I am to the right of center but not the furthest to the right of everybody in the caucus.  Perhaps talk to people about how I can appeal to people outside of rural Colorado, not just my base which is strong in the rural part of the state.  How it is that a guy who has promoted cycling is the appropriate person to be the Republican standard bearer in the state of Colorado.  What have you done on education?—things along those lines.  I’d love to talk about my record in all of those cases.  And like everybody – for crying out loud, even John Elway and Peyton Manning occasionally throw an interception so I’ve got to be able to talk about the mistakes I’ve made.

KELLEY:  Tough question, well fielded!  I can see why you’d want to debate, Senator Brophy.  Listen, we’re almost out of time.  Back to the – real quick, final question, back to this poll, this Quinnipiac poll, which, you know, you seem to not be that jazzed about, it does have Coloradoans now in favor of teachers carrying guns, or staff members in schools carrying guns.  Where do you stand on that?

BROPHY:  Which is what I’ve been saying for years, that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is for good guys to have a gun.  And I think we should allow our teachers to get training for tactical response if that’s what they want to do and they’re prepared to do, I think that’s a great idea!  The other thing that I really liked out of that poll, is that Governor Hickenlooper is upside-down amongst unaffiliated voters.  And that’s where this whole thing is going to be settled.

KELLEY:  Yeah.

BROPHY:  So, the question is, can I appeal to unaffiliated voters in the State of Colorado?  I believe that I can.

KELLEY:  State Senator Greg Brophy, back to work, there, under the big gold dome, and also your work out there on the campaign trail, running for governor.  Thanks for your time!

BROPHY:  Thanks for having me, Steve.