Doug Bruce, the author of Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, is considering joining the Republican primary for the 5th Congressional District seat held by retiring U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn.

“I am strongly leaning toward becoming a candidate,” Bruce, a former state lawmaker from Colorado Springs and El Paso County commissioner, told Colorado Politics.

The anti-tax advocate said he plans to decide within weeks whether to jump in a primary field that has swelled since Lamborn’s surprising announcement last month that he would not seek a 10th term in Congress.

“I think if I ran, I would be the best candidate,” Bruce said. “I was a big fan of Doug Lamborn, and I think one Doug deserves another.”

An enduring and polarizing voice in state politics for decades, Bruce wrote and promoted 1992’s voter-approved TABOR amendment, which sets limits on government revenue and requires votes for most tax increases. He was censured in 2008 by the state House for kicking a press photographer at the Capitol and served 104 days in jail following a 2012 convictions on charges of felony tax evasion, filing a false tax return and trying to influence a public servant. He served 180 days in 2016 after he was found guilty of violating his probation. Bruce maintains his innocence.

Bruce said he’s long admired Lamborn — he was on hand to celebrate Lamborn’s 2006 win in a six-way GOP primary — and thinks the lawmaker has “a solid voting record.”

“There are three plausible candidates and one fellow I’ve never heard of,” Bruce said, referring to Republicans who have launched campaigns for the seat. “Let’s just say on a positive note I have a different view of the office of congressman.”

Declared GOP candidates in the Republican-leaning district, which nearly coincides with El Paso County, include Colorado Republican Party Chairman and former state Rep. Dave Williams, state Sen. Bob Gardner, podcaster and former Americans for Prosperity state director Jeff Crank, and first-time candidate Justin Griffin.

“My view is, frankly, I think our country is in big trouble,” Bruce said. “I’m a trumpet — some of these other people may be lukewarm trumpets — and I don’t like saying it, but if we don’t elect Trump, things are going to get a lot worse in the next four years under Biden.”

Bruce said that as a student of American history and presidential administrations, he regretfully considers Biden “the worst president ever.”

“I am ashamed of what his administration has done to torture Donald Trump, and I think we’ve got to do better,” Bruce added, noting that his experience as a prosecutor leads him to believe the raft of charges faced by the former president are “contrived.”

“They’re all crap, to be mild about it,” he said.

Added Bruce: “I have never read or received or sent a tweet. I don’t care about trivial stuff like that. I look at the policy that actually happened. We didn’t have problems with inflation, we didn’t have the government saying we wouldn’t produce oil.”

Bruce said he’s particularly rankled by the Biden administration’s border policy.

“I never imagined we would have a president who would open the border and say, ‘Come in,'” he said. “We can’t get the Congress to do what needs to be done, which is to reinstate the border policy of Donald Trump, who I think had a very good first term.”

As for his potential primary opponents, Bruce said he wasn’t going to “spend a lot of time talking about phantom opponents that may or may not surface.”

Referring to Crank, who lost primary bids for the congressional nomination to Lamborn in 2006 and 2008, Bruce said, “One fellow has been wanting to be a congressman for 20 years — 20 years. I admire his persistence and his dedication, but he’s lost twice already. I’m not going to say anything against him. I’m sure he and I would agree on a majority of issues.”

Surveying the field of potential rivals, Bruce said, “I don’t know anyone whose name has been mentioned I would not support, but I would like to be that person, myself, because I think our country is teetering on the edge of not exactly collapse, but on the verge of national insanity.”

Colorado’s congressional primary is June 25. Candidates have until mid-March to initiate candidacies.

Williams, the state GOP chairman, suggested in a text message to Colorado Politics that Bruce’s run could be rocky.

“Like myself, it would be great to have another Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights champion in the race to highlight our leadership on defending taxpayers, but hopefully tax-hikers like Jeff Crank won’t make Douglas’ felony conviction or prison sentence an issue in this campaign,” Williams said.

“I feel I should be involved, take a stand,” Bruce said. “If people think my common-sense, conservative views are what they’re looking for, then they’ll vote for me.”