Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jack Graham was registered as a Democrat until January 2015, his campaign manager confirmed Monday, but he also pointed out that it isn’t at all unusual for a former Democrat to be elected as a Republican senator from Colorado.

“There’s a guy named Cory Gardner, who was a Democrat when he went to CSU,” Dick Wadhams, Graham’s campaign manager, told The Colorado Statesman, adding that a young Gardner even helped nominate a Democratic congressional candidate at assembly before switching parties.

Gardner changed his registration to Republican in 2000, after having been a Democrat for eight years, voter registration records show. In 1998, Gardner seconded the nomination for former Fort Collins Mayor Susan Kirkpatrick, who was running for the 4th Congressional District seat that Gardner won in 2010, when he defeated former U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey. The Yuma Republican was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014.

“There’s another Republican senator who not only was a Democrat, but he had been elected to the Legislature and to Congress and to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat before he was elected to the Senate as a Republican,” Wadhams continued, barely suppressing his mirth. “That’s Ben Nighthorse Campbell.”

Campbell was elected as a Democrat to the Legislature in 1982 and then went on to serve three terms in Congress and win election to the Senate in 1992 before switching parties in 1995. He was re-elected as a Republican in 1998.

“Ben Campbell and Cory Gardner are prime examples of people who were Democrats early in life and decided to become Republicans and then they were elected to the Senate,” Wadhams said.

Graham, a former athletic director for CSU, deposited $1 million into his campaign account when he launched his bid for the Senate seat held by Democrat Michael Bennet last week.

Other Republicans seeking the Senate nomination include state Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, former state Rep. Jon Keyser, R-Morrison, former Aurora Councilman Ryan Frazier, El Paso County Commissioner Peg Littleton, Jefferson County Commissioner Donald Rosier, Colorado Springs business consultant Robert Blaha, tea party activist Charlie Ehler, Hispanic business leader Jerry Natividad and El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn. The primary is June 28.

Wadhams said Graham grew up in a Democratic family in San Francisco and, although he “was never politically involved,” stayed registered as a Democrat “by family tradition.”

Graham’s Democratic past was first reported by The Denver Post’s The Spot blog on Monday morning.

“He always voted Republican, and he never was involved in the Democratic Party,” Wadhams said. “He decided to switch a year ago, in January 2015, to reflect how he actually was voting.”

Colorado has a tradition of electing both Republican and Democratic senators who used to belong to the other party. In 1972, state voters elected Democrat Floyd Haskell to the U.S. Senate, just two years after the former member of the Legislature’s Republican leadership left the GOP because of differences over the Vietnam War.

“There are now 13 candidates (and counting) in the country’s most crowded Republican primary, and as they spend the next five months attacking each other, Michael Bennet will continue to work with both political parties to take on Washington dysfunction and get things done for Colorado,” Colorado Democratic Party spokesman Andrew Zucker told The Statesman.

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com