A former Republican lawmaker who gave up his Senate seat to serve in Gov. John Hickenlooper’s cabinet announced Wednesday he’s running for his old office as an independent.

Former state Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, is challenging state Sen. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs, who unseated White’s wife, former state Sen. Jean White, in a brutal and divisive primary. Democrat Emily Tracy, who lost to Baumgardner in 2012, is also running in Senate District 8, which covers much of northwestern Colorado.

“It is time we all look past party labels and ideologies,” White said in his announcement. “Instead of being forced by partisan leadership to vote in lock step with a specific party, our district deserves a senator that will vote on each bill based solely on its merit.”

White was first elected as a Republican to the state House in 2000 and then won the Senate seat in 2008. He resigned in late 2010 to work as director of the Colorado Tourism Office under Hickenlooper, a Democrat, and a vacancy committee appointed his wife, Jean, to serve out his term. He left the tourism post last year.

White acknowledged it would be tough race without party backing in an interview with The Colorado Statesman but contended that he has a base of support in the district that remembers his decade in office. In addition, he said, his work in the tourism industry — the Whites have operated ski shops and a mountain lodge over the years and he’s being inducted into the Tourism Hall of Fame next week — gives him another base in the district.

Colorado voters have never elected an unaffiliated voter to the General Assembly, but White said he believes this is the year they could do it.

“I think the electorate is ready to try something other than major party politics,” he said, “to elect someone accountable to everybody but beholden to nobody.”

He said his experience pushing back against party discipline in the Legislature is one reason he decided to run as an independent and suggested that’s also a reason the district’s voters might back him.

“I’ve seen it in the Legislature when party members were threatened — ‘If you don’t vote this way or that way, I guarantee you a primary.’ I will be immune to such threats as an independent voter,” White said. “Party members from both parties are fed up with those sort of antics.” He added that the campaigns of presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders — “though I don’t side with either of them,” he noted — have pointed out that voters are restless and frustrated with partisan business as usual.

“The electorate across the country has gotten disappointed over the years with the gridlock that’s taken place in Washington and, frankly, at the state level,” White said. “The biggest disappointment I had (in the Legislature) was the expectation to toe the party line, as opposed to vote for the best policy. An independently elected member will have the ability to vote the right way.”

Asked whether he planned to caucus with one party or the other if he wins the seat, White said it was “way too soon” to put much thought into it but warned that the tenor of the campaign could sway his decision.

“Ultimately, I’d have to caucus with one camp or the other,” he said. “We’ve got a fairly ugly record of nasty campaigns for this seat. We’ll see if we can have a reasonable campaign with all parties talking about issues. If one party attacks me more fiercely than another, that’ll be a consideration.”

Tracy, a college instructor and child advocate who lives in Breckenridge, said “there’s plenty of room for three candidates” in the diverse, sprawling district, which covers seven counties.

She also pointed out that Republicans have lost ground in voter registration since she lost to Baumgardner, going from just over 40 percent of active voters to around 35 percent since 2012.

“This shift represents an opportunity for a candidate like myself, a moderate, common-sense person who understands rural issues and knows how to bring diverse points of view together,” Tracy said. “We need new representation in Senate District 8, not the current Republican or a Republican who has temporarily removed his label.”

Baumgardner didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on White’s candidacy.

In 2012, Baumgardner won the seat with 34,187 votes to Tracy’s 29,688 and Libertarian Party candidate Sacha Weis’s 3,079 votes. Baumgardner’s share of the vote was 51 percent, Tracy’s was 44.3 percent and Weis’s was 4.6 percent.

In order to make the November ballot, White will have to turn in 1,000 valid signatures from registered voters in the district by July 14.

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com