Republican Attorney General Cynthia Coffman hates traffic.

At least that’s what she told an audience at the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council meeting in Denver on Wednesday.

Coffman, who is considering a run for governor, was feeling “disheveled” after spending nearly an hour trying to get into the downtown Denver hotel where the meeting was taking place. Protests surrounding the event added to traffic that was already bad due to construction surrounding the Colorado Convention Center.

At one point Coffman and her entourage came to a stop on the light rail tracks near the Convention Center.

“There was this one construction worker clearly not having a good day and he was yelling at the three of us girls in our Dodge Durango,” recalled Coffman.

A construction worker began “gesturing” at Coffman and her company, and as the attorney general pointed out, “I almost ‘gestured’ back, and then I decided to take the mature tact and I rolled down my window and started yelling back,” she said sarcastically.

“I said, ‘You know, if you want us to know where to go, you have to give us better directions.'”

Coffman acknowledged that it was a “temperamental outburst not very becoming of a public official.” She was especially upset with herself given the protesters surrounding her car and the many people with cameras in their hands.

“Maybe I’m more stressed than I realize,” Coffman told the ALEC audience, which was sitting at luncheon tables following their meal. “Maybe the current level of tension in our country is getting to me.”

Coffman used the story to support ALEC, which she believes is offering guidance in an effort to ease rhetoric in the name of thoughtful policy. But judging by the mob of protesters surrounding the event, it doesn’t appear that ALEC’s policy work is doing much to bridge divides.

Still, Coffman believes ALEC is much like a construction worker that gives good directions.

“ALEC offers something that is rare and something that is extremely valuable to us as we govern,” she said. “ALEC doesn’t tell conservative legislators what to do … certainly not our Colorado delegation.

“What ALEC does is help with research, with experts, with court-tested language, and with the development of ideas, and we are grateful.”