Newly re-elected Northglenn Mayor Meredith Leighty called out one of her mayoral opponents this week for describing himself as “the George Floyd of Northglenn.” During the city council’s Nov. 13 meeting, Leighty called Mark Bromley’s repeated assertion horrific and inappropriate.
Bromley, a lifelong Northglenn resident, challenged Leighty for her seat in the November election, along with Northglenn City Councilor Tim Long. Leighty easily regained her seat, securing about 62 percent of the votes cast. Bromley got support from about 16 percent of the voters.
Leading up to the election, Bromley criticized the city’s leadership, saying resources were “misspent and misdirected,” with too much spent on parties and festivities. He also repeatedly referred to himself as the city’s “George Floyd,” often not providing further context for the statement.
George Floyd was a Black man murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, in May of 2020.
Leighty said she was inspired to speak out about Bromley’s assertions about Floyd during a recent business trip to Alabama. As the principal of Lakewood’s Belmar School of Integrated Arts, she attended the Arts School Network’s October conference in Birmingham. The conference was entitled, “Teaching Anti-Racism and Equity through the Arts.”
“It was a powerful experience,” she said. “But what I really left with was that my silence is tolerance.
“We have a resident who says he is the George Floyd of Northglenn. And that is wrong; it’s absolutely wrong. It’s horrific and none of us have called him out on it. Mark Bromley is a white man who lives in Northglenn. He is not the George Floyd of Northglenn and it’s offensive that he says it. I’m done. And I realize I should have said it a long time ago.”
Bromley was not at the meeting, but was commenting in a live meeting chat box.
“It’s true. You have attacked me in many ways. Just like George Floyd,” he wrote after Leighty’s comments. “What Leighty did just a moment ago is another attack on this George Floyd of Northglenn. Skin color doesn’t matter. Many people because of their poverty get attacked. Bullies and Nazis all flock together.”
Bromley, a writer and owner of MPB Enterprises who claims he served in the U.S. Navy, has run for various offices in the past. He recently announced he’ll run for a state House seat in 2024.
2023 was his second attempt at gaining the mayor’s seat. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for Northglenn mayor against Leighty in 2019. In 2020, the then-Republican ran for State House District 34, which covers Northglenn and a portion of Thornton.
While he defeated an opponent in the June 2020 primary, a Colorado Politics article reported that the HD 34 Republican Central Committee later announced it would not support Bromley. It cited his threats against fellow Republicans and other candidates, and his “abject failure to exhibit beliefs that are consistent with the Republican platform, along with his indecent means of doing so.”
Bromley lost to Democratic Rep. Kyle Mullica of Northglenn in the November 2020 general election, securing about 39% of the vote.
Since his Northglenn mayoral defeat, Bromley has changed his political party to “unaffiliated” and again registered as a November 2024 candidate for the HD 34 seat. Democrat and former Northglenn Mayor Pro Tem Jenny Willford currently holds that post.
In a recent Facebook post, Bromley said the Adams County Republican platform “has let me down and betrayed my trust,” prompting his switch to unaffiliated status.