Arizona state Rep. Daniel Patterson took to a Phoenix radio station on Wednesday night to defend his angry outbursts in the statehouse, which have reportedly made one of his colleagues so afraid of him that she has taken to sleeping with a weapon at her bedside.
Patterson, who left the Democratic Party this week to become an independent amid a barrage of ethics allegations against him, admitted to KFYI’s Mike Broomhead that he gets pretty angry sometimes. But he insisted it’s nothing his fellow lawmakers should fear.
“Voters have a right to decide if they want to elect somebody that represents them at the Capitol who may take a strong stance, who may be a little bit more aggressive,” Patterson said. “And there’s probably been a few times at the Capitol where maybe I’ve pushed it a little bit too hard. But simply having a strong approach is not unethical and it’s not illegal and it’s nothing I would ever resign for or should be expelled from the House for.”
Patterson’s response comes as the state House of Representatives considers throwing him out of office after an ethics report released this week detailed a number of major allegations, including that he once offered to trade his vote for sex with a lobbyist. TPM detailed many of those allegations in a story on Wednesday.
Listen to the whole interview below. Patterson defends his outbursts at the 10:25 mark.
