[1] He spent most of his professional career within the Colorado Department of Transportation in many roles, including highway engineer, a management consultant, auditor, and legislative liaison.

[17] After his election, Vaad named transportation, public safety, and economic security his top legislative goals.

[20] Vaad sponsored only two bills during the 2007 session, both of them concerning disclosure of confidential information (insurance records and employee salaries) by government entities.

[21] During the session, Vaad crossed party lines to support a controversial tax freeze proposed by Democrats to expand education funding.

[26] In the 2008 legislative session, Vaad planned, as part of a package of transportation legislation proposed by Republicans, to introduce a bill to turn over responsibility for state highways within city limits to each municipality,[27] and to give cities a greater share of state transportation funds.

[34] Another bill to be introduced by Vaad would prohibit money from Colorado's College Opportunity Fund for being used for remedial university coursework.

[43] Vaad's re-election bid was endorsed by the Greeley Tribune,[45] the Denver Post,[46] and the Longmont Times-Call,[47] and the Windsor Beacon.

[55] In October 2009, after learning that the Colorado Department of Corrections planned on leaving a newly constructed maximum security prison in Cañon City unused due to state budget cuts, Vaad proposed selling the facility to a private prison operator, and planned on offering legislation during the 2010 session to accomplish this.

[56][57] Vaad also planned on sponsoring legislation in 2010 to establish a "priority-based budgeting system" for the state of Colorado,[57][58] and also legislation to have a private firm perform a "contingency recovery" audit of state spending, in which a fraction of the savings found by the audit would be awarded to the company performing it.

[57] In October 2009, Vaad announced his intention to seek a third term as a state representative in the November 2010 legislative elections; he identified his "priority-based budgeting" proposal as a centerpiece of his campaign.