While continuing as principal, she also served as an alderman on the Alice Springs Town Council from 1988 to 1994, and completed a Graduate Diploma in Public Sector Executive Management at the Northern Territory University.
She had some difficulty in winning pre-selection, at one point seeking the advice of soon-to-be Chief Minister Shane Stone, but eventually prevailed.
Braham served out a relatively uneventful first term as a backbencher, but when she attempted to recontest her seat at the 1997 election, she faced an unexpected preselection challenge from local policeman John Elferink.
When Stone faced a leadership crisis in February 1999 and subsequently resigned, it was widely rumoured that Braham's opposition had played a part in his downfall.
She found herself under attack over the state of public housing in the Territory, and struggled to deal with the substandard living conditions in many remote indigenous communities.
There were also some concerns hanging over her performance in central Australia, however, with the Alice Springs News once labelling her the "Minister for Official Openings", and suggesting that she was proving ineffective.
As a result, Elferink wrote a letter to the party's Central Council complaining about the situation, reportedly suggesting that Braham had used proxy votes to stack the Alice Springs branch pre-selection committee, and that five delegates, instead of being elected, had been appointed by Stuart branch president, MP aspirant and Braham staffer Tony Bohning.
[6] She left the question open for more than two months, until Burke set a deadline—unless Braham announced her intentions by 7 February 2001, she would be banned from the CLP party room.
[8] Though she no longer represented the Country Liberal Party, Braham remained an active strongly social conservative voice in the Assembly,[9] as was illustrated when she vocally opposed the holding of a gay and lesbian festival in Alice Springs.
[10] However, it was not long before she also broke with her old party and began taking issue with a number of their decisions, such as when she accused the government of neglecting Alice Springs over sports funding.
The eventual result was not as decisive, with Braham narrowly finishing second on first-preference votes of 34%, but she was easily elected on the preferences of the Labor Party.
[18][19] Braham's second stint as Speaker meant that although she was now an independent MP, she was still bound by convention to refrain from debate on most political issues and could not vote in the Assembly except in the extremely rare event of a tie.
[citation needed] Braham ran for another term in parliament at the 2005 election, facing the new endorsed CLP candidate, former councillor and local party figure Michael Jones.