October 9, 2014 VOLU M E 31 | I SS UE 1 5 | 5 0 ¢
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Governor sticks with different drum
Hickenlooper says unusual approach isn’t indecision By Vic Vela
‘I sit there and look back over the past four years (and) I think during all the significant issues, I think we made the right decisions.’
vvela@colorado communitymedia.com John Hickenlooper doesn’t worry about whether people “get” him. His “aw, shucks,” nerd-like personality and his imperfect — and sometimes meandering — way of speaking are a far cry from anything that resembles a polished, focus-group-driven politician. Through three elections, the quirky Hickenlooper brand has resonated with voters, as evidenced by a landslide win for governor in 2010, and before that, two decisive victories in Denver mayoral races. But it is that same style that has left him wide open for political attacks. He has become fodder for Republican press releases that blast the governor as being a wishy-washy failed leader who struggles while deciding over a breakfast menu, much less over areas of public policy. “Obviously, I’m a different kind of politician, but that’s what most people said they wanted,” said Hickenlooper during a re-
John Hickenlooper, Colorado governor
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cent one-on-one interview with Colorado Community Media from inside his re-election campaign office in Denver’s Lower Highland neighborhood. “They said they’re sick of the same old talking head who gets up in there in a robotic fashion and says the same platitudes that we’ve heard for a million years. That’s one of the reasons why people like me run for office. I think people deserve more.” Hickenlooper has heard the criticism before. But as he enters the final stretch of a tight reelection campaign against former Congressman Bob Beauprez, he prefers to talk about his economic record as governor. There is no question that the economy has gained steam and jobs have been created under his watch. And he largely received praised for his response to crises that made national headlines, such as the Aurora theater shooting, wildfires and last year’s statewide flooding. But Hickenlooper’s own words haven’t done him any favors this campaign. Sometimes when the governor speaks, the result is reminiscent of the Grateful Dead during an off night — the trademark style is there, but it will sometimes run off the rails, leaving those listening scratching their heads.
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Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper at a press event opening Invesco Field for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Photo by Julian Russell what has led to a lambasting of Hickenlooper over his “indecisiveness” and “failed leadership” on the part of Beauprez and the rest of the Republican Party. “Where have I been indecisive?” Hickenlooper said. “Nathan Dunlap? The (Colorado) Constitution gives you three
choices: Execution, clemency or a reprieve. We chose reprieve two months before the decision was made.” “And background checks ... I did say I wish we had gone and Hickenlooper continues on Page 4
Challenger highlights leadership issue Beauprez doubles down on tough approach
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His decision last year to grant a reprieve to death-row inmate Nathan Dunlap — who killed four people inside an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant in 1993 — was met with confusion and criticism. And in television interviews this year, the governor said that he has moved away from being a supporter of the death penalty (he told voters in 2010 that he was in favor of capital punishment). And he suggested during a CNN interview that clemency for Dunlap may still end up being an option. The Hickenlooper campaign has said he was responding to a hypothetical question and maintains that Dunlap will die in prison. Also this year, the governor caused a stir over remarks on guncontrol legislation that he gave to a group of sheriffs meeting in Aspen. There, he apologized to lawmen for not better including them in the legislative process that led to him signing measures into law that created universal background checks on gun sales and banned high-capacity ammunition magazines. Those measure were opposed by the majority of sheriffs in the state, many of whom were onetime plaintiffs in an unsuccessful lawsuit against the new laws. Those are a few examples of
By Vic Vela
vvela@colorado communitymedia.com It seems appropriate that a guy who likes to play in the dirt is involved in politics — a business where a lot of mud gets slung. Yes, Bob Beauprez is a former congressman and the Republican nominee for governor, but he is also a bison rancher and an avid gardener who likes getting his hands dirty. “I am obsessive about the condition of our yard and garden and all that,” Beauprez said during a recent one-on-one interview with Colorado Community Media. “I love playing in the dirt. I love plants and fussing with them and the beauty of them.”
When Beauprez isn’t tending to his plants, he is on the campaign trail trying to plant the seed in the minds of voters that Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper is a failed leader who should be voted out of office. “He has this obsession with collaborating; wants to talk everything through, forever,” Beauprez said of Hickenlooper. “He can’t make a decision, and he won’t make a decision.” While Beauprez hammers away at Hickenlooper on a number of issues — gun control, the death penalty and hydraulic fracturing, just to name a few — he is also out to prove the late F. Scott Fitzgerald wrong, that there are indeed second acts in American lives. Beauprez lost badly to Bill Ritter in a 2006 gubernatorial bid where he never recovered from
Beauprez continues on Page 4
‘...This isn’t about who you want to go have a beer with or shoot a game of pool with. This is about who can lead this state.’
P L EA SE R ECYC L E T H I S C OPY
Bob Beauprez, Colorado gubernatorial candidate
Bob Beauprez is a former congressman and the Republican nominee for governor. Courtesy photo