By Ernest Luning
March 24, 2020
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“As far as John Hickenlooper is concerned, it only makes sense for Colorado Democrats to nominate the popular former two-term governor to try to unseat Republican incumbent Cory Gardner.”
“‘We know this is not going to be an easy campaign,’ Hickenlooper says, noting that whoever the Democrats put up will be subject to millions of dollars many times over in attack ads.”
“‘Some of the things that I bring to the table – I won statewide in 2010 and 2014, those were very hard years for Democrats, very few Democrats won statewide in 2010 and 2014 in purple states. My name ID is still high, my approval is still high; those basic ingredients give me a higher probability — I would argue a significantly higher probability — of success in defeating Cory Gardner.'”
“‘I feel when everybody looks at all the pros and cons, they’re going to say, ‘Here’s somebody who’s been in small business, he knows how local and state government work and how they should work with the federal government..'”
“Six months since Hickenlooper jumped in the race after a stalled presidential run, he’s the only one guaranteed a spot in the June primary, after submitting enough signatures on nominating petitions.”
“Hickenlooper, who finished behind former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff in a preference poll at the March 7 precinct caucuses, withdrew from the assembly process — leaving that route to the ballot to Romanoff and, perhaps, one of the two women who trailed , Stephany Rose Spaulding or Trish Zornio.”
“Hickenlooper is keen to remind that he brings to the race a small business background — after he lost his job as a petroleum geologist in an industry downturn, he built a brewpub and restaurant empire from scratch — and that he’s tackled some big challenges and weathered events that weigh heavily in the state’s collective memory.”
“‘When I was mayor, we had the incredible economic paralysis in 2008, 2009, and I’m having flashbacks to that, and I remember just how intense that is for small business and people trying to make a payroll,’ he says about a week into the state of emergency to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.”
