U.S. Senate
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(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
Governor
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(D) Joe Neguse
(D) Phil Weiser
(D) Jena Griswold
60%
60%
40%↓
Att. General
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(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Alexis King
(D) Brian Mason
40%
40%
30%
Sec. of State
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(D) George Stern
(D) A. Gonzalez
(R) Sheri Davis
40%
40%
30%
State Treasurer
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(D) Brianna Titone
(R) Kevin Grantham
(D) Jerry DiTullio
60%
30%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Somebody
80%
40%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Somebody
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(D) Joe Salazar
50%
40%
40%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
January 09, 2011 08:25 PM UTC
18 Comments
I must confess, that additional commentary from Hick’s office does little to reassure me.
I’d like to think he’ll err on the side of environmental protection, but his statements regarding natural gas development and regulations bother me. A lot.
I always do that so that anyone who wants more details or context can listen to the whole thing.
But they never put the full recording of the interview up online.
It doesn’t appear to be a standard journalistic practice, though.
His environmental record leaves much to be desired in terms of consistency. Bill Ritter leaves particularly large boots to fill on environmental issues. If Hick isn’t pro-environment and isn’t going to be a clean energy Governor like Ritter, I’d rather see him just come out and say “Look, I disagree with the notion that environmental protections are ever of enough importance to risk job losses with unemployment as high as it is right now.”
Or, if he’d rather go on as he has been, he could always host a waffle breakfast as his first reelection fundraiser. Dress code: flip-flops.
“presidential murmurings?”
People said the same thing about Bill Owens back in his first term as our Governor.
Look how that turned out!
But people tend to speculate upon a rise to power.
I think that Mike Bennet was born in India.
Seriously, knock it off.
if your remark re Bennet’s birthplace goes to citizenship and eligibility for any office, if his parents were working for the govt as I think his father was, then he received citizenship in the same fashion that John McCain did.
I wouldn’t expect him to roll over for O&G, or for anyone really. He’s got a way of getting things done without really offending vested interests. The NYT article focused on Hickenlooper’s quirkiness, and it is an asset. The city’s running well, budget deficits have been closed, infrastructure improvements made, and some unique programs have been started: Denver’s Road Home, the UN bikes, DOCA.
A Denver mayor doesn’t deal with many environmental issues. But I can’t see Hick trashing the groundwater or air for some natural gas revenue. Doesn’t fit.
is a small part of the concern. Being an unabashed cheerleader of the oil and gas industry is an entirely different problem.
For those of us living in the gas patch, we’ve spent nearly the past 15 years under siege. We’ve watched our land, water, air and quality of life irreparably harmed and our heritage sold off to the highest bidder. For the leader of our state to say that somehow we need to cut the already marginalized regulations that we’ve fought so hard for in order to facilitate unfettered development is sickening.
I don’t think most folks sharing my mindset expected Hickenlooper to be as good as Ritter in terms of protecting our interests. However, he has repeatedly shown himself to be completely out of touch with the on-the-ground reality of what is happening. People are getting sick and dying, they’re being driven off their land and the natural amenities which we hold so dear are being destroyed.
We all understand that development will and should occur, but it should occur in the right manner. That means regulating it and ensuring that it happens in a prudent manner. Flippant statements to the contrary do nothing but further exacerbate an already ugly situation out here across the Cowboy Curtain.
I am hopeful that Hickenlooper will come to understand the gravity of the situation and soon realize that regulations haven’t harmed the oil and gas industry whatsoever and if anything, they need to be further strengthened.
I hear the concerns you raise Sage Sam. I can’t say I understand, because I don’t live there and don’t have your perspective. (What’s the Cowboy Curtain?) I agree with you about the need for strict environmental protection.
I think Hickenlooper is a low-drama guy who wouldn’t publicly chastise an industry or
fight them. He’s not a fighter. I do see him working behind the scenes, talking with industry and environmental groups, working out solutions. The image of someone willing to sell out to O&G just doesn’t square with the mayor I’ve been watching for 7 years. What do other Denverites think?
but I will add this to Sams’point.
To some people, the rhetoric of politics seems to be almost as important as the substance of it. That is unfortunate, in that it leads many to place an undue importance on what is said. It is so, I think, because every political opponent recognizes the advantage of turning their opponents words against them.
Subsequently, the environmental community in Colorado has become a little hypersensitive to what is said by our leaders. We’ve been burned before.
When we hear the Governor of our state using terms like “drill the living daylights”, we know what that means.
It means that Governor Hickenloopers’ downtown friends are doing what you would expect them to do. They are bending his ear relentlessly to adjust his attitude and his perception to reflect their point of view.
I think it is important to remember that our governor is a petroleum engineer. I am certain that he counts many friends among that horde of ambitious, influential executives that haunt the Capitol and City Hall. I am certain that Governor Ritter lost a few friends in the Republic tower when he decided to stick up for the “peeps” and not the “perps”.
Governor Hickenlooper is now trying to walk that same tightrope. I don’t envy him the challenge, and I don’t know him well enough to guess which way he will swing. But he will be under enormous political, and personal, pressure to use the most encouraging (for the industry) rhetoric with which he can get away.
I understand his desire to be perceived as “friendly to business”, but he is coming dangerously close to sounding like a spokesperson for COGA. According to a Dept. of Natural Resources report from a couple of years ago, the natural gas industry in Colorado accounts for less than 4% of our states’ economy. Every other aspect of Colorados’ “natural resource capital” is lessened by drilling and production activity.
How about the other 96%, Governor?
It’s not what he says, it’s what he does. Is he willing to piss off some of his friends to do what’s best for the people of this state?
Again, I’m hoping for the best from Hick but preparing myself for the worst.
I live on the Front Range and we’re concerned about Hickenlooper’s grasp of Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) area issues. One issue that he seemed to not have a definite stand on was raising the level of Grouse Reservoir in Coal Creek Canyon by over a hundred feet. Local residents are alarmed that the project will proceed without an adequate discussion of the costs and benefits of storing more water for Arvada.
Hickenlooper got a free pass this election and is probably enough of centrist to coax some cooperation out of the Republicans on economic issues but the left has the same issues of trying to find shared values with him that they have with Obama. Protecting the environment doesn’t seem to be one of them.