August 21, 2006 04:47 PM UTC

Ritter Winning Over Business Community

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• by: Colorado Pols

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter continues to benefit from the business community’s support of Referendum C. From the Rocky Mountain News:

Last week, dozens of Republican business executives met with Ritter at a breakfast in Denver to discuss economic development. Republican businessman Blair Richardson, former finance chairman for Mark Holtzman’s campaign for governor, hosted the breakfast.

“There were 100 people there, and 75 percent of them were Republicans,” Richardson said. “Ritter was very strong. He said he’d create an economic czar and put that person in the governor’s office. He gave Bill Richardson of New Mexico as an example of a governor who is always marketing that state.”

Richardson said Ritter “won a lot of converts” at the meeting. He has endorsed Ritter himself and now plans to host a series of breakfast meetings to introduce him to other Republicans.

Beauprez, meanwhile, has scrambled to shore up his support in the business community. On Thursday he unveiled a “fiscal accountability plan,” calling on the state to float bonds from tobacco settlement money to pay off debts and fund a new round of tax cuts for business. The plan estimates the state could garner more than $500 million from the tobacco settlement.

Beauprez also called for re-examining the way the state rents office space and purchases goods and services.