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March 28, 2010 06:35 PM UTC

Hickenlooper's New Groove

  • 13 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

You’ll like what he said this weekend better than last, the Fort Collins Coloradoan reports:

Colorado gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper said that in government, like business, it’s never beneficial to get a bad reputation.

“You learn in the restaurant business that there’s no margin in having enemies,” the Democratic candidate said.

Hickenlooper was in Fort Collins on Friday, visiting with businesses and their owners as he toured Northern Colorado for his campaign. Sitting down with seven community members at Everyday Joe’s, 144 S. Mason St., Fort Collins. Hickenlooper said governments and businesses are similar in some aspects. Just as no business benefits from unsatisfied customers, government also works better when the constituents are happy with what they’re getting…

As Hickenlooper spoke about the importance of finding efficiencies in government spending, Bill Ward, president of locally based Ward Petroleum, asked Hicken-looper to give specifics on how to cut budgets.

“Bird by bird,” Hickenloop-er replied, saying it’s helpful to have experts go through a budget line by line and find places where unnecessary expenses can be trimmed.

Hickenlooper also spoke about energy, recognizing that in the future petroleum will run out, and he praised Gov. Bill Ritter for helping set the road for a long transition to a reliance on natural energy.

“What Gov. Ritter has done to define Colorado as a new energy economy, I think it makes the state look good,” he said. [Pols emphasis]

In an interview before his meeting, Hickenlooper also said he valued education and recognized a correlation between strong economies and places that invest in education.

Now by “investment” we assume he does mean taxes, so presumably that means he no longer thinks making sacrifices to protect those investments during hard economic times, like his fellow Democrats in the legislature did this year, and like Hickenlooper himself did by raising certain fees in the Denver city budget, is “crazy.”

Mayor Hickenlooper learned a valuable lesson last week, and hopefully it came early enough to prevent this kind of thing from happening again–as the leader of your party, which you are like it or not as the nominee for the state’s highest office, you cannot just throw your colleagues under the wheels to score throwaway political points. In the interest of comity, we’re not going to get in to details of just how angry Democrats in the legislature were over Hickelooper’s casual disparagement of their hard choices last week–suffice to say they were very, very angry.

Between then and now, Hickenlooper has reportedly had private meetings with legislators and Governor Ritter, and has by all accounts expressed contrition for his poor choice of words before the South Metro Chamber of Commerce. Based on this article in the Coloradoan, he’s had another opportunity to screw up–and he didn’t.

That’s good news for Hickenlooper, state house Democrats, not to mention their staff–who would really rather not have to defensively prove their own candidate for governor wrong/hypocritical every time he makes a campaign appearance. Getting Hickenlooper back on message will also help encourage interest groups to go ahead and throw down the independent expenditures that Democrats up and down the ticket will be counting on this year.

As we’ve said before, you can’t say with certainty that Hickenlooper disparaging the work of fellow Democrats hurts his candidacy, in fact you can make a pretty good case that it doesn’t. But Hickenlooper is going to need a friendly majority in the legislature to function effectively–he won’t be as effective with hostile Republicans running the show, and he won’t like it much better with a Democratic majority he alienates during the campaign. Ask anybody who works at the Capitol what the biggest problem in the last four years has been (other than the Great Recession and TABOR), and they’ll tell you it’s poor communication between the Governor and the legislature.

This spat could be just the object lesson Hickenlooper needs to avoid the same situation–a few more uncontroversial stump speeches and we’ll know for sure that he gets it.

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13 thoughts on “Hickenlooper’s New Groove”

  1. On will he do a good job running the state. We get all locked up in how best to win, we lose site of discussing how best to govern. And when the campaign is not about how best to run the state, then the elected administration tends to not focus on that either.

      1. I can see the Colo Gov race being to a large degree on who is more likable. If so, we’re having no discussion on who will do a better job. And the winner enters office with no emphasis on improving the state administration.

  2. focusing on O&G issues, I can best comment on the environmental communities’ take on Hickenloopers remarks. I think, “seriously pissed” is the most direct description. It isn’t just his “business friendly” remarks…it is that, when mentioning the COGCC rulemaking process, he is just wrong. He wasn’t there…I was.

    But Hickenlooper is going to need a friendly majority in the legislature to function effectively–he won’t be as effective with hostile Republicans running the show, and he won’t like it much better with a Democratic majority he alienates during the campaign.

    Mayor Hickenlooper obviously doesn’t yet understand the beating that anyone at the Capitol gets when they cross the oil and gas lobby. Many Democrats have taken a ton of abuse in their districts as a result of their support for the rules. Just ask Kathleen Curry what a bunch of sweethearts they (the O&G posse) are.


    Ask anybody who works at the Capitol what the biggest problem in the last four years has been (other than the Great Recession and TABOR), and they’ll tell you it’s poor communication between the Governor and the legislature.

    I have found the secret to effective communication is to make sure YOU are the one doing the listening. Mayor Hickenlooper needs to get out here in the gaspatch and ask somebody besides David Ludlam what is going on.

    1. With gas drilling back on the upswing in Western Colorado, and profit incentives so great that some companies, such as Antero, are more than willing to go through the hassles of drilling in residential communities like Battlement Mesa, it looks like the new regs aren’t even a speed bump.

      In addition, the new O&G rules haven’t even been on the books for a year, Therefore, all Hick has to say to appease both sides of the O&G issues is, “Let’s wait and see.”

  4. and many I know refused to attend a recent fundraiser for him.

    They are upset with his “dissing” of the environmental community over O&G regulations and his overt buddying up to the “business” community.

    Frankly, there hasn’t been any governor since Dick Lamm for environmentalists to get really fired up about.

    Gogrowth Roy Romer was the best thing the Republicans could have asked for, and Ritter, while pushing for “green” jobs, has shown little leadership on growth issues.

    We would like to see Hickenlooper recognize the concerns people continue to have about rapid and unrestrained (except for the bad economy) sprawling growth along the Front Range and the rest of the state.  Our quality of life continues to go down, our infrastructure is overwhelmed by growth, politicians at all levels are asking for new taxes to fund new schools, roads, prisons, jails, etc to handle the burgeoning growth, and their are continued pressures to build more dams and drain our already depleted rivers.

    Growth is an issue and we want a governor that will push for higher impact fees, enhanced land use tools, reduced sprawl, stopping developer giveaways, putting the emphasis on mass transit instead of new roads, find a way to fund local governments other then sales tax (which causes communities to fight to build more shopping centers to gain sales tax revenue).  We’d also like some recognition that adding another 5 million people to the state isn’t a great proposition and that we need to look at alternatives to growth.

    If he doesn’t recognize these issues and talk about how he would deal with them in his administration, why would he be any better governor as a pro-growth Democrat then a pro-growth Republican.

    And yes, many of us believe Hickenlooper was wrong in having Denver be a sanctuary city and are sure he will do nothing to deal with illegal immigration and its fiscal impacts to Colorado taxpayers.

    Just saying “jobs, jobs, jobs”, “collaboration, and “green” isn’t going to cut it.

      1. we’re all fucked.

        And those who like overcrowding can move to Southern Cal, New York City, Atlanta, Phoenix, etc.; or even better – move to China or India.

      1. responded bluntly to his campaign email, that is. It must have been the two of us who wised him up. Seriously, there is strength in numbers–I hope lots of people responded in some way. I also talked to my State Rep, who was already seething and loaded for bear to jump on Hickenlooper for these harmful statements. Sounds like that happened last week.

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