Here's some big news:
http://www.denverpost.com/...
John Hickenlooper has had an eventful four years as governor. The most destructive wildfires in the state's history. Historic rains, floods, mud and rock slides pummeling a huge swath of the state. A mass shooting that exceeded even Columbine in the combined number of dead and injured.
And during this staggering series of emergencies, the governor proved himself a first-rate leader and crisis manager. He provided personal comfort to victims even as he directed a complex effort to assist those whose lives had been devastated.
In the wake of last year's September floods, for example, the state deployed not only its own highway department personnel but also a legion of volunteers in order to re-open every washed-out road before December. It was an ambitious goal that was met.
Hickenlooper's performance during these events is worth noting not only because it demonstrates his ability to function under pressure. It also belies the accusation from critics that he is indecisive or somehow too reflective — as if taking the full measure of an issue is a sign of weakness.
It is not. By any fair assessment, Hickenlooper has been more than just a capable governor. He's been a highly effective one.
Beauprez is an honorable man who has run a much-improved campaign from his effort in 2006, but he has provided no compelling reason why voters should dismiss the governor after a single term. And if Beauprez were elected, he'd quickly discover that Hickenlooper's practice of reaching out to both sides, which Beauprez seems to disdain, is the only productive way to govern in a purple state — especially one in which at least one chamber of the legislature is very likely to remain in Democratic hands.
No matter who is elected, he'll face a host of difficult issues in the next four years, such as how to meet funding needs for transportation, higher education and health care. Hickenlooper has already proved that he can handle the worst that nature and politics throw his way. And he has accomplished this while remaining consistently upbeat and positive, even on the campaign trail, refusing to run negative ads. He has earned another term. - Denver Post, 10/3/14
Pretty good endorsement there. By the way, Hickenlooper did an excellent job encountering Tea Party Rep. Bob Beauprez (R. CO) invoking the case of slain former Dept. of Corrections chief Tom Clements while criticizing his administration’s prison and sentencing reforms:
http://kdvr.com/...
The exchange took place after Hickenlooper answered a question about women’s reproductive health by touting his administration’s program to ensure that low-income women have access to contraception, which he credits with dramatically lowering Colorado’s unintended pregnancy and abortion rates.
Beauprez, without addressing women’s health issues, sought to pivot to the issue of women’s safety.
“John, what do you have to say to women who are widows, who have orphans because of parolees you’ve let out of prison direct from solitary confinement?” Beauprez asked, as some boos began to rise from the audience.
“If a governor has an obligation, that obligation is to protect public safety. As the Denver Post reported, in one year alone, 110 parolees were let directly out of solitary confinement into our neighborhoods.
“If women have an issue of trust, it’s trusting in a government that somehow won’t protect their public safety, and their family’s safety and their personal safety,” said Beauprez, who tripped up on the subject of women’s health in Tuesday night’s debate when he stated that he considers IUDs “an abortifacient.”
Hickenlooper’s ire rose throughout his response as he came around to the implied subtext of Beauprez’s comments — the murder last March of Clements, who’d been working to reform the department by limiting the use of solitary confinement, by a paroled inmate, Evan Ebel, who was released just days earlier from solitary confinement.
“We talk a lot about who represents the Washington way and who represents the Colorado way, but to take a question like what we’re discussing, a serious issue about women’s rights to make their own health care decisions and turn that into a discussion about prison reform, which I’m happy to talk about — let’s have that discussion, I’m eager to do that…
“Congressman Beauprez, if you want to talk to me about widows, talk to me — my mother was a widow twice,” Hickenlooper continued. “I know what it’s like to be in a family that’s gone through that.
“I have spent a lot of time with Lisa Clements and her children; they got married in the governor’s mansion. They understand what they were doing. Tom Clements was part of that reform and for you to make his murder part of a political…gambit…I think is reprehensible.”
Beauprez pressed on, referencing other cases of victims murdered by parolees.
Hickenlooper responded by acknowledging the past trend of paroling inmates directly from solitary confinement and noting that Clements was working on reforming that policy at the time he was murdered.
In the past six months, no Colorado inmates have been paroled directly from solitary confinement to the streets, Hickenlooper said. - KDVR, 10/3/14
Hickenlooper has been doing better in the polls but it's still a tight race and Republicans are still determined to beat him:
http://denver.cbslocal.com/...
Colorado’s governor’s race is top priority for the Republican party with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie campaigning for GOP challenger Bob Beauprez.
The pair made an appearance at the American Academy charter school in Castle Pines Friday morning.
Christie, head of the Republican Governor’s Association, is making a campaign tour of key battleground states, Colorado among them. The race between Republican challenger Beauprez and incumbent Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, is a close one.
A new poll shows Hickenlooper ahead by 4 percentage points, but the race is widely considered a toss-up. - CBS Denver, 10/3/14
Click here to get involved with and donate to Hickenlooper's campaign:
http://www.hickenlooperforcolorado.com/