CO-Sen: The gun safety group Giffords Courage, which supports Democrat John Hickenlooper, has publicized a Public Policy Polling survey that shows Hickenlooper beating Republican Sen. Cory Gardner 51-42; the release did not include presidential numbers. A late June PPP survey for another pro-Hickenlooper organization, End Citizens United, had him up 51-40 as Joe Biden led 56-39.
We’ve only seen one other poll during the time between those two PPP releases. In late July, Morning Consult found Hickenlooper and Biden ahead 48-42 and 52-39, respectively.
Gardner, meanwhile, is running a new commercial titled “I like Beer” (not to be confused with the infamous “Beer Bad” episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) that focuses on Hickenlooper’s former reluctance about serving in the Senate. Gardner, who is seated at a bar, tells the audience that there are differences between the candidates: “First Hickenlooper owns a brewery, and me? I just like beer.”
Gardner then declares that Hickenlooper “admits he would not be an ineffective senator” before turning to a TV that plays clips of the Democrat saying, “The Senate does not attract me at this point” and, “It wouldn’t bring me any kind of satisfaction.”
Hickenlooper did say before and during his unsuccessful presidential campaign that he didn’t want to serve in the upper chamber, arguing at one point, “It’s awful hard to imagine that I could be successful in a Senate campaign or as a senator.”
Hickenlooper addressed this when he launched his bid against Gardner last summer, saying in his announcement video (which was set at the Denver brewpub he co-founded before going into politics), “I’ve always said Washington was a lousy place for a guy like me who wants to get things done, but this is no time to walk away from the table. I know changing Washington is hard, but I want to give it a shot.”
