October 14, 2005 08:00 AM UTC

Air Hick

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Here’s the ad. Thanks to Coyote Gulch for the link.

Love him or hate him, you’ve got to say this for Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper: there hasn’t been a Colorado politician who is better at finding a shtick and, er, “shticking” to it. From 9News.com:

The man who became known for riding a motor scooter in his first campaign ad is now jumping out of planes. On Thursday, Mayor John Hickenlooper unveiled the ad in support of Referenda C & D showing him skydiving.

In the ad, Hickenlooper is falling at 130 miles per hour when he says that because of a glitch in the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) the amount of money the state can spend on education, health care and transportation is “falling and faaaaaling!”

Forget about Referenda C&D, because people are going to be buzzing about Hickenlooper in this ad for a long time. You can debate Hick’s merits on a number of different issues, but there’s no question that he is the smartest Colorado politician (with credit to his PR staff, of course) we’ve seen in a long time at projecting an interesting and memorable image. Who else would have a) agreed to do this ad, and b) been able to pull it off without looking silly?