December 14, 2011 11:56 PM UTC

Hickenlooper Doesn't Play Your Reindeer Games

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• by: Colorado Pols

In our discussion of the outcome of this year’s fight over state legislative reapportionment, and the general consensus that the outcome is a victory for Democrats, we would be remiss if we didn’t at least briefly note the remarks of Gov. John Hickenlooper at a town hall yesterday–as eagerly distributed by Denver Republican Party conservative blog WhoSaidYouSaid:

“I think a little more time and a little more process would have gotten us a better result,” said Hickenlooper, a Democrat. “And where you have so many good people that are gonna have to go through primaries against each other, or look at some new place . . . You know again, I’ve tried to build relationships with as many Republicans as I have Democrats in the legislature.”

Then later:

“No one runs for these offices…I’ll make this short, no one runs for these offices to make the kind of cuts that we did but in the end our general assembly. The Senate and the Statehouse, state Senate and Statehouse, approved our budget with 80 out of 100 votes. No one else is doing that anywhere in the country. Right? And that says a lot about Colorado. I think that the bitterness of, I think the Democrats could have had, you know, I think there was a way to do it without creating all those primaries. And I was disappointed. Some of the people that I enjoy working with are probably not going to be able to stay in the legislature.”

We already know that the list of people Hickenlooper “enjoys working with” doesn’t include Majority Leader Amy Stephens, who earned rare public wrath from the governor after her disastrous handling of the health insurance exchange bill this past legislative session. There are probably some Republicans, though, who Hickenlooper has genuinely forged a decent relationship with, and he’s free to make a point as the state’s chief executive about a process that indeed ran into…well, at least strenuous allegations several times before the end.

But this is really nothing more than throwing the GOP a meager post-defeat bone: Hickenlooper didn’t intervene in the legislative reapportionment process at any point. He certainly could have, and his opinion would naturally have been taken into consideration by all parties. And however “disappointed” Hickenlooper may be about sharp elbows during the process, the fact remains that the process was carried out legally, and the results affirmed by the Colorado Supreme Court. That’s the key difference between the legislative reapportionment victory for Democrats in 2011 and the actions of Republicans during the past decade’s congressional redistricting–the much-reviled 2003 “Midnight Gerrymander” that the court threw out.

Gov. Hickenlooper’s amassing of political capital in the last year has been truly impressive, directly reflected in his extremely high and durable approval ratings. One of the big reasons his approval is so high is he does not spend that political capital lightly. Hickenlooper does not get involved in partisan news-cycle scrums unless they threaten his policy agenda. And he has tried not to be combative with Republicans in his split legislature except when it becomes unavoidable, such as with Stephens, or Speaker Frank McNulty’s ill-fated “payday payback” rule change.

For as long as support of Republicans is necessary to pass legislation in the state of Colorado, we expect that Hickenlooper will continue to show them greater public deference than partisan Democrats would prefer–and from his point of view, he probably should. If it’s any consolation, and we’re reasonably sure the thought has crossed Hickenlooper’s mind since the new maps were finalized, we think he’ll like the new friends he’ll meet in 2013 at least as much.