President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Kamala Harris

(R) Donald Trump

80%↑

20%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(R) V. Archuleta

98%

2%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Marshall Dawson

95%

5%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Hurd

(D) Adam Frisch

52%↑

48%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(D) Trisha Calvarese

90%

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank

(D) River Gassen

80%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) John Fabbricatore

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen

(R) Sergei Matveyuk

90%

10%

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

52%↑

48%↓

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
October 03, 2005 08:00 AM UTC

Get Out While the Gettin's Good?

  • 24 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has enjoyed a honeymoon period that is practically unprecedented in its happiness. His approval ratings last spring were a near-comical 92 percent, and another survey showed he had a 68% name ID along the Front Range.

Things have changed in the last month or so, however, and will those changes push Hick into the governor’s race after all?

First of all, Hick made a pretty definitive statement that he was not going to run for governor. That hasn’t stopped some of Colorado’s most powerful Democrats from continuing to push him forward and offer whatever support he might need to run, and while Hick has thus far resisted those calls, if things continue to get tougher in Denver perhaps he’ll be persuaded.

First, Hickenlooper lost Chief of Staff Michael Bennet to the DPS Superintendent position (which, in fairness, he strongly supported). Then last week new figures released to the media showed that crime was up in Denver — figures that were reportedly not supposed to come out when they did. Hick wanted to release the crime stats at a later date and couple their release with an initiative to hire more police officers. Reportedly some of the brass in the Denver Police Department undercut this plan by leaking the crime data to the press. Why? The DPD is still steaming over the $500,000 budget given to the new police monitor at a time when there isn’t an abundance of funds to hire new officers.

Hickenlooper ended the week with a letter about the annual Columbus Day protests in which he basically said that he hoped the whole thing would go away…

That position drew sharp criticism from a media that has generally left Hick alone. Said Mike Littwin of the Rocky Mountain News:

Some advice.

Never put anything on paper or in e-mail (the cyber equivalent of Latex) that can be held against you. And never use any form of “proactive” in print. Ask your wife. She’s the writer in the family.

Your letter was, of course, well- meaning, in that why-can’t-we-all-get- along, uniter-not-a-divider, doesn’t- anyone-remember-hootenannies kind of way. Unfortunately, it went over like the Shawn Chacon trade. One side found it “insulting” and the other side “paternalistic.”

You sent your letter to two leaders of the opposing sides – and even that got everyone angry. Glenn Morris, one of the addressees and a member of the American Indian Movement, said you treated the matter like a “spat between two petulant sons” while playing the role of Ward Cleaver. And though it’s true Ward Cleaver is an American icon, I can assure you, as a writer, that being compared to him is never a good thing.

Hickenlooper may take a lesson from Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley, who once enjoyed unprecedented popularity — he may have even been more popular than Hickenlooper — but may have waited too long to make a move upward.

O’Malley is running for governor in Maryland, but a fellow Democrat, Douglas Duncan, is on the attack. From the Washington Post (free registration required):

Yesterday’s dispatch declared: “What You Can Believe About Martin O’Malley: Rhetoric vs. Reality.” The day before, it was “Martin O’Malley: The Boy in the Band,” a blistering flier accusing the Baltimore mayor of “strumming the night away” in his Irish rock group while people were murdered in his “crime-plagued city.”

That followed a Top 10 list forwarded to reporters last week that mocked O’Malley for comparing in a television interview his hiring of several police chiefs to Abraham Lincoln’s succession of war generals.

Will Hickenlooper get out why the gettin’s good and run for governor after all? We don’t think so, but now that the honeymoon is coming to an abrupt end, maybe he’ll start looking for a new bride.

Tweet
Share

Comments

24 thoughts on “Get Out While the Gettin’s Good?”

  2. I appreciated Hicks letter on the Columbus Day, and am skeptical of the motives of any RMN editorial.  They aren’t known for being “Dem friendly”.

    Hick is right, those Columbus day people are all immature children, and he tried to–GASP–handle it like an adult.

  4. Hickenlooper was wrong to disparage the right of Italian Americans to exercise their first amendment rights of free speech and assembly.  There is never an excuse to allow goon squads to suppress constitutional rights, as Churchill and Morris repeatedly tried to do.

  5. Gotta love the DPD.  Hickenlooper wants to delay announcing the crime figures to help him HIRE MORE COPS.  The DPD is so pissed off at Hickenlooper for not HIRING MORE COPS that they leak the info early just to piss him off.  Sometimes the civil service system is a real pain in the ass.

  6. WildWombat – Did you actually read Hick’s letter?  He didn’t disparage Italian Americans or their constitutional right to free speech.  In fact, the letter reminded everyone upset about Columbus that it is an issue of free speech.  Wasn’t it Denver city government that spent a fortune last year trying to prosecute Churchill, etc. for illegally disrupting the parade?  And didn’t the city pass new ordinances to aid in future prosecutions?

  7. Where do you all get this stuff?  The Rocky can package the crime stats stuff as big news all they would like, but the fact of the matter is that this info has been out for a long time.  The Post has been writing about declining arrest and ticket rates for over a year.  DPD released its annual crime stats earlier in the year.  Hick delayed nothing. In fact, I heard him argue on the justice center campaign trail that crime is up, arrests are down and the jail is still overcrowded…just think how bad the overcrowding will be when there are more cops on the street and arrests go up.

  8. Honeymoon, shmoneymoon.  Doesn’t everyone get tired of predicting the end of the so-called honeymooon?  Hick inherits $70 million budget deficit – end of the honeymoon.  Oops, not so fast.  Hick pushes through major police reforms and cops protest – end of the honeymoon.  Oops, not quite.  Hick innocently suggests a Happy Holidays sign and out-of-state wackos go nuts – end of the honeymoon.  Oops, doesn’t happen.  Hick writes a frank letter laying out the facts around the annual Columbus Day hysteria – end of the honeymoon.  Oops…the majority of people agree with the letter and don’t care about the issue all that much.  Oops…Hick lives to fight another day.  I’m guessing these ridiculous doomsday predictions will go on for years.

  9. There are few certainties in life except for this: Rank and file police officers never like thier chief and they never like their mayor.  It’s a law of nature.  So, if they’re unhappy with Hickenlooper – that’s nothing unique.  It also probably means he is pushing them to make improvements to the department that make the community safer.  For that, we should all be grateful.

  11. It is going to be hard for the new Mr. Can Do to explain away an 8.8% increase in crime. Since the Mayor loves baseball the crime increase is right in his wheelhouse with the biggest increases in Southeast and Downtown.
    Than as he did with the police shootings he sides with Leroy Lemos and some hooligans. Not only the RMN but the POST ripped him on that one. Actually, the Police do support many Mayors. But, they support Mayors who have the courage to lead not to pander to loud mouths who total less than twenty in total

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

48 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!