"I don't think that the scientific community has decided with certainty that climate change is as catastrophic as so many people think," said John Hickenlooper, a former geologist in the energy industry.
In a poll of 500 likely Colorado voters conducted March 4, former congressman McInnis led Denver Mayor Hickenlooper 48 to 42 percent. The automated poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent.
Rasmussen Reports has a new poll out today on the Governors race in Colorado. The results look favorable for Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. He currently leads Scott McInnis by four points.
Scott McInnis (R) 45%
John Hickenlooper (D) 49%
Some other candidate 1%
Not sure 6%
(i posted at the same time. sorry weatherdem - promoted by pacified)
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, now running to be the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, made his intentions regarding drilling on Colorado's West Slope known about a week ago. His statement doesn't spark any confidence that he'll deliver messages in ways that voters will respond. In fact, it's an early signal that the message Massachusetts voters sent have yet to be heard in this part of the country (timing of the two events notwithstanding). If Hick wants to be the next Governor of Colorado, he has a steep learning curve ahead of him.
Over the past few months, the law firm where I'm the bookkeeper has received multiple notices from the City concerning a change in the collection of the Denver Occupational Privilege Tax ("Head Tax") and the Use Tax. Just "new forms" and a "new account number".
I was hoping that, perhaps, Denver would join the Wave of the FUTURE... the Internets! for filing the forms and collecting the tax.
Uhm, no.
Today I went to fill out the "New! Improved! Simplified!" form for the Head Tax (actually, the form was virtually the same; just slightly rearranged) I discovered what the REAL change was...
News this week that CO Gov. Bill Ritter would not run for re-election in 2010 has, of course, sent the two major parties scrambling. The announcement was given with no notice to other officials or the party members themselves. After the announcement, the way in which potential Democratic replacements have been offered up and discussed by the "Serious People" nagged at me. I want to explore these developments with the removal of a state Representative from a committee vice-chairmanship and trends emanating from the Obama White House.
Wednesday's concert and vigil at Confluence park attracted more than 1000 political activists from all over Colorado. Guest speakers David Sirota, Dr. Irene Aguilar, Mayor John Hickenlooper, the Vice President of SEIU and numerous volunteers told health care horror stories, discussed the political challenges around the health insurance industry, and pumped up the crowd to take action.
A candlelight vigil honored the estimated 800 people who died in Colorado last year alone from inadequate access to health care. Latino band "Debajo del Aqua" provided upbeat music between the vigil and each speaker. Throughout the crowd, news of Senator Mark Udall's support of the public option quickly spread.
Denver police officers refused Monday night to accept delays in scheduled pay raises, exposing nearly 100 officers to the possibility of layoffs.
Lt. Vince Gavito, president of the Denver Police Protective Association, said 60 percent of the membership voted against Mayor John Hickenlooper's proposal to delay next year's pay raise of 4.5 percent until December and delay a 2011 pay raise of 3 percent until December of that year.
[...]Officers with five years of service currently are paid $29 an hour.
They're supposed to give back from that $29 an hour to lay their lives on the line every day?
Call me a chicken, but you couldn't pay me a cool Million to do that job. The Denver Police did the right thing by not playing the anti-government, anti-union, anti-middle-class game Hick is playing with their careers and lives.
And he calls himself a Democrat? I say he gets a wag o' the finger instead:
America's eco-mayors ...
Mayor John Hickenlooper's Greenprint Denver plan, launched in 2006, was designed to position Denver as one of the most sustainable cities in the country. Three years later, it's on the right track. During that time, 70,000 trees have been planted in the Mile High City. Meanwhile, low-flow toilets were installed in City Hall, and the city's entire fleet was traded in for biodiesel vehicles.
Their list of eco-friendly big city mayors includes those of Atlanta, Chicago, and New York. Not a group of environments that ring Green to me, but I think Hick is well worth inclusion. Having planted a number of those trees myself, I can vouch for the fact that the city has been a great partner in sustainability.
"I love my job," Hickenlooper said. "I'm in that unique position in that I've got one of the best jobs that a person like me can have. But if you take someone like me who has spent most of his life in business and then at some point decides to give 10 to 15 years to public service, and you want to be useful, then you want to get the maximum benefit out of that public service."
"I don't think the governor's job could be as much fun as the mayor's job," Hickenlooper said after an audience member asked if he will run for governor. "But I do believe now it probably has greater impact.
"You know, my plan was only to give 10 or 15 years to public service. If you're going to look at it that way, you should probably try to be as useful and have (the) maximum impact as you can." "So it's a balancing act of what you love and what you know (in the mayor's role) vs. maybe having more impact in a different place," Hickenlooper continued.
Brownsox at Kos front-paged our US Senate situation with focus on Hickenlooper and John Salazar and brings up Scott McInnis as a possible Republican challenger for the seat in 2010.
According to the initial numbers, we are at least starting this from a +50% level regardless of the appointee.
Note: I'm going to be guest-hosting the big progressive drive-time radio show in Colorado starting this Friday (12/19) for a week. Tune in locally at AM760 on your dial between 6am-10am MST, or online at AM760.net. We'll be talking all about this potential appointment, and have some live interviews with some of the contenders (they are all being invited to come on the show). - D
The lobbying among Democratic politicos here in Colorado for Ken Salazar's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat is fast and furious. The Denver Post's front-page story today goes through some of the candidates. Strangely, there's only passing mention of what could be the most important differences between them all - their stances on the huge national issues that will be toughest to get through the Senate: namely, health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act.
On Monday, the Colorado Campaign for Change RV, equipped with solar panels, again took the road -- this time on a statewide energy tour. On the RV were Governor Bill Ritter and former Secretary of Transportation and Energy, Frederico Pena.
The morning started off in Fort Collins where they were joined by Denver Mayor and former brewery owner John Hickenlooper for a tour of the New Belgium brewery. New Belgium is the third largest mid-sized brewery in the United States and is known as a model of sustainability and eco-friendly practices. In 1999, New Belgium became the largest private consumer of wind-power electricity at that time and the first wind-powered brewery in the country.
At the end of the tour, Mayor Hickenlooper praised the brewery and explained why how New Belgium is an example of the kind of companies that Barack supports and will continue to support when he is president.
He said:
Imagine a country where you have a leader in place who has that same sort of sense about the need to transform our country, the need to do it with respect to both how we consume and how we produce and understands the opportunities that are a part of that. It's not built of desperation or a lack of hope, it's built out of a sense of an ability to create jobs and create a different energy future, to create a different economy and at the same time be responsible stewards of the environment.
You guys have definitely done it here at the New Belgium brewery, there are companies doing it around America and what we badly need is a leader in Washington D. C. who will partner with the states and develop a new energy economy in this country. So that's one of the reasons why I so heartily embrace Barack Obama's campaign for presidency because I believe he has the vision for that new energy economy.
Here are some more photos from the first stop of the energy tour:
As was rumored late last week, and now confirmed, Barack Obama will be accepting the official Democratic nomination on Thursday August 28th, not at the Pepsi center, but at Invesco Field at Mile High. During a conference call, with DNC chairman Governor Howard Dean, Convention co-chair and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, and Anita Dunn, senior advisor to the Obama campaign, the three expressed their enthusiasm for this event, though understandably few details on logistics were available.
Security is of course a concern. Gov. Dean mentioned talking about this event with Denver mayor Hickenlooper. The mayor had expressed that if the Obama campaign wants to do this, they're going to find a way to do it. Of course, not all of the security details will be released. That's just the nature of security, Dean reminded.
Update - Wanna go to the speech? The Colorado Democratic Party's site has a page for signup. h/t to ColoradoIndependent
And there's even a way to get involved early, by participating or hosting your own platform meeting July 17th through 27th. Maybe we should host our own netroots platform meeting.
This story may have more legs than what we originally thought. The LA Times had an article reporting that the Obama campaign may limit the convention to 3 nights. Now a tip from Marc Ambinder and a little digging in the DemConWatch archives leads to the possibility of holding the 4th night at Invesco Field at Mile High. Invesco is just across I-25 from the Pepsi Center and is within walking distance.
Barack Obama's campaign and the Democratic National Committee are toying with a convention scheduling change that has been broached before in theory but never seriously considered: cutting the party's conclave in Denver short by one day to give Obama an extra day of post-nomination bounce in the crowded August calendar.
For the last several decades -- when conventions became forums that merely rubber-stamp a presumptive nominee -- they have traditionally run from Monday through Thursday. Increasingly, both parties have struggled to offer something of interest during the first couple of convention nights, and the television networks have responded by dramatically reducing live coverage. The only truly significant event has been the nominee's acceptance speech, delivered during prime time on Thursday evening.
But Obama aides have floated the idea of ending the Denver convention on Wednesday, Aug. 27, instead of Thursday, Aug. 28. - LA Times
Hick says no, but that was in response to the question of will the convention only be three days. But the forth day at Mile High? (sorry I can't call it its real name) A rock concert send off for the rock start candidate?
Update - More on the Mile High possibilities at DemConWatch.
Mayor John Hickenlooper has pulled his name from the ballot to be Colorado's last superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, a spokesman for the Colorado Democrats said today.
Hickenlooper was facing former Denver mayor and Clinton administration Cabinet member Federico Peña for a contest that was to be decided Saturday at the Colorado Democratic Party's state convention in Colorado Springs.
The fact that media matters covered this garbage (see below) and refused to cover any of the egregiously misleading and false reports against Initiated Question 100 (eg. http://www.squaresta...) further proves that Media Matters cares nothing of fairness in the media and only about serving the Democratic establishment.
"Not with a bang, but with a whimper" - that's how revolutions end, and that goes for the Republicans' 30-year anti-tax revolution. As my new nationally syndicated column today in the Denver Post shows, the public is finally turning away from the me-first economic darwinism of the anti-tax movement, and Democrats in Colorado are getting out in front of the fight to change the tax debate for the better.
RSS Feed
