From The Durango Herald:
Hickenlooper jumped from an airplane to promote Referendum C, which four years ago gave the state some relief from overly crushing tax reduction, and he has stood soaking wet in shirt and tie for a photographer after trying out a Denver neighborhood swimming pool. Hickenlooper has the business and government background – and the visibility and strength of a good leader – to best position Colorado to emerge from the recession. John Hickenlooper is the best choice for Colorado governor.
From The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:
He was an oil and gas geologist who was laid off during the energy bust that so devastated the Western Slope in the 1980s. He started a business — Colorado’s first brew pub — that was successful even before Coors Field arrived in the neighborhood. For the past seven years he has been mayor of Denver, a government with a general fund budget of $855 million. And he has presided over massive budget cuts the past few years. Furthermore, he has ideas for job creation and getting the state through the current economic crisis that we believe make sense for Colorado right now…
Hickenlooper has a lengthy list of proposals for economic development and job creation. They include:
—Consolidating small business programs in one state agency.
—Providing small business owners with assistance in accessing the many state programs already available to aid them.
—Working with community leaders throughout the state to boost or establish economic development programs focused on regional needs and attributes, not state ones.
—Using incentives already on the books, as well as new collaborative efforts, to retain, attract and expand existing large businesses. This includes greater recognition of and collaboration with the military institutions in the state.
—Building on this state’s record for entrepreneurship and technological expertise to promote a national and global reputation for Colorado as an innovation state. He asked, “Why not put on the logo of products developed here, ‘Imagined and designed in Colorado’?”
Hickenlooper’s experience in business and as an elected public executive, combined with his ideas for the future, make him the best candidate to lead this state now.
More 2010 Colorado elections coverage here.