Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said Wednesday that concerns about his family and staff and whether he can finish the things he has started in his first term as mayor are weighing heavily into his highly anticipated decision about whether to run for governor.
He also wants to be sure he can have a real impact on the state if elected governor.
“I have to look at where I can do the most amount of good,” Hickenlooper said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C. “I need to look at what’s best for the city, the state, and my personal sense of engagement and satisfaction.”
The mayor, who is attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors this week, has been encouraged to run for governor for months but has yet to make a final decision.
Although some political observers have contended Hickenlooper is toeing a fine line between contemplating a run for governor and appearing indecisive, the mayor said he was still compiling all the information he thinks necessary to make his decision. He did not give a timeline, but said again that it would be soon.
“I’m close to getting all the relevant information, and when I do, I think I can move fairly quickly,” he said.
Some question whether he hasn’t already made up his mind.
“I can’t imagine he hasn’t made a decision and he’s waiting more on a timing issue,” said Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli. “If he’s not going to run, he isn’t helping the (Democratic) ticket, and if he is going to run, he needs to get going.”
Hickenlooper’s potential candidacy has come up during the conference in Washington as he rubs elbows with the nation’s mayors and state and federal lawmakers such as Rep. John D. Dingell, a Michigan Democrat.
Hickenlooper said Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack gave him a hard sell, telling him he “thinks being governor is the greatest thing in the world.”
The mayor said he wouldn’t even consider running if his wife, Helen Thorpe, hadn’t shown “some level of enthusiasm” at the prospect.
Hickenlooper said his considerations about the city are multi-layered. He is concerned about staffers who have moved to Denver from other cities, as well as those who joined his team after leaving high-paying jobs in the private sector. He also wants to ensure that shorter-term goals he started work on after being elected mayor can be finished in four years and that he has laid a solid foundation for the completion of longer projects.
“I want to make sure we’ve created enough of a culture that the next mayor can continue the efforts and the accountability,” he said. “If, after sufficient thought, I believed what we worked on in the city wouldn’t get done, that would have a significant impact on my decision.”
As to being governor, Hickenlooper said he was weighing how much of a benefit he would be to Colorado as governor and whether his impact would be slight or significant.
Currently, the Democratic candidates officially in the race are former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter and state Rep. Gary Lindstrom of Breckenridge. But there has been what some political watchers are calling an “invisible primary” raging behind the scenes as many Democrats – unhappy with Ritter’s anti-abortion-rights stance – continue to urge Hickenlooper to jump into the race.
On the other side of the aisle, Republicans Marc Holtzman and U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez have announced their candidacies.
The governor’s race is expected to be grueling, expensive and nasty. Hickenlooper acknowledged that anyone running for governor must be willing to endure a certain amount of “negative distortions of their actions or beliefs” but said that it wasn’t part of his decision-making process.
He said that if he runs, he would keep things positive.
“I think the public deserves and wants a vision for the future and less attacks and smears on people’s character that have little to do with the truth,” he said.
Staff writer Karen Crummy can be reached at 303-820-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com.
