The wooing and waffling of John Hickenlooper was a high-profile catalog of the things most people find objectionable about politics. In the end, though, the Denver mayor did the right thing.
Hickenlooper’s decision not to run for governor confirmed what he’d been saying all the time he’s been mayor. No, that’s not quite right. Make that almost all the time. For several weeks, he’d been acting unappealingly coy.
Then on Monday he finally said, no, he’d rather keep his commitments and finish what he started.
The frenzy of speculation skidded to a halt. It was hard for some of the wonkocracy, the insiders who revel in manipulation, to go cold turkey. They turned to speculation on whether other Democrats might enter the governor’s race.
But for many others, and not just the candidates, there was a sense of relief.
Sane people recoil at all this clamoring after controversy, the pooh-poohing of obligations, the behind-the-scenes deals and pressure, the abortion litmus test and the ignoring of a decent, attractive and willing alternative. It justifies the public’s cynicism about politics and politicians.
But political wonks love this kind of game.
My dictionary is too old, or maybe too stuffy, to include “wonk.” It defines “wonky,” though, which is British slang for “unsteady” or “awry.”
But all the wonks use wonk these days. Wonk, maybe not coincidentally, is the reverse of “know.” It’s sweet justice when, once in a while, the wonks don’t know it all.
In this case, the wonkery went wonky, in the British sense.
For 28 of his 30 months in office, the Denver mayor said he wasn’t interested in running for governor. The wonks – the political junkies and their media enablers – didn’t believe him. Why not? You naïve simpleton. Politicians never mean what they say. Everyone knows that.
Then there were polls showing that Hickenlooper was enormously popular. He could beat anyone. He had great name recognition. The leading Democrat who had actually declared for the governor’s race, former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, was lagging.
Of course he was. Ritter had been virtually ignored by the news media. They were all focusing on the pursuit of Hickenlooper. They even wrote stories about how they, the media, were ignoring Ritter.
Even when Ritter was mentioned, the issue that dominated coverage was his position on abortion. He’s against it. He said that doesn’t mean he’d push for anti-abortion legislation. And, in fact, if the state legislature continues to be controlled by the Democrats, the next governor will never see an anti-choice bill darken his desk.
That, by the way, is where the Democrats should be focusing their efforts – on keeping control of the legislature. The legislature, despite years of energy-sapping ballot issues, still has much more constitutional power in this state than the governor does. The mayor of Denver, in comparison, has much more power over the City Council.
But abortion is a huge hurdle in the Democratic Party. The party’s most committed activists – the people who run precincts and ring doorbells and go to the nominating assemblies – tend to be to the left of Democrats who just register and vote and maybe go to a meeting or two.
The activists can’t abide a pro-lifer, just as right-wing Republicans can’t stomach a pro-choicer. But the positions the activists like in the August primaries can be too extreme for the general electorate in November.
That’s why Democrats would be smart to moderate their position on abortion. Most Americans favor a woman’s basic right to control what happens inside her body, but they also would put some conditions on that right.
Yes, Hickenlooper is incredibly popular. But he would have lost huge chunks of his popularity if he had run for governor. He no longer would be the gangling, loveable, modest business whiz with the funny name. If he had run, he’d be just another politician, full of himself and suspiciously ambitious.
But he lived up to his image. What a pleasant surprise that is in today’s politics.
Fred Brown, retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post, is also a political analyst for 9News.
