Beauprez fill-in, Ritter harmonize
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez might have made a mistake in sending a surrogate to debate his rival on transportation issues.
Colorado Transportation Commission member Greg McKnight, a Greenwood Village businessman, was knowledgeable on the issues, but at times his positions – including support for Referendum C last year – seemed more in tune with Democrat Bill Ritter’s.
“It’s been a pleasant exchange today,” Ritter said at the end of the forum, noting how much he agreed with McKnight and differed with Beauprez, who opposed the referendum that will funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to transportation projects.
“He could be my boss,” a smiling McKnight said, nodding at Ritter, as the surrogate summed up his own vision for transportation in Colorado.
An easy promise
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter released a new commercial last week where he said “as governor, I’ll keep the promise of a balanced budget.”
Not exactly a bold statement considering that the Colorado Constitution requires a balanced budget.
Ad a strategic coincidence?
Bill Ritter’s Republican opponent, Bob Beauprez, put out an e-mail last week promising to unearth several of Ritter’s cold cases.
But after the appointed day came and went without an unveiling, Beauprez campaign manager John Marshall explained the dud saying, “We got new information, so we changed strategies.”
Later in the week, the Republican-funded Coloradans for Justice launched the toughest ad of the campaign season, accusing Ritter of lying to the family of a 4-year-old hit-and-run victim.
Coincidence? Ritter’s campaign thinks not. Spokesman Evan Dreyer has accused the Beauprez campaign of illegally conspiring with the independent political group to get it to do the dirty work.
Marshall denied the charge.
Laughter or medicine?
While talking about the cost of prescription drugs last week, Bob Beauprez said he understood the struggle with rising costs.
“I’m relying on a pharmaceutical myself that I take every day to make sure I don’t go pop,” said Beauprez, explaining that he takes blood pressure medication.
“I didn’t have a problem until I met Bill Ritter,” he joked.
Ritter wasn’t blue over coin toss
Prior to a debate on aging issues last week, the moderator flipped a color-coded coin to decide who would answer the first question.
But he seemed to forget that “red” states are Republican and “blue” are Democratic. He said the red side was for Democrat Bill Ritter and the blue side was for Bob Beauprez.
Ritter the Red won the coin toss.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Bill Ritter plans to attend the Colorado Agriculture Forum, at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, in the CSU Cooperative Extension Offices, at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Bob Beauprez’s spokesman, John Marshall, said he was uncertain whether the congressman would attend.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to incorrect information provided by a campaign, it gave the wrong time and building for a gubernatorial forum on Saturday at CSU. It’s at 9:30 a.m. at the CSU Cooperative Extension offices.
