Colorado’s gubernatorial candidates on Tuesday night offered voters a choice between “experience” and “vision” during a live televised debate sponsored by The Denver Post and 9News.
Republican Congressman Bob Beauprez pledged to guide the state like an “experienced pilot,” drawing on his time as a dairy farmer, banker and elected official.
“If you’re going to get into a plane tomorrow morning, you’re probably going to want an experienced pilot in the cockpit,” Beauprez said.
“If economic development, career opportunities, if education and transportation and water are so important, if health care is so important…,” he said, “that takes a certain amount of management capability, and that’s what I’ve done all my life.”
Democrat Bill Ritter promised to implement a vision that called for reforming education to decrease school dropout rates, extending health coverage to 770,000 uninsured Coloradans and encouraging the growth of the renewable-energy industry.
“It’s about asking the question ‘What do our kids and our grandkids deserve from us and how do we get there?”‘ Ritter said.
“We get there with leadership that says, ‘It’s not just about the next four years. It’s not just about our generation. It’s about our kids and our grandkids and it’s about 20 years and 50 years down the road.”
With less than a week before Election Day, the candidates did not unveil new proposals or unpracticed attacks on their opponents.
Beauprez chided Ritter for not being tough enough on illegal immigrants who faced drug charges while Ritter was the Denver district attorney. Beauprez said he took “serious exception” that Ritter didn’t regret plea bargains that occurred during his tenure.
Beauprez’s remarks drew the loudest boos and cheers from the partisan Halloween crowd gathered at the Gates Concert Hall on the University of Denver campus.
Ritter has said that Beauprez and other critics have isolated a small number of the 61,000 cases he handled during his tenure from 1993 to 2004. Ritter defends his record by pointing out that his office sent 12,000 criminals to state prison – nearly twice as many as the next closest county.
Ritter continued to target Beauprez’s opposition to Referendum C – last year’s ballot measure loosening revenue constraints on state government. Beauprez said leaders in the the business community were wrong to support the measure because it didn’t solve the state’s long-term funding problems.
On many key issues, the candidates repeated the differing views they’ve offered in some of the more than two dozen head-to-head meetings they’ve had.
Ritter supported getting the state into a purchasing pool with other states to lower the costs of prescription drugs. Beauprez opposed it.
Beauprez said state colleges and universities should be free to set their own tuition rates – a position that Ritter has criticized.
When asked to explain the biggest misconception about themselves that has been peddled by their opponents, both candidates talked about television advertisements.
Ritter said ads about his handling of plea bargains failed to explain how his office processed thousands of cases with scarce resources.
Beauprez dismissed the “both- ways thing,” saying that he has been “firm and principled” his entire life, earning top marks from some taxpayer and anti-abortion groups.
Ritter occasionally struggled with one part of the debate format – the “lightning round,” which demands one-word yes- or-no answers from the candidates.
When asked whether affordable housing ought to be mandated for development projects, he paused, answered yes and added that affordable housing is a serious problem in some parts of the state.
Beauprez said no to the question.
Ritter later joked to a college student asking a question that she should write a paper on “what a great idea a lightning round is” to get a good grade from her teacher, Adam Schrager, the 9News political reporter who was one of the debate interrogators.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-954-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
For Tuesday night’s debate, each
candidate submitted several questions for his opponent.
Beauprez to Ritter:
Will you raise taxes in order to pay for your plan to provide health care to all Coloradans?
Ritter: “No. We believe that we can do this without raising taxes.”
Do you believe it was a mistake to plea-bargain legal and illegal aliens down to an obscure farmland trespass charge?
Ritter: “No.”
Do you admire your opponent?
Ritter: “Yes.”
Ritter to Beauprez:
Do you think Governor Owens and Colorado’s business community were wrong to support Referendum C?
Beauprez: “Yeah. Because it didn’t fix the systemic problems that we still got.”
Did you vote in Congress to cut funding to the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, which includes funding for police officers in our communities and our schools?
Beauprez: “Probably, or you wouldn’t be asking me the question.”
In 2005, the legislature passed two bills to protect home and ranch owners from having their property taken by private toll road companies. Governor Owens vetoed these bills. Would you have also vetoed these bills?
Beauprez: “No.”
The candidates also participated in two “lightning rounds,” where they were asked to reply with a simple yes or no.
Do you support the death penalty?
Beauprez: Y Ritter: Y
Would you support state funds’ being used for stem-cell research?
Beauprez: N Ritter: N
Do you support affordable-housing mandates?
Beauprez: N Ritter: “If couched right, yes.”
Are you in favor of using public tax dollars to send kids to religious schools?
Beauprez: Ritter: N
“Under
certain
circumstances,
yes”
Do you support in-state tuition for illegal immigrants?
Beauprez: N Ritter: “For kids who have been here three years and are proficient in English, yes.”
Do you support using taxpayer money to pay for immunizations of children of illegal immigrants?
Beauprez: Y Ritter: Y
Do you support the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act, which prohibits smoking inside restaurants and bars but exempts casinos?
Beauprez: N Ritter: Y
Would you support changing Colorado’s Blue Laws prohibiting the sale of cars and alcohol on Sunday?
Beauprez: N Ritter: N
Would you support a ban on abortion with the only exception being when the mother’s life is at risk?
Beauprez: Y Ritter: N
Should health clinics like Planned Parenthood, which provide family planning but also abortion services, receive state funding?
Beauprez: N Ritter: Y
Do you support Referendum I, which recognizes domestic partnerships between same-sex couples?
Beauprez: N Ritter: Y
Would you sign a bill that protects homosexuals from employment discrimination?
Beauprez: N Ritter: Y
Do you support Amendment 39
(a constitutional amendment to require school districts to spend 65 percent of their funding in the classroom)?
Beauprez: Y Ritter: N
Should Colorado pass a law to exceed minimum air and water restrictions currently set by the federal government?
Beauprez: N Ritter: Y
