Bill Ritter ran a centrist gubernatorial campaign that highlighted mainstream Colorado values and earned him more than 60 percent of the Nov. 7 vote. It was one of the largest margins of victory for a non-incumbent in recent memory, all the more impressive given that he’s a Democrat and Republicans enjoy a strong edge among registered voters.
The landslide gives Ritter tremendous latitude as he pieces together his Cabinet. He can’t do better than to honor the values he brought to the campaign, embodied in his vision of stewardship. Democrats won the right to guide Colorado government for the next two years, and their success will depend upon issue-oriented efforts to achieve the Colorado Promise that Ritter outlined on the stump.
Ritter’s candidacy wasn’t buoyed by any huge endorsements – that is, he doesn’t owe his win to another politician or even a distinct bloc of the party faithful. Indeed some Democrats were desperately seeking another candidate, anyone, to give him a race. Given that Ritter has been a career prosecutor, rather than a career politician, he really is beholden to no one. If he got major help from organized labor, and he did, he also got an unexpected boost from business.
As he selects his statehouse team and his early priorities, we hope Ritter will take advantage of his independence to bring fellow Democrats and minority Republicans into a Colorado coalition of the willing. Coloradans he met on the campaign trail told him they want solutions for the state’s challenges. Not Democratic solutions, or Republican solutions, but solutions.
To help achieve his Colorado Promise, Ritter should appoint a Cabinet that is well-versed in education, water, transportation and the state’s economic needs.
His appointment of a bipartisan transition team made clear he’s comfortable reaching across party lines, and we expect to see more of that. Of course his administration will be dominated by Democrats, and he will have a deep well of talent to choose from, including experts on health, resources, education, economic development, transportation, law enforcement and finance. (We could name names, but why not let the resumes speak for themselves?)
We certainly admired the governor’s first staff choices: Veteran Jim Carpenter as staff chief, Trey Rogers as chief counsel and Mary Kay Hogan as top statehouse lobbyist.
Ritter has a strong hand to stock his Cabinet with pragmatic leaders who share a common vision for Colorado. He’s back East at new governor’s school this weekend, and an early order of business on his return is to fill the chairs in his cabinet and create a Colorado coalition he can call his own.
