DENVER—Gov. Bill Ritter says presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has “great opportunity” to win in Colorado in November and predicts he will win “hands down” among Hispanic voters.
Ritter, a Democrat, made his comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday in a broadcast from Jackson Hole in Wyoming, site of the annual Western Governors’ Association meeting this week. Tom Brokaw interviewed Ritter along with Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal.
Ritter said the economy is a top issue that both Obama and Republican presidential candidate John McCain will have to address.
He also discussed a package of immigration reforms that passed in Colorado in 2006. Ritter said farms, ranches, hotels and the service industry have been affected, in part because some legal immigrants now view Colorado as becoming “a less friendly place.”
“We rely on foreign-born workers in the construction industry, the service industries and the agricultural industry, and it really does hamper our ability to get foreign-born workers in if we don’t have really a sensible immigration policy, which I think the country currently lacks,” Ritter said.
