Former Denver Mayor Federico Peña should be on Barack Obama’s list of possible running mates, says another former Mile High mayor who planned to launch a lobbying campaign for him Tuesday.
Wellington Webb said he would push Peña at a fundraiser for Obama in Honolulu, where the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is vacationing.
“I thought his name should be on the list,” said Webb, who served three terms as mayor before stepping down in 2003.
Webb spoke to The Denver Post from Hawaii, where he went to “rest before the circus starts” when Denver hosts the Democratic National Convention later this month.
Both Webb and his wife, Wilma, a former state legislator, supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during the primary season. But the two made the maximum contribution of $2,300 each at the luxury Kahala Hotel & Resort reception, which is expected to raise $1.5 million for Obama.
Peña served as the head of the Department of Transportation and later the Department of Energy during the Clinton administration. That background would give Obama a strong partner with experience in national governance at a time when high gas prices have become a crucial issue, Webb said.
And as mayor, Peña was the visionary who brought in the new Denver International Airport and the Colorado Convention Center, both government projects that Webb says Obama could promote as examples of strong economic generators and job creators.
Further, Peña is Latino and could help Obama in the battleground states of Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.
Finally, Webb argued that because Peña came out for Obama early in 2007 and has been an effective manager of his Colorado operation and as the campaign’s national co-chair, Obama ought to consider him.
Obama won Colorado’s Democratic caucuses handily.
“I think when you put all that together, I think his name ought to be in the hat like Richardson’s,” Webb said, speaking of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who served as a Clinton administration secretary of energy and is also Latino.
Peña did not return a call requesting an interview.
A national spokeswoman for Obama declined to comment, keeping to the campaign’s tradition with vice presidential rumors.
Webb’s arguments for Peña make a lot of sense, but there are some weak points, said the chair of the University of Colorado’s political-science department, Ken Bickers.
Obama could use some shoring up with Latinos, Bickers said. In Western contests Obama didn’t do well among the group, and the candidate took a “drubbing” in Puerto Rico even when it was all but apparent he was the nominee.
But Peña has little name recognition, Bickers said. And though the political scientist rates DIA an overall success and “model of efficiency,” the airport initially had well-publicized problems with its automated baggage delivery system.
The bugs could make good opposition commercials for Republicans looking to mock grand Democratic plans.
“If you wanted to wrap his management skills around his neck, you just go on and on about the baggage system and it becomes a metaphor for a Democratic Party plan for nowhere,” Bickers said.
Webb said he was attending the fundraiser alongside its co-chair, Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann.
Such connections should give him a good chance to launch his pro-Peña proposal, Webb said.
Chuck Plunkett: 303-954-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com
