Ken Salazar started this. The former U.S. senator from Colorado set off the domino effect when President Barack Obama appointed him secretary of the Interior Department last year.
Then, Gov. Bill Ritter appointed Denver schools superintendent Michael Bennet to replace Salazar, which surprised and angered a number of Democrats, including former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, who wanted that seat. Ritter thus cheesed off Romanoff’s supporters, and their diminished enthusiasm probably contributed to his decision not to run for re-election.
So now Salazar and Romanoff — and the always-mentionable Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, plus Congressman Ed Perlmutter, Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien and others — are all considered in the running for the suddenly, surprisingly open 2010 nomination for governor.
Ritter’s “intensely personal” decision not to run again took everyone by surprise, except for his family. He did alert Democratic legislators. No doubt some of them, too, looked in the mirror this morning and saw a possible gubernatorial candidate looking back.
The tidiest outcome for the Democrats would be if Romanoff abandoned his campaign to unseat Bennet and instead turned his attentions to the governor’s race. Tidy, yes, but maybe not terrific.
Romanoff has a ways to go before he has the kind of statewide name recognition necessary to win an election for governor. Hickenlooper may have the requisite statewide reputation, but he has the same kind of problem Romanoff used to have: the “nice guy” problem.
Nice guys aren’t overly ambitious politically. Everyone used to like Romanoff until he decided to challenge Bennet; now he has ticked off Bennet supporters. Vindictive ambition: not nice.
Hickenlooper is probably more popular than any Denver mayor ever, even well beyond the city limits. He no doubt has better statewide name recognition than Romanoff. And yet a big reason Hickenlooper is so popular is that he seems so easy-going. Easy-going types lose that reputation once they start displaying too much political ambition.
Salazar has an advantage in that he has a proven ability to win a statewide election. That alone may make him the strongest pick, and the favorite, even though, like Ritter, he’s not the most exciting guy in the world.
Congressmen Ed Perlmutter and Jared Polis have to be considered long shots. Lt. Gov. O’Brien? Colorado never has had a female governor, which is odd, given that Wyoming had one more than 80 years ago. But the lieutenant governor’s office has not been a good launching pad. The treasurer’s office, whence came Democrat Roy Romer and Republican Bill Owens, works better. So what about Cary Kennedy?
These are anxious times for Democrats. Discouraging internal poll numbers are said to have figured in Ritter’s decision. But things can turn around before the primary in August and the general election in November. Did I say primary? Democrats will try to avoid one, and they’ll do their best not to make a nasty public show of how they winnow the field.
Fred Brown (punditfwb@aol.com) is retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post.
