GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.—Former Colorado state Sen. Josh Penry, who briefly ran for the Republican nomination for governor last year, has taken a job in Denver as a business consultant but is keeping the door open for a possible return to politics.
Penry told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel on Friday that he’ll work in the Denver office of EIS Solutions, a Grand Junction energy consulting firm.
He said he will help energy companies with business, communication and regulatory issues.
Penry, 34, said he knows he’ll have political opportunities in the future but wants to work in the private sector for a while for financial reasons and so he can spend more time with his family.
“If it makes sense, I’ll jump back in, but I’m honestly not planning anything,” he said.
Penry dropped out of the governor’s race a year ago after big GOP donors backed former congressman Scott McInnis.
It was the first big development in a campaign that proved disastrous for Republicans.
McInnis became embroiled in a plagiarism scandal and lost the primary to Don Maes, a little-known businessman from Evergreen.
Maes suffered a series of campaign gaffes, including questions about his murky law enforcement career and his views on United Nations global warming conspiracies involving bicycles in Denver.
Republican Tom Tancredo, a former congressman who said Maes couldn’t win, mounted a third-party challenge.
Democrat John Hickenlooper, currently the mayor of Denver, easily beat both Tancredo and Maes in the Nov. 2 election.
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Information from: The Daily Sentinel,
