Chris Christie promised it would be like this. When the New Jersey governor was in town stumping for GOP gubernatorial nominee Bob Beauoprez a few weeks ago, he said the Republican Governors Association would be heard in the Centennial State. The RGA debuted its first ad against incumbent John Hickenlooper on Tuesday. Be assured it won’t be the last.
By late afternoon Hickenlooper offered his own video, accompanied by a press release titled, “Hickenlooper releases positive video in response to negative ad launched by Republican Governors Association today.”
“Four years ago we promised to run a positive campaign, and we did,” Hickenlooper said in the release. “We took the same approach across Colorado. We promised to focus on the economy and we did right away. Colorado has improved from 40th to fourth in the nation for job creation. And unemployment is down from 9.1 percent to 5.3 percent. In September 2013 when floods devastated our communities, we promised to get all roads and bridges open by December 1st, and we did before Thanksgiving. Keeping promises, working together, delivering results — thatap how we move Colorado up.”
So far, has been a focus of the Hickenlooper’s campaign, a topic Beauprez has said he too would press with a critical assessment of the incumbent’s work.
A few months ago, even some Republicans doubted that the RGA would spend much money on the race, if Hickenlooper opened with double-digit leads in the polls. The governor, however, trailed Beauprez by a thin margin in a . With the race so close, outside groups from both sides are expected to dump millions in the race.
“Listen, there is no one who is alive and awake in Colorado who doesn’t believe this is a winnable race,” Christie told diners and reporters at Sam’s No. 3 Diner on July 23. He promised RGA, which he chairs, would invest lots of campaign dollars in Colorado, and Christie would be back to campaign for Beauprez some more.
As he spoke, members of the liberal group ProgressNow Colorado protested outside the diner about New Jersey corruption and the alleged abuse-of-power scandal that has dimmed Christie’s GOP star power this year. On Monday Micheal Huttner, ProgressNow’s founder who is running Making Colorado Great this year, on Monday, naming Christie, recently indicted Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former House Speaker Tom DeLay.
Beauprez said, with Christie at his side, “I couldn’t feel better than to stand next to your, governor.”
The ad opens mocking Hickenlooper for playing pool with President Obama at the Wynkoop Brewery, when Obama was in town for a in June.
“John Hickenlooper is a fun guy to shoot pool with,” the narrator says over grainy video of the two shooting stick. “But when it comes to making the tough decisions, Hickenlooper won’t step up to the table.”
It’s worth noting that when it initially appeared Hickenlooper wouldn’t be able to schedule time to see the president during the roughly 20-hour overnight stay, Republicans . The RGA said before Hickenlooper lost a game of pool, whom he jokingly called a “shark,” It’s odd RGA picked the incident, then, for its first attack ad. But Hickenlooper shouldn’t expect compassion, no matter what he does short of stepping down, from the group out to replace him.
Gail Gitcho, RGA’s communications director, added a statement to the video’s release:
“When faced with tough decisions, itap up to a governor to step in and take the lead, but that hasn’t been the case in Colorado under Gov. John Hickenlooper. Voters expected action from Governor Hickenlooper, but instead, he’s repeatedly shirked his responsibilities. Enough is enough. Itap time for a leadership change in Colorado. Itap time for a doer like Bob Beauprez in the governor’s office.”
