The Republican Governors Association isn’t about to let Colorado voters forget that Gov. John Hickenlooper granted killer Nathan Dunlap a last year. The group dedicated to installing GOP leaders over each state released a new video Tuesday taking sharp aim at the issue using local TV news frotage.
As my colleague , it remains to be see whether Hickenlooper loses any votes that he would ever gotten in the first place. But with a surging a economy, which usually favors an incumbent, you can bet any news that seems negative against the affable governor will be red meat for his opponents.
Announcing the video, the RGA referenced a — that he could grant Dunlap clemency, if the governor isn’t re-elected, rather than cede the decision to Republican Bob Beauprez, who .
“Knowing his re-election prospects are dim and getting dimmer, Gov. Hickenlooper is threatening to renege on justice and grant clemency to a convicted murderer should he lose in November,” RGA spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said in a statement. “Colorado needs a real leader in the governor’s office, not a coward who lets politics dictate his decisions on the state’s toughest issues.”
The video on Youtube is labeled “Coward.” Granted, that comes from the words of the father of one of Dunlap’s victims, but it could prove an overreach with important unaffiliated voters in Colorado, who are proud of their state. and even many of his opponents say . — It also comes from a group based in Washington, D.C., that’s led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, The video on the RGA website features Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Both Christie and Walker have been e.
Hickenlooper has on the death penalty, from supporter to opponent. In an interview last Friday, his chief of staff, Roxane White, talked about the complexity of deciding life or death and the true meaning of justice, compared to taking a unbending position. Hickenlooper would have done himself a political favor just by letting Dunlap die on schedule last year.
“Itap much harder to spend weekend after weekend sitting and reading the Nathan Dunlap files, and listening to the victims, and listening to all the transcripts,” she said. “Itap easy to say yes or no to a death penalty case in the abstract. Itap much harder to look at the evidence, listen to jurors, listen to defense attorneys, listen to prosecuting attorneys and do what what a governor is supposed to do, which is not make a fast, hasty decision without really ever reviewing things.”
