Gov. John Hickenlooper. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post file)
One of the most mystifying moments in the final debate in the governor’s race came in Gov. John Hickenlooper’s reaction to
Hickenlooper offered an essentially unemotional reply to a loaded question he knew was coming. He only went so far as to call his Republican rival’s use of the murder of the administration’s prison chief in a new TV spot “unfortunate and dumbfounding.” He stuttered in his answer and looked like he wanted to say more but didn’t.
The Democrat left the debate without talking to reporters, but after an event Saturday on the campaign trail, Hickenlooper acknowledged he held back.
“In those debates, I think you sometimes can lose more than you can gain by letting your emotions get carried away,” he told The Denver Post. “I think it was better … sometimes when you speak aloud what you are feeling your emotion can get the better of you.”
He barely even offered a counter punch. “It was frustrating because I couldn’t find the right words,” he said.
Hickenlooper wanted to say violent crime is lower than when he took office. “To try to scare people, that the world’s coming apart, the world’s a more dangerous place than we were … to drag Tom Clements into that discussion is I just think it’s reprehensible,” he said in the interview.
The governor made the comments after speaking a NARAL-led event against Amendment 67, the so-called personhood initiative and a speech at an adjacent Democratic campaign office in Aurora.
With 10 days left in the campaign, he told the two dozen volunteers that the state is moving in the right direction and it’s up to them to keep it going and reelect Democrats.
Hickenlooper has been hard to find on the campaign trail in recent weeks as he keeps a lower-profile. He told the crowd he is attending 14 events Saturday but his campaign spokesman only listed two stops — and didn’t mention the Aurora campaign events — in its schedule sent to The Post.
At a veterans event later in the morning in Aurora, he barely mentioned his campaign, saying only at the end that he hopes the people in the crowd vote. Then, responding to a comment from a veteran who served time in prison and is trying to rebuild his life, Hickenlooper added this:
“I think Colorado should be known as the worst place to create a violent crime but the best place for someone to recreate their life and get a second chance.”
