Colorado Pols in the News (er, Post)

Colorado Pols is in the Denver Post today, in a story talking about gubernatorial candidates and our Q&A with Marc Holtzman. The story is particularly timely, since we'll be doing another Q&A tomorrow with State Treasurer and fellow gubernatorial candidate Mike Coffman. And then next Tuesday, Feb. 22, we'll run a Q&A with Democratic Party Chair Chris Gates.

Now, there's one thing from the Denver Post story we found particularly perplexing:

Udall spokesman Lawrence Pacheco says the congressman has heard from a variety of people that "formally launching a governor's race now could potentially damage talks happening at the state Capitol."

Huh?

The Post goes on to say that Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald has her eyes on Udall's congressional seat if he runs for governor, which may be the "damage" that Pacheco talks about.

If she's forced to announce her intention for his seat in mid-session, she would no doubt face criticism over her priorities. Does she want to run for Congress or fix the state's budget?

It's no secret that Fitz-Gerald wants that seat, but millionaire and state school board member Jared Polis also wants it, so Fitz-Gerald would have to move quickly indeed. But if Udall is waiting to announce his candidacy because of Joan Fitz-Gerald, he's out of his mind. This just sounds like another convenient excuse to us for Udall to not have to decide - again - on running for statewide office. Udall isn't the key to this anymore anyway. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has taken that role (see below).

Comments

[Curious Stranger]

I find it a bit strange that the Post doesn't even mention Hickenlooper. What could that mean?

[Alva Adams]

The Post has written about Hick and running for governor before in their editorial pages, and have said that they don't think he'd run. Maybe they are just sticking by that theory.

Another explanation is that the media really isn't paying much attention to politics outside of what happens at the legislature. We had Holtzman running for governor a good two weeks before the media picked it up, for example.

Otherwise, we're with you - you may not agree that Hick is the frontrunner, but you can't make an argument that he's not one of the top candidates. Not mentioning him at all is a bit strange indeed.