Peter Blake has an interesting piece today in The Rocky Mountain News about Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper that echoes everything we've been saying about him for months.
He can't be savoring it, but the dispute over Denver's policies toward illegal immigrants has given Mayor John Hickenlooper a taste of what a statewide campaign would be like. Should he choose to wage one, that is. "I'm not - nor have I been - seeking the office of governor," he said in April, a sentence that even the most casual political observer parsed as a nondenial denial.
Republicans believe, or at least hope, that the mayor - who they believe would be the toughest Democratic candidate for governor - has finally proved to be politically mortal. Democrats insist he's handled himself as well as could be expected and by this time time next year, when the campaign is getting serious, the issue will be a mere blip in the rearview mirror. In any case, there's little question that Hickenlooper's belated willingness to engage in debate with hostile radio hosts is giving him the practice he needs to take on Democratic rivals like Bill Ritter and Rutt Bridges and, if he wins, the GOP nominee.
As we've always said, Hickenlooper is viewed as the toughest Democratic gubernatorial candidate by both parties, and he has never shut the door on running. We didn't invent that stuff...we were just passing along the information.
Also interesting in this story is the discussion about whether the recent debate over illegal immigration will hurt Hick in a potential run for governor...
Hickenlooper has been criticized by some Republicans for whatever they view to have been the city's fault in the role of illegal immigration, which is a politically smart attack to make even if it isn't really fair (Immigration is a federal issue in regards to most enforcement matters. Hickenlooper can no more control how many illegal immigrants get deported than he could overturn Roe v. Wade). But on the other side...
He "handled himself well" the past week, said city lobbyist Maria Garcia Berry, a Democrat turned Republican. "There's not a chink in his armor." Everyone is "desperately looking" for the mayor to stumble, "because he's the 800-pound gorilla with the 93 percent approval rating," but the current controversy won't hurt him.
Should Hickenlooper take on a partisan race like governor the issues will be different, she maintained. Immigration isn't likely to hurt him because so many Republicans side with President Bush on the issue, and Bush has been no more enthusiastic about hunting down illegals than Hickenlooper. Berry also pointed out that Republican Greg Walcher's effort to paint John Salazar as a supporter of "amnesty" for illegal immigrants didn't keep Salazar from being elected congressman from the 3rd District last fall.
Denis Berckefeldt, an aide in the city auditor's office, said Hickenlooper has handled himself "as well as anybody could, given the circumstances." He's become "a very easy target" and taken many "cheap shots," but the 2006 campaign is still far away and the issue "will probably pass."
He's probably right. If the Republicans were all in Rep. Tom Tancredo's camp, eager to seal up the border and expel all illegals, the issue might be more sharply drawn. But the fact is, they're not. Many are more like President Bush. They want a formalized guest worker program and prefer to pay lip service to immigration laws. They're not ready to lead broad sweeps through a host of companies suspected of employing illegals. The owners of those companies may be large Republican donors.
So what's the deal here?
I follow this from out of state.
Clue me in on Hickenboomer's stance.
Posted by: Tim | May 21, 2005 at 08:05 PM
Hickenlooper's stance . . . is one you'll probably only hear him take if he's absolutely certain he is not running for governor. He's enough the politician to recognize a lose-lose issue. He can get away with it here, because (1) he's a mayor with no formal responsibility for immigration issues, and (2) he hasn't done anything except not change unwritten (I assume) policies that already were in place before Railyard Ale started being preserved for off-site distribution.
Posted by: brio | May 21, 2005 at 09:45 PM