Much is going to be made in mainstream media that John Hickenlooper did not run one negative ad, while his opponent did the deed dirt at every ad turn. But that’s not a story any more than it is a story for a decent man not to beat his wife even though the man down the street does.
What stands out in the race actually, is that there was no true contender in the race for governor in Colorado. Not if you have common sense, not if you know 2+2=4.
It was between two undisputable family men, two men experienced in politics…. one who’d been a Rep in Federal Congress, one the Mayor of Denver: Mayor John Hickenlooper (d) won. His ‘opponent’ was Rep Tom Tancredo, the ‘send ’em all back where they came from’ fellow who some said would jail anyone looking suspiciously Mexican (disclosure, I’m a Latina and out here in the Rockies the harassment of those born here, those with papers, and those without is everyday present, undifferentiated, and in part, a washover of saliva and spume from Ariz, it seems).
Mr. Tancredo was also the ONLY Republican Representative whom George Bush (R) banished from the White House (according to Tancredo) sayingsome version of ‘Do not darken our doors again’ … apparently because Tancredo’s political skewed ideas were so repulsive to fellow Republican, Bush.
So the ‘race’ for Colorado governorship was really more like a senior walkathon than a roller derby race, and the highlight was not Hickenlooper’s clean ads which are as they ought be amongst the recently or long term civilized. Rather, the remarkable thing was when Tancredo pulled out an insane ad, accusing Hickenlooper of somehow being directly responsible for a dear little child killed in an auto accident by a driver who was in Colorado without papers… it was that leap to a huge gust of illogic, a fugue state of ad-dom, so bizarre and unfounded, it actually alienated a seeming large number of Republicans… giving truth to the truth as we say in the military… it is always a mistake to sh__ in one’s own mess kit.
So, Hickenlooper won by a large margin with limpish voter turnout, and many are rejoicing and many are weeping at this outcome, depending on who wanted what, and in the end, Hick, as we call him, was the better choice for one of the things most needed in Colorado— and that is jobs, jobs in the rural lands, and jobs in the city sectors.
Hick is not a professional politician per se, but a longtime businessman who has owned and managed successful brew pubs and restaurants, and actually knows ground up, unlike Tancredo, what the working people of Colorado might most need to be guided into to succeed… mom and pop shops as well as larger corporate glory and jobs on the frontier of new ideas…. He’ll know alot of ‘how to’… hands-on.
I very much hope his warmth, silly humor and smarts will be poured over the middle aged and the elderly and not only the young in terms of boosting small businesses– as he already in his winner’s speech pledged to do. It is the middle aged and the elders of our world who often are the givers and financial supporters of the young …to aid and to better themselves, to help support the grandchildren, to help with college… if the elders and the middle aged have decent jobs.
When Governors Ritter, Owens, Romer were elected, I visited with each one as a governor’s appointee to the Department of Regulatory Agencies. In all cases, and that’s one R and two D’s, they were clear they were governors of ALL the people, not just a coterie, and thus the struggle for them began as new Governors, that is… to explain, or not, to all those who elected them, that they would not receive all favor, that the governorship was to help, hold, enable, all…. with a tilt to principles insofar as one could toward one’s own political governance philosophy.
But philosophy is not reality, and for all new governors, reality is their only coin of the realm.
And so speaking, Colorado is almost 1B in debt from past years of no saving back… and we taxpayers are already taxed to the hilt, and I do mean to the hilt… so the counting of and hoarding of and dispersing of the coin part begins immediately for Hick… and the grand realm part… well, maybe later. Not now.
To many of us, the governorship going to a highly qualified Hick is not because he is some angel regarding running ‘clean ads’ It’s that the opponent played the ‘defies credulity devil card.’ And yet, we’ve all noticed, after elections, even those mimicking the least of human nature, often return to being human again, after.
So may it be for all who have been ‘way out there’ in one way or another during this election cycle. May it be so for all opponents and contenders.
Dr.E