John Hickenlooper

DENVER– Addressing the fifth annual Sustainable Opportunities Summit here yesterday, candidate for governor and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper noted the political tensions that have risen around the natural gas industry and the environmental community over the past years but said the two sides have more in common than they might think. Making sidelong reference to the back and forth on energy policy between Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter and GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis, Hickenlooper said that as governor he would bring environmentalists and oil and gas industry representatives together to create consensus.

DENVER– As Denver Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper waffles on climate change, the U.S. Geological Society is reporting that Montana’s Glacier National Park will be glacier-less in a decade. Scientists had previously estimated that the park’s signature glacier-grade ice fields would last until 2030.

The debate over the health of the natural gas industry will shape the 2010 campaign for the governor’s office, key seats in the state legislature and even local-level county commissioner races. Unsurprisingly, there are fundamental disagreements about what is happening on the ground in gas country.

Has Democratic candidate for governor John Hickenlooper managed already to surrender campaign narrative control to GOP rival Scott McInnis? Maybe. Progressive analyst and talk show host David Sirota is fed up these days with the way Democrats seem to be governing in the interests of corporations. He’s had enough, for example, of the health care [...]

JohnHickenlooper.com is currently on auction for the low, low price of $995. So far, it looks like the Hickenlooper for Governor task force isn’t interested. Of Hickenlooper.com, Hickenlooperforgov.com and HickenlooperforColorado.com, the last one is “presently under construction” and it mirrors Hick’s mayoral campaign url: hickenlooperformayor.com. He had good luck with that one. A preliminary [...]

DENVER– Former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff minutes ago announced that he was rededicated to his primary campaign to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. He told a crowd of roughly sixty people gathered outside his campaign headquarters here that he called this fraught press conference only to “clear the air,” explaining that he had received hundreds of emails and phone calls over the past week urging him to drop his Senate bid to run for governor in the wake of news that Gov. Bill Ritter would not seek a second term. Politics watchers in the state expected he might declare that he planned to run as lieutenant governor on a ticket topped by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. Romanoff sought to put an end to any speculation along those lines.

“I am running for U.S. Senate,” he said. “I will not accept any other job offers.”

Today brings two big political press events: Former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff is meeting the press at his campaign headquarters sometime just after noon. The answer to the question raised by that sentence is: Yes, Andrew Romanoff is still technically running for the U.S. Senate. At noon, Jon Caldara, head of the conservative / libertarian [...]

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper reportedly almost lost a finger working as a petroleum geologist in the gas patches of Colorado’s Western Slope in the 1980s. Now, according to some environmentalists, as the state’s Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Hickenlooper is in effect giving the finger to supporters of tougher new drilling regulations that went into effect last spring.

DENVER– Mile High NORML boardmember Miguel Lopez introduces pro-pot attorney Robert Corry at Thursday’s medical marijuana rally across the street from the capitol’s west steps. Lopez, who organized the event and delivered its opening speech in a trench coat and pot-leaf earrings, made a low-key announcement that he will be challenging Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper in the Democratic Party gubernatorial primary.

Cary Kennedy, Colorado’s popular treasurer, quashed rumors she was considering running for lieutenant governor on a ticket topped by U.S. Senate candidate and former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff. She sent out a press release an hour ago endorsing Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s candidacy.