Gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes speaks at the Lion's Club of Denver. (June 1, 2010) |
DENVER - When Dan Maes notched a surprising 16-vote win over Scott McInnis at the GOP state assembly last month, the Evergreen businessman turned the gubernatorial race into a three-candidate contest -- at least for the next two months.
On Tuesday, Maes took his rightful place on the stage, literally, as he, McInnis and Mayor John Hickenlooper, the only Democrat running, appeared together for the first time at a luncheon gathering of the Lion's Club of Denver.
And if Maes' emergence as a serious contender is going to shake up the race, it didn't happen Tuesday, as the three candidates treaded lightly on their attack lines with their opponents in the room. Instead, they stuck to their normal messages.
And Maes, for his part, appeared to be quite comfortable in the conversation, which he led off with a 10-minute speech before leaving ahead of remarks from his rivals.
After describing his upbringing in the Midwest and his college days at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, a liberal bastion that galvanized his own conservative views and, in 1980, led him to vote for Ronald Reagan, Maes confidently told the crowd that he, a self-made businessman, was the candidate of the conservative grassroots.
"There's a conservative revolution, and that revolution spoke very loudly at the State Assembly on May 22," Maes said. "They said 'We're ready for fresh talent; we're ready for someone new'."
McInnis, who spoke next, followed with his typical stump speech about the continued flood of lost jobs, arguing that the Democrats who control the state are largely responsible.
"The Democrats control the state House, they have the Senate, the governorship and they've got the Mayor of Denver," McInnis said. "This is their baby. And this last year was about the coldest year we had for business I can remember in my legislative career."
McInnis argued pointedly against the Democrat's decision to eliminate roughly a dozen tax credits and exemptions in order to generate millions to help offset the state's burgeoning revenue shortfall. With Hickenlooper looking on, McInnis stopped well short of berating the Denver Mayor for not intervening as the legislature debated the issue earlier this year.
Hickenlooper, speaking last, addressed the issue briefly.
"All of the difficult decisions the legislature had to make this past session -- and I'm not saying I sign off on any of those -- but there were serious [budget] restrictions," Hickenlooper said. "On basic issues about this campaign, I agree mostly Scott and Dan. I think the economy has got to be front and center."
All three candidates expressed a shared belief that Colorado's economic recovery will be their main focus -- and argued that their backgrounds make them best equipped to lead it.
For McInnis, it's his decades of experience as a state legislator and then U.S. congressman -- although any experience is increasingly viewed as a liability by a skeptical grassroots.
"I hear people say, and I've been in business for a long time, 'Well, you run [state government] like a business'," McInnis said. "Well, it's a little different than a business. I'm very optimistic about the future, but we have to have somebody who understands the past, who understands the legislative process."
Like Maes, Hickenlooper's background is also in business. And, as long as Maes and McInnis stay bogged down in a primary fight, Hickenlooper will likely have the luxury to talk mainly about his biography and to emphasize one of his greatest strengths -- being non-political.
It's a story he'll tell again and again with a variety of examples: how, as owner of the Wynkoop Brewery in the days before LoDo's renaissance, he rooted for his competitors in the belief that a rising tide lifts all ships, or businesses; how, as Mayor, he explained to the board of Denver Water that conservation could help neighboring cities and, thus, the entire state; how, as an executive, he built a cabinet of people without worrying about their political inclinations.
"'When we're trying to find solutions and bring people together, we don't talk politics," said Hickenlooper, who claimed not to know his own chief of staff, Roxann White, was a Republican until she volunteered the information in a staff meeting.
"I'm not as much a Democrat as I am a Coloradan," Hickenlooper said.
On Tuesday, Maes took his rightful place on the stage, literally, as he, McInnis and Mayor John Hickenlooper, the only Democrat running, appeared together for the first time at a luncheon gathering of the Lion's Club of Denver.
And if Maes' emergence as a serious contender is going to shake up the race, it didn't happen Tuesday, as the three candidates treaded lightly on their attack lines with their opponents in the room. Instead, they stuck to their normal messages.
And Maes, for his part, appeared to be quite comfortable in the conversation, which he led off with a 10-minute speech before leaving ahead of remarks from his rivals.
After describing his upbringing in the Midwest and his college days at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, a liberal bastion that galvanized his own conservative views and, in 1980, led him to vote for Ronald Reagan, Maes confidently told the crowd that he, a self-made businessman, was the candidate of the conservative grassroots.
"There's a conservative revolution, and that revolution spoke very loudly at the State Assembly on May 22," Maes said. "They said 'We're ready for fresh talent; we're ready for someone new'."
McInnis, who spoke next, followed with his typical stump speech about the continued flood of lost jobs, arguing that the Democrats who control the state are largely responsible.
"The Democrats control the state House, they have the Senate, the governorship and they've got the Mayor of Denver," McInnis said. "This is their baby. And this last year was about the coldest year we had for business I can remember in my legislative career."
McInnis argued pointedly against the Democrat's decision to eliminate roughly a dozen tax credits and exemptions in order to generate millions to help offset the state's burgeoning revenue shortfall. With Hickenlooper looking on, McInnis stopped well short of berating the Denver Mayor for not intervening as the legislature debated the issue earlier this year.
Hickenlooper, speaking last, addressed the issue briefly.
"All of the difficult decisions the legislature had to make this past session -- and I'm not saying I sign off on any of those -- but there were serious [budget] restrictions," Hickenlooper said. "On basic issues about this campaign, I agree mostly Scott and Dan. I think the economy has got to be front and center."
All three candidates expressed a shared belief that Colorado's economic recovery will be their main focus -- and argued that their backgrounds make them best equipped to lead it.
For McInnis, it's his decades of experience as a state legislator and then U.S. congressman -- although any experience is increasingly viewed as a liability by a skeptical grassroots.
"I hear people say, and I've been in business for a long time, 'Well, you run [state government] like a business'," McInnis said. "Well, it's a little different than a business. I'm very optimistic about the future, but we have to have somebody who understands the past, who understands the legislative process."
Like Maes, Hickenlooper's background is also in business. And, as long as Maes and McInnis stay bogged down in a primary fight, Hickenlooper will likely have the luxury to talk mainly about his biography and to emphasize one of his greatest strengths -- being non-political.
It's a story he'll tell again and again with a variety of examples: how, as owner of the Wynkoop Brewery in the days before LoDo's renaissance, he rooted for his competitors in the belief that a rising tide lifts all ships, or businesses; how, as Mayor, he explained to the board of Denver Water that conservation could help neighboring cities and, thus, the entire state; how, as an executive, he built a cabinet of people without worrying about their political inclinations.
"'When we're trying to find solutions and bring people together, we don't talk politics," said Hickenlooper, who claimed not to know his own chief of staff, Roxann White, was a Republican until she volunteered the information in a staff meeting.
"I'm not as much a Democrat as I am a Coloradan," Hickenlooper said.
