Scott McInnis (left) and John Hickenlooper |
DENVER - Following his surprising second place finish at Saturday's GOP assembly, gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis is annoyed -- but not at Dan Maes, his increasingly formidable primary opponent who eked out a 16-vote win.
McInnis is annoyed at Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who will avoid a Democratic primary after being nominated as his party's candidate for governor Saturday in Broomfield.
Maybe it's because Hickenlooper's road to November is a lot more clear than his own. Maybe McInnis is simply trying to change the subject after Maes' unlikely win -- although Hickenlooper, far from being a new subject for McInnis, has long been the target of his most pointed barbs.
"This race will engage eventually, it just may not happen as soon as Scott McInnis would like," said political analyst Eric Sondermann. "He's probably doing the right thing in keeping his sights set on Hickenlooper, although this primary forces him to run two campaigns for the next three months while Hickenlooper has the luxury of running a general election campaign from the get-go. And McInnis can't appear to be too annoyed because, ultimately, a candidate who is perpetually annoyed won't fare as well as one who is more light-hearted."
Hickenlooper, as has been the trend since he entered the race in January, continues to be calm and quirky and, as much as he can, above the fray, even with McInnis doing all he can to draw him in.
"As John said Saturday, we're approaching this campaign like a job interview. In a real job interview, you don't go in and trash the other applicants, you give your vision," said Hickenlooper spokesman George Merritt. "John plans to use his background running successful small businesses, creating jobs and balancing budgets to grow our economy generate more jobs."
McInnis's latest attacks hit Hickenlooper on three fronts:
Tax exemptions and credits
In February, as the legislature debated and eventually approved a package of bills to eliminate several tax exemptions and credits, McInnis led a chorus of outraged conservatives and business leaders and demanded that Hickenlooper take a side and, if he disagreed with the plan, to do something about it.
At the time, Hickenlooper said it wasn't his job to meddle in the work of lawmakers. Last week, however, Hickenlooper went further than his earlier hinted opposition to the bills and said that he would reinstate the just-closed tax loopholes "as soon as it was economically feasible."
Not surprisingly, the story, first reported by the Denver Daily News, has McInnis on the attack.
"He did nothing but sit, never once raised his voice," McInnis said Monday. "Now that he's running for office, he wants to pretend he's more conservative and he's more Republican. In the heat of the battle, he stays in the fox hole. After the battle is over, he comes out of the fox hole and beats on his chest and says 'I would have done this.' That's why we need strong leadership in the governor's seat."
Mayoral pay
McInnis is also opening a new line of attack on Hickenlooper, who he says is taking advantage of taxpayers by continuing to accept his mayoral salary while spending the bulk of his time campaigning.
"He's not mayor full-time. He's running full-time," McInnis said. "So when this guy says he's standing up for the taxpayers, say to him, 'Are you willing to give up your salary since you're campaigning full time?'"
According to Merritt, Hickenlooper was unavailable to comment directly Tuesday because "he's busy doing mayor stuff", and has, since 2003, donated his mayoral salary to charity.
Zebra stripes
And, following Saturday's assemblies, McInnis even took issue with Hickenlooper's wardrobe -- specifically, the jacket with the zebra-striped lapel Hickenlooper wore when accepting his party's nomination to run for governor.
Hickenlooper's sartorial statement was a light-hearted response to a recent advertisement, sponsored by the Republican Governor's Association, in which Hickenlooper and Gov. Bill Ritter are both shadowed with zebra-patterned stripes and characterized as "politicians of the same stripe."
"Contrary to some misleading information, zebra stripes are like fingerprints," Hickenlooper said in his acceptance speech on Saturday. "Each striping pattern is unique to each individual. So I'm here to tell you one thing: Your candidate for governor has always been a zebra of a different stripe."
Not surprisingly, McInnis doesn't see the humor in his opponent's joke.
"Being Governor of Colorado, this is serious business," McInnis said. "I think it's a lot more serious than he's taking it. There's people losing jobs every day."
In sum, the attacks, each of which can be debated on the merits, run McInnis the risk of appearing to be annoyed or angry, which could backfire, according to political analyst Eric Sondermann.
"McInnis is doing well on the issues, but he doesn't want to run a popularity contest against John Hickenlooper because that's a hard race to win," Sondermann said. "One of challenges of running against Hick -- he does have that quirky ability to dismiss criticism with humor.
"If that's getting under McInnis's skin in late May, one can only imagine how frustrated or exasperated he'll be in October or November."
McInnis is annoyed at Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who will avoid a Democratic primary after being nominated as his party's candidate for governor Saturday in Broomfield.
Maybe it's because Hickenlooper's road to November is a lot more clear than his own. Maybe McInnis is simply trying to change the subject after Maes' unlikely win -- although Hickenlooper, far from being a new subject for McInnis, has long been the target of his most pointed barbs.
"This race will engage eventually, it just may not happen as soon as Scott McInnis would like," said political analyst Eric Sondermann. "He's probably doing the right thing in keeping his sights set on Hickenlooper, although this primary forces him to run two campaigns for the next three months while Hickenlooper has the luxury of running a general election campaign from the get-go. And McInnis can't appear to be too annoyed because, ultimately, a candidate who is perpetually annoyed won't fare as well as one who is more light-hearted."
Hickenlooper, as has been the trend since he entered the race in January, continues to be calm and quirky and, as much as he can, above the fray, even with McInnis doing all he can to draw him in.
"As John said Saturday, we're approaching this campaign like a job interview. In a real job interview, you don't go in and trash the other applicants, you give your vision," said Hickenlooper spokesman George Merritt. "John plans to use his background running successful small businesses, creating jobs and balancing budgets to grow our economy generate more jobs."
McInnis's latest attacks hit Hickenlooper on three fronts:
Tax exemptions and credits
In February, as the legislature debated and eventually approved a package of bills to eliminate several tax exemptions and credits, McInnis led a chorus of outraged conservatives and business leaders and demanded that Hickenlooper take a side and, if he disagreed with the plan, to do something about it.
At the time, Hickenlooper said it wasn't his job to meddle in the work of lawmakers. Last week, however, Hickenlooper went further than his earlier hinted opposition to the bills and said that he would reinstate the just-closed tax loopholes "as soon as it was economically feasible."
Not surprisingly, the story, first reported by the Denver Daily News, has McInnis on the attack.
"He did nothing but sit, never once raised his voice," McInnis said Monday. "Now that he's running for office, he wants to pretend he's more conservative and he's more Republican. In the heat of the battle, he stays in the fox hole. After the battle is over, he comes out of the fox hole and beats on his chest and says 'I would have done this.' That's why we need strong leadership in the governor's seat."
Mayoral pay
McInnis is also opening a new line of attack on Hickenlooper, who he says is taking advantage of taxpayers by continuing to accept his mayoral salary while spending the bulk of his time campaigning.
"He's not mayor full-time. He's running full-time," McInnis said. "So when this guy says he's standing up for the taxpayers, say to him, 'Are you willing to give up your salary since you're campaigning full time?'"
According to Merritt, Hickenlooper was unavailable to comment directly Tuesday because "he's busy doing mayor stuff", and has, since 2003, donated his mayoral salary to charity.
Zebra stripes
And, following Saturday's assemblies, McInnis even took issue with Hickenlooper's wardrobe -- specifically, the jacket with the zebra-striped lapel Hickenlooper wore when accepting his party's nomination to run for governor.
Hickenlooper's sartorial statement was a light-hearted response to a recent advertisement, sponsored by the Republican Governor's Association, in which Hickenlooper and Gov. Bill Ritter are both shadowed with zebra-patterned stripes and characterized as "politicians of the same stripe."
"Contrary to some misleading information, zebra stripes are like fingerprints," Hickenlooper said in his acceptance speech on Saturday. "Each striping pattern is unique to each individual. So I'm here to tell you one thing: Your candidate for governor has always been a zebra of a different stripe."
Not surprisingly, McInnis doesn't see the humor in his opponent's joke.
"Being Governor of Colorado, this is serious business," McInnis said. "I think it's a lot more serious than he's taking it. There's people losing jobs every day."
In sum, the attacks, each of which can be debated on the merits, run McInnis the risk of appearing to be annoyed or angry, which could backfire, according to political analyst Eric Sondermann.
"McInnis is doing well on the issues, but he doesn't want to run a popularity contest against John Hickenlooper because that's a hard race to win," Sondermann said. "One of challenges of running against Hick -- he does have that quirky ability to dismiss criticism with humor.
"If that's getting under McInnis's skin in late May, one can only imagine how frustrated or exasperated he'll be in October or November."
