Bob Beauprez in 2014 Colorado Governor's race

On Crime: Require public notice when releasing violent prison inmates

Hickenlooper responded, "This has been a problem in every state and all over the country: When someone serves their time, you can't keep them, but we tried to pass a law last year where you could have civil commitment of people who have mental illness and those deemed a real threat to others, and we couldn't get it through."

Beauprez's campaign accused the governor of "passing the buck" on public safety

On Immigration: 2007: Cleanse out illegals; 2014: no need to send them home

Beauprez--who has long said he doesn't support amnesty-style solutions--said he did not support requiring people in the US who are here illegally to go back to their home countries before re-entering legally. "I don't think that's necessary at all in the era we live in today," he said.

That, however, conflicts with what Beauprez wrote on his blog, A Line of Sight, in 2007, when he called sending immigrants home a "cleansing process."

On Welfare & Poverty: 2010: 47% of people happy to let others pay the bill

He indicated Democrats had reasons to keep it that way. "I submit to you that there is a political strategy to get slightly over half and have a permanent ruling majority by keeping over half of the population dependent on the largesse of government that somebody else is paying for," Beauprez said.

On Education: Our common-sense electorate defeated Amendment 66

A. If you count noses, it's pretty obvious there are more Democrats elected now than there used to be. But when you see what happened with Amendment 66, you have to ask yourself, "Well, wait a minute, didn't they just throw that one back in the governor's face?" Sure they did. Colorado historically has been a little difficult to read, but I believe this is still kind of a common-sense electorate.

[Amendment 66 was a school tax measure that was voted down on the 2013 ballot. The amendment, which was supported by Gov. Hickenlooper, would have provided an increase in public school funding by 16.6%, including funding for charter schools].

On Technology: 10-hour traffic jams are not drivers' fault, as CDOT says

A. Colorado deserves better than what we've been getting. There's been a noticeable lack of leadership. That's the key to this. You wonder if anybody is really in charge. Morning after morning, your newspaper keeps telling us that things aren't going well, not by any stretch of the imagination. That tells me there's a weakness in management. There's a disconnect. Somebody's not paying attention. CDOT explains away a 10-hour traffic jam by saying it's the drivers' fault.

Q. Gov. Hickenlooper is a formidable candidate who is liked by the Republican business community.

A. He's liked by some. Every governor in Colorado is liked by people on both sides of the aisle because they're governor. But I don't think there's much dispute that our economy could be doing better, our job creation is not what it should be. We're simply not going in the right direction.