The lunchtime debates between Hickenlooper and his gubernatorial challenger Bob Beauprez, and later Sen. Mark Udall and his Senate challenger Rep. Cory Gardner, were meant to focus on economic issues. The governor explained that he believed Coloradans lacked enough data about health effects in voting for retail pot, and suggested other states should take heed.
HICKENLOOPER: They did have a deputy sheriff on the premise. The moment there was trouble, he was running to the scene. But there's a balance. And school administrators are trying to make a school not be a fortress. They want to be a place for education.
Q: What about the motivation of this young man?
HICKENLOOPER: There have been reports that maybe he was bullied. Last year, we put in place over $20 million for mental health 24/7 call-in centers & mobile crisis centers, and to train people how to recognize mental illness when you see it. But this kid, by all accounts, didn't exhibit the warning signs of mental illness. Obviously, it's hard to fathom why he would have done this without being somewhat crazy. But bullying does seem to be involved. We have programs now throughout the state, anti-bullying, trying to get kids to deal with that in a more constructive way.
HICKENLOOPER: Well, we don't think so. Some people have suggested perhaps there's a copycat element to this. But he bought the gun legally; then he bought a large amount of ammunition. Having had these episodes in the past, we do have strategies and protocols in place, where we had a deputy sheriff who was there within a minute of the first shots.
Q: You had two state legislators who were recalled from office because they led the effort to tighten gun laws out there. Where do you see this going?
HICKENLOOPER: Two things that Coloradoans deeply care about is the protection of their Second Amendment rights, but they also care deeply about making their community safer. Things like universal background checks, I think they are going to make us safer. But in this specific case, it's not going to make a difference at all.
However it's difficult to say with certainty just how much the state's strict new gun control laws play into voters' feelings on Hickenlooper. In early 2013 polling, Colorado voters overwhelmingly favored universal background check legislation and a strong majority supported a ban on high capacity magazines which hold more than 10 rounds.
His critics received some of these efforts coolly. The Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer said she wasn't happy with Hickenlooper's answer when asked if he would scrap the renewable energy law. He said opponents were welcome to introduce bills to modify it. But she said she hopes that after all the turmoil recently, "he will at least listen better this year, this time around."
This week Hickenlooper told Colorado Counties Inc. that he'd gotten the message, loud and clear. The secession question "really led to discussions that are going to make each of your counties stronger and, I think, ultimately make the state stronger," he said.
HICKENLOOPER: Definitely what we called this was a "line item recall." I'm not sure it has a national message or even a statewide message.
Q: Is there unease with the broader Democratic social agenda?
HICKENLOOPER: No. I saw most of the campaign literature in both of those recall campaigns. To the vast majority, it was very specific about universal background checks, high capacity magazines.
Q: NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg heads up a mayor's group that is pushing for more gun control. He sunk a lot of money into trying to save these two Democratic state senators. Was it helpful?
HICKENLOOPER: In Colorado, like a lot of western states, we like to solve our own problems with our own people. So, there is a certain resentment when any outside money whether it's from Bloomberg or from National Rifle Association.
HICKENLOOPER: After the shootings last summer in the movie theater, we really focused on mental health first then universal background checks. Colorado is a state where we have a long tradition of a relationship with guns and hunting and that traditional approach from father to child. So we tried to tighten up a little bit things like universal background checks which clearly make a significant difference, that's where we put our initial focus.
Q: Do you think that the Congress is wrong not to go after an assault weapons ban?
HICKENLOOPER: I think the feeling right now around assault weapons at least in Colorado is that they're so hard to define what an assault weapon is. There's a lot of questions whether the federal ban made a difference. It's a tough sell.
A: When you look at the mess that President Obama inherited--losing 800,000 jobs a month--in the first few months of his presidency, he's turned that around. He's got 32 straight months of job creation, 5.2 million jobs, the national export initiative in the first two years, exports were up 38%. I think people are going to hear that and I think they are also going to recognize that Governor Romney's plan of adding $2 trillion to military spending and at the same time promising $5 trillion of tax cuts largely skewed to the wealthier parts of the population without any specifics, right? I mean, what are those deductions and tax credits he's going to get rid of? Are we going to lose the home mortgage deduction? Are we going to lose the deduction from giving to philanthropic organizations like churches that are in many cases our best partners at fighting poverty?
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The above quotations are from 2014 Colorado Gubernatorial debates and race coverage.
Click here for other excerpts from 2014 Colorado Gubernatorial debates and race coverage. Click here for other excerpts by John Hickenlooper. Click here for other excerpts by other Governors.
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