{"id":2447889,"date":"2019-08-22T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T04:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/senate-hopefuls-focus-on-gardner-not-hickenlooper-in-aspen\/"},"modified":"2019-08-22T22:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T04:40:00","slug":"senate-hopefuls-focus-on-gardner-not-hickenlooper-in-aspen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/senate-hopefuls-focus-on-gardner-not-hickenlooper-in-aspen\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate hopefuls focus on Gardner, not Hickenlooper, in Aspen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Nearly 200 people attended the Pitkin County Democrats’ annual dinner Thursday at T-Lazy-7 Ranch, where seven primary candidates made their pitches the same day John Hickenlooper announced his candidacy. Hickenlooper did not attend the event.<\/strong>
Rick Carroll\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

John Hickenlooper was not among the Senate candidates at the Pitkin County Democrats dinner event Thursday, but there was little doubt his presence was felt at the T-Lazy-7 Ranch venue.<\/p>\n

The former Colorado governor and Denver mayor announced Thursday his entrance into the 2020 Democratic primary field for the seat held by Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner of Yuma, shaking up a campaign where seven of the 13 declared candidates<\/a> spoke at the local Democrats\u2019 annual affair.<\/p>\n

A press advisory from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, seizing the opportunity to pounce on Hickenlooper\u2019s comments in February that he wasn\u2019t senator material, declared that \u201cTonight in Aspen, Colorado Senate Democrats to Trash Hickenlooper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet despite Hickenlooper\u2019s popularity in Colorado, none of the candidates were ready to deliver any concession speeches just yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn\u2019s decision doesn\u2019t change mine,\u201d said Andrew Romanoff, who was a member of the Colorado House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009, before he took the podium.<\/p>\n

Howard Wallach, chair of the Pitkin County Democrats, said, \u201cI think they will welcome his candidacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The candidates didn\u2019t throw any barbs at the now prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic nomination, yet some of them did call for fresh voices outside of the established order of Colorado Democrats.<\/p>\n

Some humor also was on the menu.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously today is going exactly as we planned,\u201d said candidate Dan Baer, who under the Obama administration was an ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. \u201cEverything is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper\u2019s name surfaced here and there during the dinner, but the candidates\u2019 dissatisfaction with Washington was aimed at Gardner, President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. Among the common themes espoused were regaining control of the Senate, taking on climate change, dismantling white nationalism and providing health care to all Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe important thing is to beat Cory Gardner and to beat Donald Trump,\u201d said candidate Alice Madden, former Colorado State representative and House majority leader.<\/p>\n

Gardner is a first-term senator from Yuma who has aligned with Trump on a number of issues. Like Trump, he also has said the Democrats\u2019 chief objective is to inject socialism into American politics.<\/p>\n

Colorado is considered one of the battleground states for the Senate due in part to Gardner\u2019s purported vulnerability in the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery poll tells us that a potato can take out Cory Gardner,\u201d candidate Stephany Rose Spaulding said.<\/p>\n

Other Senate primary candidates who spoke included Vail native Michael C. Johnston, who served as a state senator from 2009 to 2017; John Walsh, a former U.S. attorney for Colorado; and Lorena Garcia, a late addition to the lineup.<\/p>\n

They, too, took aim at Gardner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a situation where failure is not an option,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cWe must defeat Donald Trump first and foremost, and we have to defeat Cory Gardner and send him back to Yuma.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week the centrist Hickenlooper dropped out of the presidential Democratic primaries because of his poor showing so far in the crowded field; his declaration for a Senate run was expected, though there had been some rumblings he could be holding out for a vice presidential invitation or other political opportunities.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell\u2019s office also sent out a media advisory about Hickenlooper\u2019s Senate run, saying Gardner\u2019s seat \u201cis critical to holding on to our Republican Senate majority and delivering on our promises to the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pitkin County Republican Chairman Bob Jenkins said it is too early to say how Hickenlooper\u2019s campaign will shape Gardner\u2019s bid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Hickenlooper said that he wasn\u2019t going to run for Senate certainly opened the window up for other people who are running,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s an important thing and it was the fact that he said he didn\u2019t want to be a senator is what got all the other legitimate candidates to run, and now he expects them all to step aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly 200 people attended the Pitkin County Democrats’ annual dinner Thursday at T-Lazy-7 Ranch, where seven primary candidates made their pitches the same day John Hickenlooper announced his candidacy. Hickenlooper did not attend the event.Rick Carroll\/The Aspen Times John Hickenlooper was not among the Senate candidates at the Pitkin County Democrats dinner event Thursday, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 15:05:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}