It’s 10:30 a.m. on a Monday in the state Capitol and the governor’s office is buzzing.
Staff is filing in and out of Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office. Sky, his mellow, brown-and-black dog lounges on a chair nearby. She isn’t bothered by the hectic shuffling into conference rooms, as staff and Hickenlooper prepare for a big budget forecast.
In fact, it doesn’t even phase her. It’s a pretty normal Monday morning under the Gold Dome.
The scene is a familiar one for anybody who has spent any time around the state Capitol. It was the same for former governors Dick Lamm, Roy Romer, Bill Owens and Bill Ritter. It’ll be the same for whomever voters choose to lead the state following Hickenlooper.
Colorado’s governor is the state’s commander in chief, but more than one person who’s held the job said they also end up being “consoler in chief,” as Hickenlooper put it. The duties extend beyond the walls of the statehouse.
For those seeking the seat, the state constitution dictates the governor must be at least 30 years old, a resident of the state for two years and hasn’t been convicted of “embezzlement of public moneys, bribery, perjury, solicitation of bribery, or subornation of perjury.”
But former governors say it takes a particular kind of person to lead Colorado, and voters should be looking for those traits in the months leading up to the election. In the next term, legislators and the governor will almost certainly have to continue battling the state’s transportation and education funding woes, along with the growing need for affordable housing and issues facing Medicaid. Those topics divide Democrats and Republicans, and there’s no indication there’s much compromise coming soon.
The ex-governors, along with Hickenlooper, say getting anything of substance accomplished will require some give and take. That’s the magic piece to a successful tenure as governor.
So far, the gubernatorial race has attracted a diverse set of candidates, and the nation is taking notice.
In January, Frank Bruni, a New York Times political columnist wrote that the race seemed to be a free-for-all, with its state treasurer, former state treasurer, attorney general and lieutenant governor among several others jumping into the fray.
“And how Coloradans sift through their choices will have resonance far beyond the Rocky Mountains,” Bruni wrote.
So how should voters decide who to lead their grand purple state? What qualities make a quality candidate a good governor?
The leaders who know the position well have some experience. And some advice.
DICK LAMM: Watch for ‘bullshit’
Great politicians are great human beings. Former Gov. Dick Lamm wants voters to keep that in mind in deciding the next governor of Colorado. And really, any leader for that matter.
Through the campaign stops, the speeches, the ads, the social media and the politics of it all, it boils down to the person. Lamm, who served as governor longer than any of his successors — from 1975 through 1987 — said he believes voters should have a sense of who candidates are as people and as politicians, and that can’t necessarily be learned unless voters do their homework.
Perhaps it’s too much to ask of voters to go out and meet candidates, he said. After all, the race so far has been wide open. Only after the precinct caucus this month was there any indication what a race will look like later down the road. And there’s a lot to learn about the candidates themselves. From current office holders to businessmen and women, they each represent their party a little differently. Picking the right candidate to support, especially early on, is going to require some effort.
“Watch the debates, because that’s when they’re really under pressure. Try to find the interviews rather than the 30 second ads,” Lamm said. “People have their lifetime of experience and most of them have bullshit detectors and they’ve see a lot of politicians’ promises and I just think they get a feel for us.”
If Lamm could do it over again, he said he’d maybe take a gentler approach to some battles. Though, he’s still not taking “yes” for an answer on bringing the Olympics to Colorado. Earlier this month he took to the state Capitol to reassert his disapproval from when he was a state legislator. Lamm won that battle, and today Denver is still the only city to have been offered the winter Olympics and turn it down.
His big piece of advice to the next governor, at least in terms of policy, is that “the oil can is mightier than the sword.” It was a line famous to Republican Everett Dirksen, a former U.S. Senate Minority Leader.
“He was a wise Republican back in the day when there were moderate Republicans,” Lamm said.
To him, that line has a lot of meaning to a place like the Colorado legislature — especially as fights are increasingly partisan and drawn out.
“You can fight for your issues in a less dramatic way. That’s where the oil can is mightier than the sword. Remember their wives’ names, ask about their children,” Lamm said of how the governor should connect with members of the state House and Senate. “They are human beings. I was a lawyer, an advocate, and in the leadership in the legislature. I was a fighter on issues, not a conciliator. It took me a while to learn that.”
Lamm said with a laugh that he thinks the governors that followed him did a better job of that. And if he were to do it again, Lamm said he’d make more use out of the Governor’s Mansion. He’d invite a couple of legislators to breakfast each week, just to get to know them and learn more about their views, and work and goals during the session.
“They’re not going to vote with you because you had them for breakfast, but you get to know them and they get to know you. It soon becomes apparent you have the welfare of Colorado in mind,” he said.
Aside from extending an olive branch, Lamm said it’s OK to be selfish sometimes, too. The governor shouldn’t accept every invitation that comes his or her way. It’s easy to feel like they have to when so much has gone into winning an election.
“But there’s only so much time and only so many days and you gotta keep your sanity,” he said.
Even more, Lamm said a governor should make time for two events each day: a workout and time with the family. He penciled in dinner with his wife and children every day and ran five miles.
“The phones are ringing all the time and people are coming at you. You just gotta get away and get some exercise,” he said, admitting, “It’s not earthshaking advice,” but it helps ward off the stress.
But above all, Lamm said the biggest piece of advice he can offer the next governor is that they keep their word.
“Sometimes you have to backup as you get more information, but you can always say I really screwed up,” he said. “They know you’re human. Don’t be afraid to screw up because we are all human.”
ROY ROMER: Only the middle ground moves
Pushing 90 years old, former Gov. Roy Romer is still swamped with meetings during the week. Finding time to scrape some advice from the politico-turned-superintendent can be difficult. If he’s slowed down from his days of governing Colorado, from 1987 to 1999, and leading the Los Angeles Unified School District, he isn’t obvious about it.
But he is clear about one thing. Colorado’s next governor must be able to address the state through working with Republicans and Democrats. There really isn’t another option.
“One trait that’s very important is that the next governor must be able to listen and stand in the shoes of the people that have different points of view,” he said.
After that, compromise is the next important aspect of leading the state. But Romer, who hails from the small southeastern Colorado town of Holly, emphasizes that compromise should be “appropriate.” Specifically on the most pressing issues. Romer said those priorities should be education, climate change and infrastructure.
“This is a state with very diverse views on these issues so to get action you have to find appropriate middle ground,” he said. “Where we’ve made significant improvements (they) have been made on appropriate compromise.”
The Democrat hardly had time to expand on what issues compromise has served well in Colorado. Another call was coming in. But Romer is no stranger to a hot take in Colorado politics, even in recent years. In 2015, at Gov. John Hickenlooper’s inaugural dinner Romer took the stage and pressed Hickenlooper to repeal TABOR.
A Denver Post article said the speech was an “earful.” And Romer was relentless.
“We need to invest in the future of our children’s education and the infrastructure of this state. We need to return that power, that authority, that decision, to the people’s representative, the legislature and the governor.”
In December, Los Angeles City Council honored Romer for his time running the country’s second largest school district. He served as superintendent from 2000 through 2006. Education remains a top issue for him.
“I was over 70, I was unemployed, I needed a job. Having served 12 years as Colorado’s governor, you’ve got to look hard to find a better job than that,” he said addressing the council. He added that with 22 grandchildren, “there is no higher value in my system than to enable a person to learn and to grow and to be all they can be. I didn’t work harder all my life than the six years, seven years I spent here.”
Despite the political gridlock education issues bring in state politics, Romer said the state has to continue to work to grow K-12 education, and that’s going to require some real hard work and appropriate compromise.
BILL OWENS: It’s about the gridlock
Whether the next governor carries an “R” or a “D” after their name, former Gov. Bill Owens, once called “America’s best governor” by the ever-conservative National Review, said he believes they’ll have Coloradans’ best interest in mind, not just the party that helped elect them.
In a recent interview Owens prefaced that statement, which would hardly make it without fellow conservatives piling on criticism today, with the fact that he believes himself to be “as conservative as they come.”
“You want someone who is going to put Colorado first. While each one of us is a Republican or Democrat, you simply do what is best for the state,” Owens said. “And to a large extent I think elected officials actually do this. Now, I don’t always agree what they think is in the best interest.”
Owens, who served as governor from 1999 to 2007, had 16 years of experience under the gold dome before he arrived in the governor’s office — 12 as a legislator and four as the state treasurer. He’s now an attorney with Greenberg Traurig.
“So there weren’t a lot of surprises,” he said.
But that didn’t ward off tough times. Owens saw the nation change while at the helm. In April 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher, wounded 20 others and then took their own lives at Columbine High School in Littleton. Then, it was the worst school shooting the country had seen. It prompted a national debate on gun control — much like what has seemingly become a permanent fixture in news and politics today.
“There are times when, as governor, your role and responsibility is to be in essence the father of the state, and that’s what Gov. Lamm literally told me on the morning of Columbine,” Owens said. “He said your job today is to be the father of Colorado. He said this is your job and do it.”
So that’s what Owens did. He called both former Govs. Dick Lamm and Roy Romer for advice. Romer, who was in Washington, D.C., at the time of the shooting flew back to Colorado at the request of Owens so they could attend the funerals together.
Two years after the Columbine shooting, Owens endured another tragedy: Sept. 11.
“Within the first two and a half years (of my first term) I had Columbine, which was obviously a statewide and national tragedy. And then I had 9-11 which really changed everything,” Owens said. “It was traumatic, calling up the National Guard and the challenge in the days, weeks and months afterward. We (every governor) had a secure phone installed on (our) desk. The funerals that followed those events — it’s a solemn duty and honor to go to those funerals.”
Owens said asking the state’s former leaders for advice comes with the territory of being governor, even if they’re from a different party. He’s been on both ends of the phone, giving and asking for guidance.
“For whatever reason the governors Colorado has elected have tried to reach across the aisle,” he said.
That became especially true when working with the Legislature, he said. But then, in the early 2000s, Owens acknowledges politics were different, not so nasty or personal. There were times when Republicans and Democrats were pitted against each other. But it wasn’t like the gridlock the state encounters today, he said.
“It’s moved to a different level. It doesn’t mean it’s not fixable. But the first step is to realize we have a problem. And we do have a problem,” Owens said. “There isn’t an ability for a Democrat to work with a Republican without being criticized by his or her (partisan) base. The base needs to start to allow them to work with one another.”
When it comes to big issues, like transportation — which prompted a special session last year that resulted in no immediate action on a bill both parties agreed included a drafting error that cost special districts millions — education and the budget, there’s little room for Republicans and Democrats to agree.
It’s not all on the lawmakers either, Owens said. The standstill that seems to constantly occur between the two parties, especially with a divided House and Senate, isn’t going to change anytime soon unless the voters want it to.
Owens’ advice to voters in the next election is to be open and to really listen to what they have to say on leading the state.
“Understand these are probably good people, and the fact that you disagree with them, doesn’t make them bad people. It is stunning to me the viciousness and hatred over issues that are only differences of opinion,” he said. “Voters have a duty in this as well. If you don’t like these people, change them. These are elected officials.”
What’s made the political climate even worse is social media, Owens said. A lot of social media was just gaining popularity on the tail end of his time in office.
“My concern is today that in the age of social media we’re destroying (candidates) before they have a chance to govern,” Owens said. “That’s what’s been changing over the last 10 or 20 years. Politics are more personal. We can agree to disagree.”
BILL RITTER: Look for the party poopers to get stuff done
When former Gov. Bill Ritter took office in 2007, a shift in American politics was taking place. It was most obvious on the national stage with the election of Barack Obama and the gridlock that was to follow.
But Ritter said that trickled down to the statehouse, and even though he believed Colorado had a relatively good track record of being a state in which Republicans and Democrats could eventually find common ground and work together, both ends of the political spectrum were becoming bolder and gaining more traction. Those in the middle eventually shied toward the fringe.
“It wasn’t like turning on a light, it was a gradual evolution. A variety of things were at play: Term limits, the way redistricting occurred, the amount of money in campaigns, the level of campaign finance — the more money spent the more negative they are, and that in turn causes these deeper chasms in the party,” Ritter said. “If you compare what was spent in the election or three elections ago, we had a much more expensive election.”
Now the Director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University, Ritter spent several years as Denver’s district attorney before being elected to the state’s highest seat. He said the next leader of Colorado has to be somebody who has a willingness to work with Republicans and Democrats. Real compromise, not lip service. That, above all, will be what it takes to lead the state through recurring challenges.
“This is a fantastic job,” Ritter said. “But there are some things about that job that not much else prepares you for.”
Among those challenges are how the campaign rhetoric flows over into the job.
“For me, I had some expectations that the politics of the campaign wouldn’t surface in the same way after the election,” he said. “And it felt like to me in Colorado where that was the case. The politics of the elections and then a different way people dealt with each other under the dome. I had some pleasant encounters that led me to believe that was the case and some that led me to believe it wasn’t.”
That undoubtedly made the job more difficult, he said. It also played into the partisanship.
“I don’t think one party or another has a stranglehold on being overly partisan. It felt to me that most people who worked there would say it’s a different day than it was 20 years ago,” he said. “When Barack Obama was elected — it’s hard to describe, but it felt like the political winds and differences surfaced in a different way after Obama’s election than existed before that.”
Ritter and the other former governors all agree the next leader should show a desire to work across the table. That becomes a must, he said.
But beyond that he recommends candidates start putting together a cabinet before the election. He also highlights the importance of having experts in those cabinet spots, even if it means they don’t see eye to eye all of the time.
“We looked for people who were people of vision,” he said. “I didn’t have to agree with them on everything, but I did want people who could see around the corner.”
JOHN HICKENLOOPER: Pick your values
Even in his last year, Gov. John Hickenlooper is perfecting his technique as the state’s leader.
He says in the last year he’s shifted his schedule around to take fewer meetings. Instead, he said he spends more time emailing, more time reading and more time poring over studies, data and expert opinions on topics facing the state.
“More time just thinking,” he said from behind a stack of sprawled out binders at a conference table in his office.
“If you’re not careful, you can fill your whole day up with a parade of senior VPs, consulate generals from small countries, civic non-profits and leaders. Part of their success and their job is getting in to see the governor,” he said. “I think part of the success of governor is that you’ve got to be willing to have a hard line and say, unless I can really do something important to the future of the state — that’s why you get 15 minutes instead of an hour.”
Politics was never really in the plan for Hickenlooper. He was a geologist-turned-brewmaster before being elected Denver’s mayor. But as a voter, he said he’d always think about what he’d do if he was living a life of policy and legislation. Whoever aligned with how he thought he’d govern, got his vote.
“Before I ever imagined I would get into politics, I would try to imagine that I was getting the job. I never planned on being in politics or anything like that. But if I was voting for a city council person, I’d try to imagine what I’d do in that job, and I’d look for a candidate that — even if they were completely different — had the same values. They might do things very differently or make different decisions than I would, but most candidates in a campaign reveal their values.”
Those values become really important in the end, as does how a candidate navigates the campaign.
“(Former Gov.) Roy Romer told me when I was running, ‘John, the people that win campaigns for governor grow the most during their campaign,’” he said.
In office, Hickenlooper said the next governor should have a major focus on the economy. It has been for him, especially given his background.
“I’m a big believer in civil rights and social justice. Coming from the restaurant business, I have an instinctive desire to protect the little guy. But within that civil rights and social justice, you have to promote entrepreneurship and job creation (too).”
While Hickenlooper was still running a restaurant in Denver, Romer happened to be dining there one night. Hickenlooper recalls the former governor telling a group he was with that, “quality of life starts with a good job.”
“That’s really true,” Hickenlooper said.
Above all, he said a governor should have persistence.
“You want somebody who’s a hard worker. It’s a hard job,” he said. “And you want somebody who is kind. That’s important because you have to say ‘no’ to so many people.”
