AP and Nick Riccardi Makes Hickenlooper National Headline

John Hickenlooper | Alex Brandon/AP, File

The LA Times headlined, “‘A hot mess’: Former Governor Hickenlooper stumbles into Colorado primary looms,” a lengthy Page 7 story on John Hickenlooper’s ethical censure and verbal missteps. Written by Colorado-based, longtime AP writer Nick Riccardi, it includes numerous local sources. My contribution was that Colorado has changed in its ideological composition since Hickenlooper, the moderate establishment candidate, last ran in 2014. The changes have shifted Colorado’s swing state reputation to the left, endangering both Cory Gardner’s re-election, but also John Hickenlooper’s primary win.

But if Hickenlooper emerges from the primary victorious but battered, his stumbles could give a lifeline to the man he’d face in November: Cory Gardner, widely considered the nation’s most vulnerable Republican senator. Hickenlooper’s troubles this year reflect how the state has moved to the left since his last election in 2014.

“It’s an indication of how much Denver and the whole state has changed,” Floyd Ciruli, a nonpartisan analyst, said of Hickenlooper’s woes. “We’re no longer a swing state. We’ve become a more liberal state and the Democrats a more liberal party.”

The story, circulated on June 18, helped panic the Democratic establishment. They have finally begun to revive Hickenlooper’s lifeless campaign.