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Hickenlooper Announces $1 Million Fundraising in 48 Hours

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper
John Hickenlooper / Getty Images
March 6, 2019

Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper (D.) is touting a fundraising haul of one million dollars in the two days since he announced he was running for president.

"No corporate PAC money," an email from his leadership PAC said. "No general election dollars. One million dollars in grassroots contributions to our primary campaign."

"Not only is that a huge milestone—it's something only three other candidates in this primary have publicly announced."

As for those other Democratic "three candidates" mentioned, press reports would suggest that possibly four candidates other than Hicknelooper have managed that tally.

California Senator Kamala Harris raised $1.5 million in one day, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar also reached $1 million in 48 hours, and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders blew past them all hitting $6 million in one day.

Media accounts differ slightly for Washington Governor Jay Inslee, however. A report by NBC News says he hit the $1 million mark in 72 hours, while another report from FOX News said the governor had hit the milestone in 48 hours.

"Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York have provided few details about their early contributions," a report from Roll Call noted.

Warren, in particular, appears to be ratcheting up the rhetoric to compensate for her pledge to swear off donations from PACs and millionaires.

Pundits and editorial pages have noted that Hickenlooper will likely struggle to establish wider name recognition compared to some of the senators who have been on the national stage for some time already.

The lack of name recognition has also translated into a lack of scrutiny from the national media on his record, although there are signs that is changing.

For example, the Wall Street Journal editorial pages took note of his entrance into the field, as well as noticing two flip-flops during his tenure:

On a few issues Mr. Hickenlooper has been of two minds. He opposed the Colorado referendum that legalized marijuana, calling it a "bad idea" as recently as 2015. A year later, he said "it's beginning to look like it might work." As of last spring, it wasn't clear where the Governor stood: "This is one of the great social experiments of the last 100 years. We have to all keep an open mind."

It's similar with guns. After the mass shooting in 2012 at an Aurora movie theater, Mr. Hickenlooper signed bills to ban large ammo magazines and expand background checks. Then he was caught on tape telling a group of sheriffs that the legislation had been rushed: "I think we screwed that up completely."

The Washington Free Beacon also reported that in the days immediately following the Aurora theater shooting, the governor told CNN he had little indication stricter gun control measures would have stopped the tragedy.

"This person, if there were no assault weapons available, if there were no this or no that, this guy's going to find something, right?" Hickenlooper said. "He's going to know how to create a bomb. Who knows where his mind would have gone? Clearly a very intelligent individual, however twisted."

"And, you know, if it wasn't one weapon, it would have been another. I mean, he was diabolical. If you look at what he had in his apartment and what his intentions were, I mean, even now it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up."

Just six months later, Hickenlooper was on board with the gun control measures he would eventually sign into law, with Republicans labeling it a flip-flop.

The gun control laws also led to the first-ever successful recall of two state lawmakers.

While Hickenlooper has recently touted bringing energy and environmental factions together to create state methane regulations, a report from the Daily Caller applied a more skeptical look upon that narrative, quoting an analyst in Denver who said the regulations were "straight-up coercion."