Bump and update; no resignation yet... he announced today his five 'pledge' elements (this chasing Ritter's August 24th pledge) are healthcare, education, water, transport, and 'illegal immigration'.
Talked about education below; Beauprez' well known on the Western Slope for advocating moving more water to the Front Range; his position on immigration will be pure-get-out-the-Tancredo-vote; and he's advocating a sales tax to fund the highway deficit in the state. Healthcare stuff here; only specific item I see is a threat to veto efforts to help trial lawyers...
Last point on last week's lunch; Beauprez sought to argue to the group that he's 'one of us' because of his industry experience. I didn't find it persuasive; selling off the family farm to develop a golf course and buy a bank doesn't strike me as too similar to what we without-inheritance entrepreneurs have had to do ... ...
---------------------------
Blogosphere is buzzing with speculation that Bob Beauprez, GOP candidate for Governor in Colorado, is going to drop out of the race.
He does appear to be losing steam, and GOP Sec of State Dennis' timing in announcing that the GOP can count votes for Beauprez for whomever they decide to replace him... up to 18 days prior to election day .. is odd...
...and much else being discussed behind the scenes...
Regardless, I had the chance to hear both Beauprez and Bob Ritter, his opponent, speak to technology CEOs here in Denver last week.
My main take-away was that Beauprez is much more hard-right-wing than I'd realized, and Ritter is more middle-of-the-road.
Technology CEOs and the venture community around us are all concerned about investment in education in the state. Without a robust channel building technology talent, it's very difficult to have a deep, long-lasting technology innovation economy.
Beauprez' response to those concerns was to assert that all higher education in the state should be privatized, and that vouchers diverting public tax dollars for K-12 away to private schools would address the fact that Colorado is 48th in the nation in K-12 per capita spend...
Ritter reminded the audience that if Beauprez' opposition to last year's ballot issues had won, the state would be $400 million per annum poorer in educational funding. He talked about a couple of specific public school districts which would now be bankrupt.
On energy, Ritter talked renewables; Beauprez talked nuclear, more drilling, and NREL.
Ritter reminded the crowd that Beauprez voted to de-fund NREL last year (you may recall that those cuts were only restored after Bush' state of the union address touting investments in renewables -- and NREL).
In personal interactions with the two, I found Ritter to actively engaged around new ideas (should Colorado emulate Wyoming's state venture investing? I think not, but I think Ritter might consider it. I would, however, be all for Wyoming's drilling tax structure, which has given that state the biggest budget surplus per capita of any in the country the last couple of years...).
Beauprez came across as a bit of a Bush-like bully --- he knew what he knew, thought what he thought, and if your values were different, you're just wrong...
...all of which may be moot pending today's campaign announcements...
