Being the one person out there committed to not running negative ads - voters respond to that.
— John Hickenlooper
I loved baseball. I was a pitcher. I loved being on the mound because I also loved being at the center of the action, the cat and mouse battle with the batter on every pitch. You had to develop grit.
Governor Kasich and I won't agree on everything, but agree we've got to control the rise in health care costs on all levels.
I never ran for student council or class president or any of that stuff. I didn't hang out with those people. It was just a different universe from the one I inhabited.
If I can convince people that good people don't do attack ads, and that we want good people to represent us, then the attack ads work against themselves.
You don't get to choose what your legacy is.
If people think that Colorado is a beacon for artists and creative people who are really talented, I think they're going to be a little happier during the day, and I think they're going to be a little more successful at their job, no matter what their job is.
You never see Coke and Pepsi doing attacks to each other. It would depress the product category of soft drinks.
If you don't trust the media, they are not going to trust you, and if they don't trust you, it's hard for the public to trust you.
One's ability to enter into thousands of lawsuits as a tool for success, or to use bankruptcy to avoid paying your former employees and vendors, have little relevance when trying to create good government.
Democracy is based upon empathy and the recognition that some decisions are solely for the community's benefit without regard to one's own narrow self-interest.
The Democratic Party is always going to be the party of civil rights and fairness - everybody gets an equal, fair shot at the American dream. And we're going to be the party that really fights to protect planet Earth - enjoy whatever time we're going to get!
I was skinny. I wore thick glasses. I had acne.
Giving all of Denver's kids an equal chance at success is the best investment we can make in our community's kids and future.
Any businessman will tell you that transportation is fundamental to success.
Sustainable jobs are created by the private sector.
Colorado does not shut down. Colorado does not quit. Colorado does not break.
From the first day we opened Wynkoop, my brewpub in Denver, I knew I'd be ten times better running a restaurant than I was a geologist.
When you grow up a fatherless son, in many ways you have to raise yourself. No one tells you what looks good on you, how to carry yourself, or provides the approval. Without a father, you grow up never knowing what you didn't have. There is no intimate model of who you want to become, so it's as if you're always guessing.
My father had a handgun on the bedside table, and we were all taught to handle firearms.
I could easily say that, for quite a long time before I became mayor, I had obeyed all laws.
People turn off the news, stop reading in-depth magazine articles - especially young people. Look at the increasing reluctance of young people to vote. I think a lot of that is directly - you can lay it at the feet of these negative campaigns and relentless attack ads.
When I got inaugurated in 2010, OneRepublic donated their time and played for the inauguration. And my stepfather, who is 86, came out. He usually goes to bed at eight o'clock, but he stayed for the entire concert. It was awesome.
I try to go to concerts whenever I can, just because I love music.
Fracking is an industrial process, but it can be done safely. It's government's job to make sure it can be done safely.
When your economy is not growing that fast, everybody's got to bite the bullet.
Government requires bringing people together and genuinely hearing their issues. It requires the establishment and strengthening of community.
Almost all government starts at a very local level at some point.
We don't want the federal government coming in and telling us how to do our environmental remediation or how we're going to do our healthcare.
The social and educational value of preschool is undisputed.
Tough times call for tough choices and pinching every penny.
Education is the social bedrock for the hopes and dreams of our children and the foundation that is necessary for their future prosperity.
Most of us have faced a - faced a serious budget problem or another at some pivotal moment in our lives.
Colorado has always been a good place to find what you're made of.
I've made several careers out of people underestimating me - it's almost an advantage worth cultivating.
Colorado is known for many great things.
Colorado needs a governor who brings people together to create jobs and cut government spending.
I can say that every ad that I control, that I'm going to make sure my ads are positive.
The old system, the War on Drugs, was a train wreck.
Taxpayers don't want their money spent more than a very, very slender amount on actual buying art or paying for concerts.
Partisanship has gotten worse and worse.
We did not do a good enough job of taking care of the people who were losing their careers and retraining them into the new economy.
To a certain extent, people's behavior in a campaign is generally a reflection of how they would act in office.
Many of the basic lessons of business, such as the critical value of customer service or measuring risk against reward when investing capital, have essential application in government, but not in a vacuum.
Even as we continue to carry the banner of civil rights and environmental justice, we've also got to focus on many, many people - for them, life starts with a good job.
I used to make snap judgments, moved quickly. It's more important to be thoughtful, think of the consequences of your decisions.
If we want to close the achievement gap, build a well-educated workforce and responsible citizenry, we must start with our youngest children.
Whenever I've met with businesses that want to locate in Colorado, the state's infrastructure for moving people and products is a top concern.
We need to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit that is alive in Colorado.
When there's work to be done in Colorado, for Colorado, we should look to skilled Coloradans first.
