Last week, Climate Hawks Vote surveyed its Colorado grassroots members on whether the organization should endorse early in the state’s top-tier U.S. Senate race to defeat Cory Gardner. With more than 10 candidates running in the Democratic primary, including former Governor and presidential candidate John Hickenlooper, CHV sought insights from the voters who know the field best. Nearly 300 respondents participated in the survey, and nearly 68 percent of Coloradans surveyed want anyone but Hickenlooper for #COsen.
“The DSCC shouldn’t be putting its thumb on the scale,” said CHV founder RL Miller. “The Democratic primary voters of Colorado are the ones who ought to decide who represents them — not DC insiders thousands of miles away.”
Survey respondents’ comments regarding Hickenlooper’s record as Colorado Governor:
“His record is abysmal. He mothballed clean energy programs, actively promoted oil and gas interests with outright fabrications and lies (promoting regulatory capture and dysfunction in COGCC, CDPHE, Dept Natl Resources, Air Quality Commission), ignored climate realities, and moved our state backwards in terms of conservation of water, protection of air, water, soil, health and climate stability.”
“His support for fracking is indicative of his lack of understanding (hopefully) or just lack of regard for the issues concerning climate change that are [affecting] us as we speak.”
“Hickenlooper … has worked tirelessly to serve powerful special/ industrial interests at the cost of the constituency he purports to serve.”
“John Hickenlooper fights against progressive values everyday. He has no interest in fixing the many problems we have, but only in maintaining the status quo.”
“[Hickenlooper] sold us out to the oil and gas industry for fracking. He is in bed with big oil and gas. I want to see him gone from Colorado politics. He pretends that he brought Colorado into clean energy but the opposite is true. We can’t trust him to support the planet or the people of Colorado. That he drank the fracking fluid says it all.”
“Climate Hawks Vote is not endorsing just yet, but better alternatives to pro-fracking John Hickenlooper exist,” Miller continued. “Although the field is fractured, Andrew Romanoff is beginning to emerge as the climate hawk alternative to Hickenlooper. We will be following this primary closely and look forward to engaging this fall as we continue our formal endorsement process.”
Methodology: Climate Hawks Vote surveyed its Colorado members by email twice, once on August 21 (before Hickenlooper announced) and again August 23 (after he announced) and kept the survey open for a week.
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