{"id":101207,"date":"2018-02-25T18:40:47","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T01:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/washington-wonders-whats-next-for-gov-john-hickenlooper\/"},"modified":"2018-02-25T18:40:47","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T01:40:47","slug":"washington-wonders-whats-next-for-gov-john-hickenlooper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/washington-wonders-whats-next-for-gov-john-hickenlooper\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington wonders what\u2019s next for Gov. John Hickenlooper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Ohio
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, right, joined by Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, left, speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington in June 2017. Kasich, a Republican, and Hickenlooper, a Democrat, met in Washington on Friday to outline their latest bipartisan policy work for improving the nation\u2019s health care system.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

WASHINGTON \u2013 The political horse race junkies in Washington are dying to know if a presidential run is in the cards for Gov. John Hickenlooper.<\/p>\n

But the Colorado Democrat refuses to show his hand.<\/p>\n

The first attempt to coerce a straight answer out of the governor came from Politico\u2019s Gabriel Debenedetti early Friday afternoon, who asked Hickenlooper in a sit-down when the public would see him campaigning in New Hampshire, the second stop on the road to the presidential nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I was about 21, 22, I\u2019ve gone to New Hampshire every summer,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cThere\u2019s a beautiful lake up in North Central New Hampshire \u2026 it\u2019s a lovely place, and my brother and I rent a place there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper quickly returned to his canned answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn my cellphone, on all my cabinet members\u2019, we have a counter (that) shows how many days we have left,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cWe have 321 days right now (as of Friday) before the end of the term.\u201d<\/p>\n

At an event Friday evening, a reporter asked directly if the governor was thinking of running for president.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still have 321 days left,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cI have a counter on my cellphone just like President Obama had. All my cabinet have the counters.\u201d<\/p>\n

What about a Senate bid against Republican Cory Gardner in 2020?<\/p>\n

No luck. Hickenlooper immediately reverted to what his administration is working on in Colorado through the end of his term.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing an apprenticeship, a skills-based educational movement for kids that don\u2019t go to college \u2013 that\u2019s two-thirds of our kids,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing some work around outdoor recreation that is going to be around health and conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n

So don\u2019t ask him, at least for 320 more days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing big stuff that no one else is doing,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cThe moment I start talking about who I\u2019m going to run against or what I\u2019m going to do, I get distracted. My cabinet gets distracted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, he relented just a little.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019d start thinking about what\u2019s next for him \u201cin the fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper has gained national stature over the past few months after striking a strong, bipartisan relationship with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican. The two governors have joined hands in pushing Congress, fruitlessly, to address struggling health care markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Kasich and I disagree on a lot of things,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cWe think it\u2019s important to demonstrate that \u2026 there are a lot of things we can work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Hickenlooper remains mum on his future, his visit to Washington has some hints of a man potentially looking for higher office.<\/p>\n

He started his Friday by discussing the success of the stricter gun laws he has signed as governor of Colorado on MSNBC\u2019s popular morning program \u201cMorning Joe.\u201d He introduced a bipartisan path forward on health care with Kasich and Gov. Bill Walker (I-Alaska). He decried the partisan gridlock, while touting the accomplishments of his administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas it gotten to the point where this city can only do one thing at a time?\u201d Hickenlooper asked at the Politico event. \u201cThat\u2019s not the way this city used to be \u2026 It\u2019s like we\u2019ve forgotten how to work in a bipartisan way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper faced questions on a range of national and international policy issues \u2013 from Chinese investment in Colorado to trade deals with Canadian dairy farmers to gun laws.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper is one of a few governors in Washington this week with rumors swirling about presidential ambitions. The other two are fellow Democrat Steve Bullock of Montana, vice chairman of the National Governors Association, and Kasich, who ran in 2016.<\/p>\n

But Hickenlooper\u2019s sights remain set, at least publicly, on the issues facing Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want Colorado, when I finish, to be a national model on a whole bunch of different levels,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cIf I do that much, then I\u2019ve helped my country and I\u2019m probably going to give myself choices. Maybe I\u2019ll run a foundation; maybe I can run a private-sector company.\u201d<\/p>\n

But who knows? It\u2019s only Feb. 26, 2018, and Hickenlooper now has 318 days left. After that, 663 days remain until Election Day 2020.<\/p>\n

Andrew Eversden is an intern with The Durango Herald and a student at American University in Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Term-limited politician evades questions from media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5735,6212],"tags":[13,481],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-101207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-state-nation-world","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-gov-john-hickenlooper"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101207"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=101207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}