Political expert: Hickenlooper will have a tough time gaining re-election
Two months from Election Day, voter surveys show a dead heat and political analysts predict a tight race in Colorado’s gubernatorial election.
“This is the first time Gov. Hickenlooper has ever really been challenged in a political race,” said Bob Loevy, a retired political science professor at Colorado College.
The delayed execution of a man on death row is the biggest issue in the campaign, according to Loevy, and Hickenlooper’s stance against the death penalty will hurt him at the polls.
Hickenlooper granted an indefinite reprieve to death row inmate Nathan Dunlap last year and has suggested he could grant him clemency even if he is not re-elected. Republican challenger Bob Beauprez says, if elected, he would carry out the death sentence for Dunlap. Dunlap was convicted of murdering four people at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in 1993. When granting the reprieve, Hickenlooper said he doubted the fairness of Colorado’s death penalty.
Though it’s a hot issue in November’s election, Loevy argued voters should remember there’s effectively no death penalty in Colorado because it’s been carried out just once in the 40 years since it was reinstated in 1975.
“When you think of all the other issues in Colorado that we might be arguing over in a tough governor’s race, here we are arguing over the death penalty, something that actually doesn’t exist in the state,” said Loevy. “We did put one man to death for murder and absolutely no one else. We’ve gone years and years with people committing murders and no one being put to death.”
Besides Dunlap, there are two other men on death row. Robert Ray and Sir Mario Owens were both convicted in the murders of Javad Marshall-Fields, a witness to a murder trial involving Ray, and Marshall-Fields’ fiancee, Vivian Wolfe.
Loevy said the death penalty in Colorado is only used politically and under pressure from the public in high-profile cases.
“If a district attorney senses there is great public outrage in the case of a murder, they will seek the death penalty,” Loevy said. “Not because of the seriousness of the crime, but because of the political situation and how angry the people have become over the particular murder.”
The issue weighs heavy with Colorado voters, most of whom still support the death penalty. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed 69 percent of the state’s voters support the death penalty while 24 percent think it should be replaced by life in prison without parole.
Loevy said the Aurora theater shooting case could also sway voters because people want to see the shooter punished to the full extent of the law. Though the trial hasn’t started, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for James Holmes, the suspect. Loevy said some voters may worry that having Hickenlooper in office may prevent a potential execution.
Loevy also said he believes this November will have a strong Republican undercurrent because it’s the sixth year President Barack Obama, a Democrat, has been in the White House.
“Gov. Hickenlooper has had the bad luck of this death penalty case coming up in a year where we’re all expecting things to go Republican anyway,” Loevy said. “I think it’s going to be a very close election, but if anyone wins easily, I think it’s going to be the Republican, not the Democrat.”
