Gov. Hickenlooper tours Royal Gorge Bridge and Park

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper was in Fremont County Friday, touring the new visitors center at the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park.

A fire last year destroyed 90 percent of the park, and it has been under construction ever since. About 9,000 people attended its soft opening Labor Day weekend, and its grand opening is expected next Spring.

The governor praised the progress at the park and thanked those who have been a part of it.

“Nobody down here quit, and I knew they wouldn’t,” Hickenlooper said. “I didn’t think it would be this incredible. This is like a national park, it’s beautiful.”

The governor is in a tight race for re-election in November. The latest Denver Post poll shows 45 percent of people support the governor, while 43 percent support his Republican challenger Bob Beauprez.

“That’s what makes a horse race, right? That’s politics, right?” Hickenlooper said.

A focal point in the gubernatorial race is the death penalty, specifically as it applies to Nathan Dunlap, the man who killed four people and injured a fifth at an Aurora Chuck-E-Cheese in 1993. Dunlap was sentenced to death, but Hickenlooper granted him an indefinite reprieve.

“No matter what, he’s going to die in prison,” he said. “I understand where (the death penalty) comes from, I understand how strongly people believe in it and care about it. But when four of the jurors felt that if they’d known the kid had mental issues, they might’ve had a different solution, I mean this gets so complicated. We spent $18 million on all the appeals and everything, it’s worth having the discussion. The reason we gave him the reprieve – we knew it would be unpopular – but we gave him the reprieve to keep that discussion going.”

The governor said he spoke with the families of the victims in the 1993 crime, and that about half of them wanted the execution and about half of them didn’t. We asked him whether he will grant Dunlap clemency.

“No, we gave him a reprieve, it’s all in the executive order, we’re not changing,” he said. “We knew we’d pick the least popular choice, but I thought it was the best one for the state, and it’s always hard to find a line that tries to define a middle ground.”