Political ad critical of governor’s stance on death penalty
The father of a victim in the 1993 murders of four people at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Aurora criticized Gov. John Hickenlooper for sparing the killer from execution.
Dennis O’Connor speaks in a 13-minute, emotionally intense political video posted Sunday on YouTube by the Denver-based “A Better Colorado Future” and supervised by Republicans Andy George and Kelly Maher.
Here’s the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L0hLhv8apo
The video comes out two weeks before Election Day as Hickenlooper hopes to be re-elected over Republican challenger Bob Beauprez.
O’Connor’s daughter, Colleen, 17, was killed in the December 1993 shootings. A fifth person who was shot, survived.
Nathan Dunlap, 40, was convicted of the murders in 1996 and sentenced to death. However, in May 2013, Hickenlooper granted Dunlap a temporary reprieve.
“When the governor was a candidate, he was asked what he thought about the death penalty and his response was he’d use it only in extreme cases. This isn’t an extreme case?” O’Connor said in the video.
“I can’t see how this guy, with a straight face, can say anything to the voters and get them to believe him. He’s a coward.”
Hickenlooper’s campaign manager, Brad Komar, released a statement in response to the video.
“This is an awful tragedy and Nathan Dunlap will die in prison,” Komar wrote. “The governor’s decision was based in his opposition to the death penalty while respecting that others disagree. It is a legitimate question whether the state should take a life.”
Bob Loevy, a political science professor at Colorado College, said the video represents a gamble by Republicans.
“It may work and it may not,” he said. “Clearly, the Republicans are hoping it will go viral on the Internet at virtually no cost to them. But one of the the problems the governor has with this, is he doesn’t have much of a defense. He just kind of has to take it. That’s part of the problem of mounting a very strong middle-of-the-road campaign the way he likes to.”
Political analysts believe the Dunlap case will be a key factor in Hickenlooper’s bid for a second term.
