Hickenlooper Leading Beauprez In Gov's Race, Set To Speak At 9:30 a.m.
DENVER (CBS4) - The votes are still being counted in Colorado's gubernatorial race, and Gov. John Hickenlooper has a lead over challenger Bob Beauprez.
With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Hickenlooper led Beauprez 48 percent to 47 percent. Approximately 22,000 votes separated the two at 6:30 a.m.
Hickenlooper is set to speak about the race at 9:30 a.m.
Both candidates spoke to their supporters late Tuesday night to thank them for sticking around.
Both Beauprez and Hickenlooper also stressed the need to go home and get some sleep as the final ballot count would probably continue into Wednesday, and it has.
Each candidate also seemed optimistic with both looking forward to the final vote tally.
Hickenlooper seemed poised to capture re-election. The state had rebounded after the recession and since he sailed into office in 2010, Colorado's unemployment rate plummeted.
But a number of things happened that sowed a competitive environment.
Hickenlooper, like all Democrats, fell victim to President Barack Obama's poor standing with voters. But the governor created high-profile missteps of his own.
- After he signed two gun-control measures in 2013 that limited gun-magazine capacity and expanded background checks, he seemed to indicate to Colorado sheriffs this year that he regretted it.
- He granted a temporary reprieve from the death penalty to mass murderer Nathan Dunlap and then later suggested he could give him a full pardon, should he lose the governor election.
Hickenlooper stuck by both decisions, but Beauprez jumped on the miscues. He said they illustrated that the governor lacked leadership on important issues. He also tried hammering Hickenlooper on the economy, saying it wasn't as rosy as some claimed and that rural communities in particular were still suffering.
"If you travel this entire state — go to Pueblo, go to Grand Junction, Colorado Springs, out on the eastern plains — there is an awful lot of people who wonder where that 'R' word — recovery — is for them," Beauprez said in October.
He also challenged Hickenlooper on what many assumed to be a feather in the governor's cap: his compromise on fracking that kept four controversial measures from reaching the ballot. Hickenlooper, who like Beauprez has supported fracking, forged that deal and broke with some Democrats and environmentalists. But Beauprez said Hickenlooper was just a "kicking the can down the road" -- a euphemism he was fond of using on nearly any issue -- and should have just let the anti-fracking measures die at voters' hands.
Hickenlooper led polling by double digits until August when the race narrowed seemingly overnight.
The last time the incumbent governor lost in Colorado was in 1962.
The race is Beauprez's second attempt at capturing the governor's office. He represented Colorado's 7th congressional district for two terms before losing the governor race to Bill Ritter in 2006.
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