NGA Chair Hickenlooper Welcomes New Governors At Seminar
WESTMINSTER, Colo. (CBS4) – Newly-elected governors from across the country were in Colorado this weekend learning the ropes.
The National Governors Association seminar for new governors wraps up Sunday, but Saturday's meeting was all about compromise.
"What the NGA does is we try to find the common ground," said Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who serves as the chair for the NGA.
Hickenlooper says this year both new and veteran governors will face new battles in their home states with a now Republican-controlled Congress.
"It changes, but I don't think it's necessarily bad," he said.
Hickenlooper calls it an opportunity for compromise, with lessons at the seminar for new governors putting special emphases on working across party lines.
"Here Republicans and Democrats do everything they can to help each other," he said.
The U.S. now has just under a dozen brand new governors who Hickenlooper hopes will take the spirit of compromise back home to talk about important issues, such as health care and gas tax revenues diminishing.
"They've got to find a way to work together and certainly with President Obama," said Gov. Gary Herbert, R-Utah.
While this election season was a big win for Republicans, governors hinted at the upcoming 2016 presidential election, as now is the time for them to prove they can get things done.
"(Republicans) will do themselves a very significant disservice, and make it more difficult for them to win the White House in 2016 if they don't in fact get some things done," Herbert said.
"Our side needs to compromise with the other side, which needs to compromise and actually get something done," said Gov. Dannel Malloy, D-Connecticut. "Because there's actually nobody else to blame for not getting things done."
