Wikinews reached out earlier this week to former U.S. Congressman and 2014 Colorado gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo for his response to the secessionist proposal of eight Northern Colorado counties. Tancredo maintains he is better suited to repair the geopolitical gulf at the root of the proposal than Governor John Hickenlooper.
The secession idea came about last week as the commissioners from the northeastern Colorado counties of Weld, Morgan, Logan, Sedgwick, Phillips, Washington, Yuma, and Kit Carson expressed interest in withdrawing from Colorado due to differences with the state government over gun control and the perceived overregulation of agriculture and the oil and gas industries. The commissioners proposed the formation of a new state named, “North Colorado”.
In response to the proposal, Governor Hickenlooper’s spokesman Eric Brown conceded that “[n]ot everyone agrees” with the administration’s policies, but declared “background checks on gun sales, increasing renewable energy and supporting responsible development of oil and gas are popular with rural and urban voters”.
Hickenlooper, a Democrat, was elected governor in 2010 over Tancredo, the then-Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate. Tancredo has since switched back to the Republican Party, under which he served as Congressman for Colorado’s 6th congressional district from 1999 to 2009. Tancredo officially announced his 2014 candidacy last month.
According to Tancredo, Hickenlooper’s policies impose barriers on rural Coloradans that he plans to remove if elected governor. In addition, Tancredo feels he can better address the rural-urban rift because, “I do not believe that rural Coloradans are, as Governor Hickenlooper has called them, ‘backward thinkers’.”
Tancredo refers to Hickenlooper’s 2010 comments, which accused rural Coloradans and other westerners of “backwards thinking” for their views on LGBT issues.
Wikinews requested, but did not immediately receive, response to Tancredo’s comments from Governor Hickenlooper’s spokesman.
