CASTLE ROCK– Speaking to a small group of shopping center executives today, gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis said he was more prepared and more qualified to be governor than Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.
“He’s never been involved in the process of governing the state. He’s never been involved in one state budget meeting. He has no experience with highway budgets or education budgets. Some people say they want a new face, well this is no time for a new face,” he told the 20 or so people gathered for the annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Shopping Center Association, held at the Castle Rock outlet mall.
McInnis served in the Colorado House of Representatives for 10 years before serving 12 years in the United States House of Representatives.
“I’d love to sit down with him and lay a map of Colorado down and say, ‘show me the Colorado River.’ I’d love to ask him to explain the Colorado River Compact.”
After speaking to the business group, McInnis spent a few minutes discussing the campaign and Arizona’s new immigration law.
“I’m going to beat him because this guy [Hickenlooper] has never seen a tax increase he didn’t like. This guy thinks the state begins and ends at the city limits. I take a state-wide approach.
You can’t tax your way out of this. The only economic model that works is the expansion of jobs. You can’t increase jobs by increasing taxes.”
McInnis said Hickenlooper has refused to debate him. “The reason I want to debate him is that ‘aw shucks’ works for a little while, but then people want to hear what your plan is.”
He said Hickenlooper has not taken a stand on any of the budgeting issues facing the Legislature. “Where is he going to be on a spending limit? Where is he going to be on tax increases? Where is he going to be on the unionization of state agencies? I’ll revoke unionization by executive order the minute I get there,” McInnis said.
On immigration, McInnis praised Arizona Governor Jan Brewer for her courage.
“It is a crisis down there. You have a governor who begged the federal government to comply with a law that has been in place for many years. What choice did she have? You need a governor who is not going to dodge this kind of stuff. It has got to be addressed, so I understand very well what she had to do. I admire her for standing up and stopping the retreat.
“Now, Colorado has a little different situation, but if we get into that kind of situation, then we have to have a governor who is willing to stand up and take charge of this thing.
“The mayor and I have different positions. Amnesty is not the answer. The real answer is that once cooler heads prevail, once all this spin stops, we need to ask ‘How did Arizona get in this spot? Why won’t the federal government do something?’”
He also criticized President Obama for not pushing Congress to address immigration. “He says they have too much on their plate already. What? I’ve been in Congress; they have about a three-and-a-half-day work week and take two and a half months off for Christmas. I think they can find time for immigration.”
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