In a July 30 article by reporter Chris Barge, the Rocky Mountain News reported former Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez's “jab” that Gov. Bill Ritter (D) “showed up without an agenda” when he took office. However, as Colorado Media Matters has pointed out, Ritter unveiled his “Colorado Promise” agenda during the 2006 campaign, and during his first months in office the new governor signed into law significant legislation based on that agenda.

As the News reported of Beauprez, “The candidate once considered a shoo-in lost by one of the biggest margins in memory for an open governor's seat” in the November 2006 election. Later in the article, the News reported, “For the most part, Beauprez resists criticizing the job Gov. Bill Ritter has done so far, though he allows one jab: 'Ritter showed up without an agenda. I probably would have hit the ground running a little more.' ”

Contrary to Beauprez's criticism, Ritter unveiled his Colorado Promise policy agenda on September 25, 2006. The 52-page document offered Ritter's “blueprint for establishing Colorado as a national leader in education, health care, jobs, renewable energy, and more.” Furthermore, during the first months of the 2007 session of the Colorado General Assembly, Ritter signed a number of bills related to his priority issues of education, health care, and renewable energy. For example:

• On February 5, Ritter signed Senate Bill 1, establishing a program that allows the state to buy discounted generic prescription drugs and sell them to lower-income and uninsured Coloradans.
• On February 6, Ritter signed House Bill 1048, “creat[ing] a more sophisticated way to show achievement than the current snapshot of scores on statewide assessment tests,” according to The Denver Post.
• On March 27, Ritter signed House Bill 1281, “requir[ing] large, investor-owned utilities to produce 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2010. Smaller cooperative utilities would have to produce 10 percent of their power from alternative sources by then,” according to the Post.

From Chris Barge's July 30 Rocky Mountain News article, “Beauprez takes stock”:

Bob Beauprez speaks with a Western drawl and projects a laid-back persona, but he has always pounced on an opportunity.

Whether marketing genetically superior Holstein embryos to cattlemen, converting his family farm into a subdivision, or turning a failing hometown bank into a powerhouse worth $72 million, he's been a success in business.

So, too, in politics. Before his campaign for governor took a nose dive, he righted Colorado's Republican ship as state GOP chairman and won a newly created congressional seat in a 121- vote squeaker.

After two terms in the House, Beauprez grew impatient with the snail's pace of getting things done on Capitol Hill, so he rolled the dice and ran for governor.

“It was the weirdest campaign I've ever been involved in -- never could quite get traction,” Beauprez said. “We issued policy statement after policy statement on what we would do when I became governor, on transportation, on education, on health care, on water, on the environment, on and on and on, and none of it ever seemed to matter.”

The candidate once considered a shoo-in lost by one of the biggest margins in memory for an open governor's seat.

[...]

For the most part, Beauprez resists criticizing the job Gov. Bill Ritter has done so far, though he allows one jab: “Ritter showed up without an agenda. I probably would have hit the ground running a little more.”

Beauprez says he already would have urged the state to build more reservoirs. And he would have pushed to put an amendment before voters to replace Colorado's 22.5 cent per gallon gas tax with a 1 percent statewide sales tax increase.

But he's not governor, and for now, Beauprez says he is enjoying life in the slow lane.