Ritter visits CCA

 Gov. Bill Ritter answers questions at a political science class Nov. 30 at the Community College of Aurora. Photo by Heather L. Smith/The Aurora Sentinel

It was a homecoming of sorts for Bill Ritter.

As the Colorado governor addressed the crowd of students, faculty and administrators gathered in a lecture room at the Community College of Aurora on Nov. 30, he started by summoning his roots. Ritter came as a guest lecturer during the final meeting of CCA’s “Current Political Issues” course, a new class taught by Matt Gianneschi, Ritter’s former education policy adviser.

“I’m from here,” said Ritter, who has mere weeks left in his term as governor before Denver mayor John Hickenlooper steps in as his successor. “We had a little wheat farm, it was 1750 S. Chambers Road. I’m the product of Aurora.”

Ritter followed with a brief biographical sketch, speaking about his 10 siblings, his graduation from Gateway High School as part of its first matriculating class, his education at Colorado State University and his years as district attorney before his campaign for governor in 2006.

“From a policy perspective, your personal experiences matter a lot,” Ritter said. “It’s been interesting, over the last four years, to watch how my experiences ... have informed the work that I’ve done and the we’ve done.”

Ritter followed with a straightforward and candid assessment of his years as the state’s chief executive, an hourlong summary that touched on major policy issues, mistakes and insights on the nature of partisan politics. In more personal moments, he talked about his own experience with partisan politics as a Democrat, recalling attack campaigns and opposition from Republican officials in the state.

According to Gianneschi, the feedback was part of the larger purpose of the class, to give its eight students perspective from major players in the state’s political scene. In addition to Ritter, the class has hosted guest speakers like State Sen. Nancy Spence and former state budget director Henry Sobanet.

“It’s really been intended to try and give students exposure to the specifics as it relates to the most pressing contemporary events in politics, for them to actually get to know or to hear from the state’s budget director, for example,” said Gianneschi, who serves as the college’s vice president for student services. “I came to CCA directly from the policy world. I was looking for an opportunity to teach a class; this one just happened to fit.”

For Ritter, the forum was a chance to answer questions directly from political science students, to reflect in an unfiltered way on his time as governor and on his future legacy.

“The business of government is never done, it’s just never done. My hope is that what we’ve done is to put in place layers upon layers in all these different places that future governors, future legislators, future leaders can build upon,” Ritter said, pointing specifically to energy, education and jobs policies. “It’s a really important point about American culture. We want something done in the first 100 days, we want to see the results within a year ... (But) so many of the things we did will not have an impact for 10 to 12 years, maybe even more.”

He spoke about his work with the state’s P-20 council, his administration’s push to secure spots in preschool for at-risk children, for example.

“I would suspect that 14 years from now, if we achieve all that we hoped ... people will not say, ‘This is all due to Matt Gianneschi and Bill Ritter,’” Ritter said. “So governing can’t be about that ... So much of the right way of thinking about governing is taking a longer view.”

Even so, Ritter was quick to point out some of the more immediate achievements of his administration. He spoke about his agenda for health care, his administration’s push to cover every uninsured person in the state.

“We didn’t get every uninsured person covered,” Ritter said. “I aspired to get us there ... We did make really significant steps, including the passage of our own hospital provider fee.”

He also pointed to the state’s evolving energy policy as one of his administration’s greatest achievements. He cited the state’s shift toward renewable sources of energy and its development of natural gas resources as a model that could work on a wider scale.

“Congress could pick up on things that we’ve done here in Colorado that address energy issues,” Ritter said. “We could produce more domestic energy from renewables and natural gas.”

In answering students’ questions, Ritter also admitted to mistakes made during his term. He lamented the initial draft of new rules regarding energy development, a plan that raised objections and opposition from industry officials. He said his push to redefine the relationship between organized labor and business met with unexpected hurdles. Ritter also said he regretted the failed campaign for Amendment 58, a piece of legislation that would have provided a tax credit for natural gas developers.

“It would be a great place to get revenue and devote it to financial aid to college kids. Who could be against that? The oil and gas industry was the answer,” Ritter said. “We lost Amendment 58 in a big way. I would think about and consider it a mistake to run it at the time that we did.”

Such straightforward assessments were a draw for the eight political science students in the class. According to Peter Hertzog, a sophomore at CCA studying for his associate’s degree in public safety, Ritter’s insights were more meaningful for their honesty.

“The biggest thing for me was I was kind of surprised at how candid he was,” Hertzog said. “He seemed to give pretty good answers on what he was challenged on ... It was actually really rewarding.”