Denver mayor and former brewer Hickenlooper will run for Colorado governor

Mr Hickenlooper moved to Colorado almost 30 years ago to work as a geologist. After getting laid off during the 1980s oil bust, he and several partners opened the Wynkoop brewpub in downtown Denver, thus kicking off the revival – some say gentrification – of Denver’s dilapidated city centre which today is a booming business and residential area.

Explaining his decision to run for mayor, Mr Hickenlooper said that complaints he heard from Wynkoop customers and nearby business owners about the bureaucracy and negativity of local government made him want to swap hats: from brewer to politician. He won the race in 2003, and was re-elected by an overwhelming majority in 2008.

Well aware that it will not be a smooth ride into the governor’s office, Mr Hickenlooper nevertheless already knows the outcome of the elections: “I think elections generally are won by the person you want to have a beer with”, he said.

Perhaps in the course of the gubernatorial campaign he will manage to persuade Colorado’s Republican voters that they would rather like to have a beer with him than with their candidate.

A recent poll showed Mr Hickenlooper trailing the Republican front-runner Scott McInnis by three points.

In any case, Mr Hickenlooper first has to win his party’s nomination to run for governor.