On behalf of everybody here welcome. This evenings event is a joint effort by George Washington the university at our bookstore had been working together but for some time now putting on arthur events. Several years ago we launched what we dubbed the newsmaker series. I would like to think they helped make this event possible. I wanted and all of all of you for supporting such talks. Like many other bookstores in the country today they are facing a challenging marketplace. We are actually doing quite well in large part due to the Supportive Community of avid book readers here in washington. We remain committed to bringing great book events and great authors to the dc area. Its really a treat this evening to have Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper he has led quite an interesting life and has some Great Stories to tell about and he recounts them with candor and humor in his new book the opposite of woe my life in beer and politics. John is fair to say that he did not take the conventional path into politics after a difficult childhood and a rather protracted academic career he is the only wesleyan student ever to have received tenure. He worked for a short time as a geologist in the oil industry and then was laid off but his spirit eventually kicked in and he opened colorados first brewpub the business took off and they became a leader in going through the downtown area. There is a popular figure in the mile high city. Without ever having run for Public Office before john got elected mayor of denver. He went on to serve two terms and was designated as one of the top big cedar mayors. They are now in the second term having tackled such permanent issues while also managing floods and fires. He is the first professional geologist to become governor in history of the United States. In the first viewer to do so since sam adams back in 1792 tell them to. The natural charm and speculation as a Vice President ial running mate. He is a strong supporter and a super delegate. In one way or another he will be at the Democratic Convention in philadelphia in july. We will be in conversation here which after a very distinguished career. The district in the house of representatives ladies and gentlemen please join me in welcoming Governor John Hickenlooper. [applause]. Good evening everyone let me do a praise of politics and prose. It is the neighborhood bookstore to washington and Governor John Hickenlooper nose in aspen, colorado theres a bookstore called explore which has changed ownership a few times but it has a same flavor and i dont know what we would do without the opportunity to buy interesting books in an interesting environment. I wanted to interrogate and torture my favorite governor. Thats all you get. I dont know how many of you have read this yet i think that john could be a stunt double for Huckleberry Finn but this is a coming of age novel. In one third politics. It is really not about politics yes he got there and he brings a lot to it why this is so refreshing it was not written by committee there would never be a chance if they need security clearance. I guess he already has a security clearance so far. And it hasnt been revoked not yet. It starts with a hilarious scene. Governor John Hickenlooper and his first wife going to the Kennedy Center honors event. I did not get an invitation from the white house. But then getting a second call and this was an invitation from the president and then going and ending up it was never there. On some jumbotron. It was just four of them. It was a very cute tail and what i loved about this book i did not tell the bug story so please tell them that. It have a gear around the outside and then in the center was a donkey. He got that to make another one. I got stopped at the metal detector. They said we will take care of that. Since that he has certainly never saw it. Imagine the end of raiders of the lost ark. Its one of those boxes. But you explained why. Some of the other things and the use of that. It was the first person. They tried to make for me. I donkey is loyal and hardworking and trustworthy they were quick to point out that i do not know how many tens of thousands of americans died from his policies. Either way is not something i want to remember enough bond way. Think about it. You need to mention by the way he did mention your relative in the amendment how many pagan hick in the can there possibly be. If to try to keep that narrative moving. I think back when being a republican meant something. It was the first chair of the Atomic Energy agency and lifetime would now be called the liberal he believed in more money for education. There is still five of them left. How many know what the amendment was. If the government had nationalized a company or assets owned by an American Company the u. S. Would not get that country in the assets. This was a big part of Foreign Policy for a long time. Not made any conversation. We were the one country that was not able to help. And Congress Took care of that. It was an early version of sanctions. It was a little blunt. They usually legislate in blunt ways. I have learned that over 17 years. A big part of it in the major theme is lost. Starting with your father when your age eight going on in the conversation of your first marriage. Your mother dies just at the beginning of your political career. I think its an important question to ask how has lost affected you and hasnt has it made you a stronger . I guess its a muscle that develops in some way. All change involves loss. I have a significant dose. My mother have far more lost than i could ever imagine. She had two little kids. He courted her for a year and half. Where the democrats are having their party with the democrats. Is in the 19th floor. Its a very place thats in the book. My father proposed to my mother. How strange is that. It is an impossible coincidence. She was pretty hard on us in the sense that they got so sick. She have an 8yearold, a 10yearold in a 15yearold and a 17yearold. She raised by herself. She said listen, and i can figure out how to get you occupied and engaged whether its sports or being in the theater have an obligation to make yourself happy. She thought it should only be used in case of bad times. I wasnt to have a nicer car or a bigger house. But by happy she meant the three sub into something because i was for her what got them through everything in the end of the antidote and so much of what is lost is lost. Theres a dose of that. You make a big point is to show him what kind of father youve tried to be. There. He can be there because he died of cancer when you were eight. Late in the advanced life with a woman you just married and that is at the very end of the book. To teddy and robin with all my love. When your father proposed to your mother a number of boxes on the table. With eight or ten different Jewelry Stores. If she said yes you would bring back to the Jewelry Store and then you would pick back the right ring. He have this in at the end on the 19th floor he said okay. I assume your father must have been 18 feet taller. How tall was the mailman. Rumors spread fast in this town watch out when youre introduced to the stories told about your various careers and the change. Ultimately fell in love with geology and got hired and moved to denver then you got laid off on the road trips to maine and how to brew beer is an improbable set of experiences to become a politician. Maybe i didnt read the book carefully enough. What was it was there an epiphany. I was there when john kennedy was nominated for president i didnt come from a political family did you have a moment how did this successful brewpub dive throw his hat in the ring wasnt an epiphany i have gotten involved in this seven different people who were are all politically astute came up with that. You should run for mayor i thought about it. There was a fellow named chris gates. He engineer a hold to our can you make a difference would i be any good at it. It was like putting your toe in the water even then you looked at and said why would anyone do that. They didnt hang out with me. Its in the book. You can get the girls either. I think the Tipping Point on the decision it was a point where i was torn with the idea and there were all of these traditional political types who are like a madefortv movie. The latino who have been the city auditor. They all didnt seem to me to have any experience in business or Small Business. It seemed to me there ought to be more people for business. I kind of went into it never thinking i would win. Not only are we going to do negative ads. Several people got up and left the room. We did not expect to win but there was an appetite out there for someone who wasnt just like everyone else. There was no epiphany. It wasnt Something Like i became that. I got double the number of votes from anyone else. I did not know what the chief of staff did. One of your great strategies in your campaign and your first ever my race for congress was the first elected office i ever sought after Junior High School treasure which i lost. The aunt that you made in the one with change i dont think it was in the book. I dont think the shower one is in the book you talk about it . One was an ad the shallow add i ran for governor it was a voiceover state these attack ads make me feel so dirty i am walking upstairs into the bathroom in the shower blathering on my suit and then im getting in and out of the shower as i continue to talk about negative attack ads are different was a pretty goofy ad. I really makes a point. No one in business uses attack ads. Isaac is in the book. Even the fiercest rivals of business the people of pepsi hate the people of polk and vice versa they really cant stand each other you never see them doing attack ads because i know they work. The counter attack, and then you do depress the entire addict category. What we are doing a democracy whether we like it or not we had drive people away they dont Pay Attention to the details of policy. We do that at our own risk. If you been to denver lately that is a very different from other western cities. But architecture and is an art mecca when i first got elected mayor there was a guy who got involved in looking at the 150 largest communities in the largest in the United States and where they made investments. They have the strongest economies. There were several things that were shocking it all came back to the new economy was being driven by the guys who were on the fringe socially in french socially in high school. They were the nerds they are the ones who are writing code for the internet. They were driving at in the new economy and they wanted to be where the other ones were. They wanted to be in those communities where everyone was accepted. In terms of ethnicity and higher percentage of gay and lesbians. It was a much greater investment in higher education. We decided that we were gonna really promote red rocks which was a 10,000 person in the theater. They were using it three times a year. The lifetime political appointments said no no, the attendance will go down and you will diminish the experience. All the sudden we did 40 and then we did 60 and now they do 130 events a year there. There was more live music venues now than there are in nashville and austin. Within a certain style one republic is based in denver. The luminaires these are all guys who play local nonprofits denver now is the number one or number two state for startups we used to be in oil and gas. The intense economy. Its on their back. In still going down with aerospace and Cyber Security and all of these diverse economy. Those are per capita basis. In the book youre going to the east coast to do something. How did you have the idea to do that and what happened. I had been on the board of the museum for seven or eight years. I went to all of these. You guys better belly up to the bar and luckily they did. I know they were there. Really has well. He was one of the two or three greatest impressionists they decided the whole art world it was too commercial and a sellout. They stopped selling the stuff. After this liberal part of maryland. They left everything to an American City only for his work. They came and showed me that. You go to the museum of modern art they have a contemporary one. They had one or two are almost all of jackson pollock. But to get into that it has eight giant things in it. Its the only god has that can of concentration. I told Michael Bennett he was my chief of staff at that point. I would also say the best u. S. Senators anyone could have. I am nonpartisan. We are dealing with their worst budget deficit in the history of the city. We will have this with the united airlines. And then youre talking to me about some artist ive never heard of. Im just going to go talk to this woman and if we can convince her that denver is that place which no one has been able to do i will turn it over to one or two of our really successful for philanthropists and they would raise the money. With the auto great aunts. Im really good with that. Several people came with me from denver with a couple more meetings to the whole collection to us. And to and doubt. It turns out he was a pretty good artist. Have any of you seen it . Its right next to the modern art museum. And so is some of the other architecture in denver. It doesnt look like a midwestern city. As it august value there. I have a couple more questions. The first is about a really poignant story you tell. It was by this man. When they manage to wound and kill those people. He might be some kind of a character actor. This leads for a push for what i would call responsible Gun Legislation. In the west in colorado. In some limit on the amount of ammunition. You signed the legislation. To impeach the people who drafted the bill and it is successful. And then you get the full force of the gun lobby and you win. My whole. We have the worst droughts since the depression. I went to 62 or 63 funerals of my first four years. I was going through counseling. It was as heart of time as i have ever had. And we got the Gun Legislation clearly mental health. Then we were before. And that 2013. That is not the whole problem. As soon as i introduced it to the legislatures they were very much against them. He was in a bad mood and i had have a hard day i was kind of cranky. What were you doing. It makes decisions. Get the facts make a decision. Every day i have to go into school and learn something completely new that i didnt know existed in the day before if i dont get it completely right. After five minutes he said youre right. But the next day we have all of the nationals the districts that we been using and we have not gotten the facts in colorado. In 2012 the Previous Year we have gotten that. They got me the facts i do and do we catch anybody was it worth that. And basically in 2012 we stopped 38 people convicted of homicide, they were 133 people. The republicans said crooks arent stupid there their neck and get a background check. It turns out they are stupid. They have the huge monuments built to celebrate their stupidity. 420 people we arrested them for an outstanding warrant. It was one of the things by any measure we have to do everything we could. I think the way i feel that we survived that reelection was by using this facts again and again and telling people the truth. I remember on Election Night i was sitting here and this is really close. It was really close. I dont know what it was. They dont have that. So it went up by 4 . But it took a while for that come out. It was dead even at 10 00 in the evening. My last question. This book is coming out at an interesting time. Two months before the convention and six months before the election you are supporting one of the major candidates she may have to think about a Vice President certainly well had to think about a Vice President by the end of convention. Its not in denver this year. But youre from pennsylvania. What a coincidence. So penguin picked the release date and i think i have the best job in america. So i have a second best job. But in terms of workforce that we will have an apprenticeship system that integrates with the platform working with linkedin. We are doing some great stuff. Getting our arms around the cost curve obviously if someone comes to you and said we want you to serve in the nation and youre the one and heres why you would be a fool not to think about it. I dont think it is that short of list. My guess is i dont know if i can really go full tilt. I think it is for decades. And i want colorado. The book is a love story to colorados. It is a call to action for nerds and geeks everywhere. To really get out there if you want to be involved with some of the toughest problems in society you can do it. You have to be the guy that was a class president in high school. And then the other part of it is it is a love story about colorado there able to get things done. But leadership doesnt matter i think it was just randomly put here you wont miss it says, read this book. Pause in reflect on how thoughtful and charming he is. Then hope to god he runs for president one day. One of the most exciting things. But not known for his political judgment. And please identify yourself. Put it down so we can hear you. See mac. I lived in colorado for 24 years i read a great article about the mastro system. This is what we call fast track. That was all of the suburban mayors for decades hated the denver mayor. It was just crazy. I can go into all kinds of details but to put a Transit Initiative together which was for tense of a cent sales tax we to get all 34 mayors to sign onto on to this tax increase which we did. We just rolled out the first train last month to the air port. Union station station we made it an unbelievable amazing destination where all of the different forms of transportation come together. And its one of the things that they really of value. Its one of the smartest things we ever did. They would like to be able to get to and from work and get around with out always him to get in the car. Its something we are proud of. How do we continue to make those adjustments that like music and culture we had 1,000 miles of bike trail in colorado. How much was the tax increase and how many other cities have been able to pull that off politically . It was four tenths of a cent sales tax. It raises 230 million a year and thats what we use to pay down the bonds and operate the system. They used it for light rail. Im sure it wasnt as good. It is a good investment. Without question. Washington is good have to redo its entire metro. I am a College Student here in the washington dc area. I found your book to be very meaningful i respect the honesty with which you write about. Are there any important ways that your Life Experiences impacted your decisions. And mayor and now as governor. I think certainly my life in the Restaurant Business i think every elected officials should have to learn how to run a restaurant. In both cases you never had enough capital, youve a Diverse Group of people if to make into a great team and the public is always pissed off about something. The restaurant would do on a busy friday we would do 1,000 to 1100 dinners. We say we are going to rough water. It doesnt matter if its tall or small or polkadot everyone is part of a team. In that sense of service. Youre all working together you deliver something that people want or need. That sense of service. And it really does when a Restaurant Customer is unhappy he leaves in a fury in angry and they go out and trash your reputation all over town. You learn that by listening to people you defuse that anger. It was hot. I think the leadership should be everyones responsibility to be a leader in their own way. Great answer, great question. Thank you. Hello my name is charlie, nobody self is going to ask about i will. Actually lived in denver right next to your current home but my memories of downtown, especially were abandoned warehouse is an empty office buildings. I go back every couple months and noisy the real thing is going crazy but the dispensaries, they are full of cash because the banks cant operate with credit cards or checks. So the entire industry is money sitting in these dispensaries all over town. People are getting paid in cash and people who own the dispensaries have bucket follow of green dollars. Clearly this is not sustainable. I was wondering what is going to happen how are we going to fix this . Of your going to try to encourage a new industry like this are why oppose the because you dont want to be with the law. But 55 or 45 people passed it in by hell or high water were going to try to make it work. We have a real problem with cash. If you want to encourage corruption, gangsters, have cash, but i think there now for five banks, mostly small banks operating greater lesser extent in the industry and they dont call attention to themselves but they feel that they have discovered ways that they do not feel threatened that the charter is going to be removed. The federal government recognizing this is, states are the laboratories of democracy. And this is going to be one of the great social experiments of this part of the century. The federal government a scene whether we can figure this out, we see in a totally now and im not saying every state should do this, and continuing to say of their state should wait a year maybe two years and see and make sure that theyre not on intended consequences but were seeing less drug dealers which make sense if you take away a big chunk of what people sell, they can make a profit on that anymore then suddenly you are going to have it stands to reason that youre going to end up having less salesman. So i think in terms of whether we are not there yet, but i think were making real progress. The. The banking part of it is slowly coming along. It is a huge a generator of sales tax. It is a huge a generator of sales tax 120,000,000 dollars out of a 27,000,000 dollar budget. Its really Million Dollar budget. Its really a drop, does help us pay for police for regulating and making sure that we are strict, we we treated just like distilleries or alcohol, and we do a lot of marketing to make sure teenagers dont get high. With marijuana every person i talked to feels like its absolutely has a high probability for reducing longterm memory. I marijuana my throat. That was a joke. So in teddy comes chances daddy, i want to try pot. Trust me we have had this discussion so many times ive had it with his friends. These guys are serious, even just once week or twice a week over period of years they will lose a high probability theyll lose a couple points of their iq, thats your memory, thats who you are, we get, we get to be my age is about the most from there is,. Thank you i think we have three more questions. Hello im from california and i missed in here, as governor you have to be on the move doing all caps the things all the time, as a student i felt pressure, was wondering what kind of ways you manage your time and how you manage a team that has to do the stuff they need to do . Thats another great question. There is no easy answer, its harder than heck, it still is but i think one thing i learned in the Restaurant Businesses that you need to surround yourself with the people that have yourself with the people that have the skills that you do not. Most of life and i think despite the technology is increasingly this way, the interrelationship in the teamwork that are required to create modern businesses and real innovative approaches to business, they depend on your ability, like im not great at detail, never have been, love vision and getting excited. That explains why you can never figure out what time the scissor okay,. Theres theres all kinds of reasons for that. But i have other shortcomings we dont have to go into. But you do in the book, you you talk about being impatient and not always listening to senior staff and the key there is to make sure that you express those things to your senior staff and apologize, have a great sense of urgency says that is not something i need as much. The attention to detail and someone who can keep 20 balls in the air, theres about about 20 pages and thereby my previous chief of staff who should just one of the most talented people that you could ever work with and she would keep 30 balls in the air, actually whatever proceeds come my way from this book are all going to go to a couple of charities that help working women and lowincome others, one of them is here her, she ceo of nurse family partnerships which is a remarkable organization, anyway anyway you need to find people like that and then get them to help you schedule your time where youre delivering the most of what they need. And your desire for your selfindulgence and lack of discipline, my wife refers to some of my activities as the ferdinand complex, remember ferdinand the bull coming down the hill and then all theres a flower there all that flour, my wife has great focus and great discipline, as do most of my staff. That allows me that i can wander off a little bit but they give me right back on task and is the team that accomplishes stuff, the days of the individual if they ever were one person, i think is largely overstated. You can go go back and read about abraham lincoln, the amazing but the team of rivals, he get together all of his biggest rivals when he was running incredibly talented people and made sure their skills worked in harmony the best they could. That is the way things work best i think. And work for him instead of against them. This line got longer,. Why dont we asked the questions, all all of them at the same time and then because the governor is available to sign books i think in. Lets ask the questions at all answer them all. Lets do a lightning round. I work for a trade association that represents independence and average retails, some are im struck tonight by the fact that were being hosted by politics and prose, an independent bookstore, locally owned Small Business, that business, that managed to fight through changing time. Recently colorado a bill was passed compromise st 197 that would help preserve that environment for local government and small retailers in the state of colorado and i think its on your desk waiting on your desk to science are you willing to go on the record tonight. Thank you very much. Theres someone who got full value for his book purchase. [laughter] hi john, im lori good to see you. So i have known you since your days in the chinook funds and through the brewpub and not so much in your days as a public official, if you do not go forward in Vice President ial routes or president ial, what is next after your term finishes . Were going to test your memory because my name is michael hamburger, we studied geology together back in the last millennium see if you can remember that. You often were in indiana. Very good, thats what makes a great politician [applause]. Okay i was so pleased to hear that the introduction of the highestranking geologists in the land thats a wonderful introduction in my book, you have staked out a unusual position on the controversial issue of fracking with oil and Gas Production in your state and you have used your experiences as a geologist to frame the discussion so i love to hear viewers about that. Great, i can do that. Okay so for the liquor license, and this is true we dont even want to go into details because it is we have never had supermarkets have never had the right to sell liquor, so walmart and kroger, everybody, colorado, all your beer wine and liquor is sold by independent Liquor Stores. Theres about 1600 of them. As part of the reason why we have 2320 craft breweries in colorado because these little guys have little Liquor Stores they can go talk to have little Liquor Stores they can go talk to and convince to carry their products. Every four years or so the supermarkets get they decide its a big market out there and every other state on a big chunk of it, why shouldnt they change that law and offer convenience and a lower cost in many ways and not worry about the jobs which are about 11000 jobs i think of a small Liquor Stores. This time they passed a bill that the supermarkets came out said we have 25 million we are going to take it all or you can take this compromise and we will face it in every Supermarket Chain will have five new Liquor Stores and then then i get five more in a few more years. Then then therell be a lot more very large Liquor Stores buying and it certainly going to be very hard on the small Liquor Stores, but many, roughly half roughly half the ones i talked to they say is the best compromise we can get. So ive tried to talk to every liquor striking, and also talk into the brewers because its a big its a big part of our economy, another 10000 employees. It drives me nuts a Big Corporation is going to come out and these guys open supermarkets in our state knowing what the law was these Liquor Stores open the Liquor Stores, made their investments, build up their life savings in these things and were going to change a lot, take with that private property and give it to some Big Corporation. It drives me me nuts and yet many of the small Liquor Stores this is what they think it is the best deal theyre going to get. I feel after slowly sure if i vetoed that thing and i lead the charge we would overturn their ballot i dont care how much money they would spend. Colorado love Small Business and supported Small Business. And all the supermarkets are from out of town, out of state. Again what again what happens two years when im out of office. Its a tough question. I havent made up my mind, i havent made up my mind and im not ready to commit. Second question was about fracking. No second one was that what you do next if gladwell is wrong. [laughter] i think i have never thought, i thought i be a geologist thrust my life, i never thought id be in a Restaurant Business and it happened rapidly. Never that im going to elected office. I spent a year and half looking at it thinking about it and plunged into it. I dont know whats next. I think i might go back to the private sector, but i might run a foundation if someone had a really interesting challenge with the foundation i think that would be Something Different and reallyexciting. I think i have one or two careers left, you never can tell. In terms of fracking which is probably as thorny of an issue as there is, colorado people that own the mineral rights under ground that are different than on the surface rights. Our state constitution protects that private property that they are guaranteed by law the right to go and access those minerals. In any case what happens is people are now living out much further from town. They get little 35acre ranches they scatter all over the Eastern Plains on the front range where there happened to be, because of Directional Drilling and hydraulic fracturing the ability to get large amounts of oil and gas, especially natural gas which are not sure everyone agrees but i think it is a very rapid transition fuel to a green economy. Its a major reason we put transforming coal plants into natural gas plants like this and not just natural gas, but wind and solar. We have this private property that we are protected and if you do 2500foot setback people build these homes everywhere. People on these mineral rights for ten or 12 years waiting for the price of oil to get high enough and now someone builds a home 700 feet away and they say you cant drill there anymore. Again its a question of fairness. I dont know what the real solution is. But i nor constitution so that has changed, we have an obligation to protect that private property. I think if on the ballot there talk about getting signatures to put 2500 signatures or to make this setback from any resident 2500 feet, if that passed it essentially takes away a large amount of peoples private assets. I think that would be challenged in court and could go away to the supreme court. Every temple or i talk to i talk to them sure there is exceptions but everyone i took talk to the state of colorado and the counties involved would probably have to come back and make good, wed have to pay when you take someones private property to run a power line or billet a conduit or water whatever, you have to have a domain, you have to pay someone with the value of their private property is. All the folks that want to ban fracking, im happy, lets figure out a way to pay people so youre not going to drill near communities. Again its, its a thorny problem. You pick the thorniest topics are. This is the end of the book it says this is where my story thus far ends it is also where the rest of my rest my life begins. Where we go from here, who knows, you know me i have more than a few ideas in my head. So to you, super governor giddyup, thank you very much [applause]. [inaudible] [inaudible conversation]