Scott McInnis lives in Grand Junction near Colorado’s western border, and he noted in his speech to the Highlands Ranch Republican breakfast today that all of the state’s top Democrats live within the Denver city limits. McInnis, the Republican’s presumptive nominee to run for governor against Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, said that Hick, Governor Bill Ritter, Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall, General Assembly committee chairmen and some vice chairmen all live in Denver or Metro Denver.

This little jab at Hickenlooper was about as hard as McInnis got in his standard spiel, which he’s had to edit since the mayor became the Democrats’ candidate, replacing Ritter who decided that he won’t run for a second term. 

When he accused Ritter and Democrats of killing Colorado jobs by driving natural gas exploration companies out of the state and by raising taxes, McInnis always pointed out that while Ritter and General Assembly Democrats raised taxes and imposed tough, costly regulations on natural gas companies, “the Mayor sat across the street” and didn’t try to stop them even though they affected jobs in Denver. McInnis didn’t mention Hickenlooper by name.

Although McInnis didn’t explicitly promise to not raise taxes or pledge to support TABOR as directly as he did a couple weeks ago at a Castle Rock Republican breakfast, he blasted Democrats in the General Assembly for raising taxes in 13 bills by eliminating tax exemptions and credits during the recession.