THE CALIFORNIA SYNDROME: Where Colorado Grows In Spite, Not Because, of Democrats

Governor John Hickenlooper’s re-election chances live and die with Colorado’s economy.  That’s why the Lefties were quick to jump on and spin the job growth in Colorado yesterday as a triumph, being one of the top five in the country for January.  Then again, 27 states and Washington D.C. all lost jobs in January, so yeah, congrats to us for being the faster snail. But, the picture once you scratch the surface isn’t as rosy for Colorado as Dems would have Coloradans believe.

Of the top five states in job growth for January (and remember, there were only 23 with positive growth), the four ahead of Colorado are all run by Republicans: Texas, Ohio, Arizona, and Nevada.  If we expand this snapshot further than just January, and look at job growth over the last 12 months, Colorado falls out of the top five completely.

The other talking point from the professional Left yesterday is that Colorado hadn’t seen such strong job growth in a single month since 2000.  Again, this is all optics.  Any economist will tell you the bigger the hole dug during a recession, the more room you have for job growth after.  There’s a reason a developing country like China can have double-digit job growth for years, while a developed country like America is happy with 3%.

To put Colorado’s economic health in perspective, let’s look at this graph from Americans for Prosperity:

Utah doesn’t take econ vitality for granted MT @WestSlopeWater: MT @ClimateCO Utah’s #Carbon Bomb” #Copolitics #coleg pic.twitter.com/lo03vk3T3I

— AFPColorado (@AFPColorado) March 18, 2014

As you can see PeakNation™, not only has Colorado not done well over the past decade (now going on our 8^th year under Democratic control), but we have done far worse than our neighbors.

It’s almost like we’re turning into California, where most of our built-in economic advantage (highly-educated adult population, temperate weather, growing young adult population) is thrown away by Democrats.  We not only have the ability to be a top economic state, but to be the top economic state.  With our strong, independent, can-do attitude, and our creative atmosphere, we are where the salt-of-the-earth, get ‘er-done attitude of the Midwest merges with the big dreams and bigger entrepreneurial spirit of the West Coast.  Limping along— everything’s fine just because we’re doing better than others— is not acceptable.

Hickenlooper better learn how to marshal the full forces of this great state soon, or Coloradans will find someone who can.