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Key Dems throw support to Ritter

Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 3, 2005 at midnight

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It took a two-hour breakfast, six pages of questions and a series of phone calls to turn Democrat Paul Sandoval around.

The north Denver businessman - who once said he'd consider voting for the Republican in the gubernatorial race if former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter got the Democratic nomination - now has a different opinion.

"Bill Ritter has, shall I say, converted me," Sandoval said.

Sandoval, a former state senator, is one of Colorado's most powerful behind-the-scenes political brokers. From his tamale shop in northwest Denver, he regularly holds court with the city and state's movers and shakers.

"It feels great," Ritter said, of turning skeptics like Sandoval into admirers.

Also seeing Ritter in a new light is Butch Montoya, Denver's former manager of public safety.

"I did have nagging concerns," Montoya said. "But when you sit down and you ask (Ritter) the hard questions, and you get his views, it changes things."

No other Democrat so far has announced his candidacy to replace Gov. Bill Owens, although two state representatives - Speaker Andrew Romanoff, of Denver, and Gary Lindstrom, of Breckenridge - are still mulling it over.

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper have both said "no thanks," despite wooing from party stalwarts who fear Ritter can't win in November.

Democrats worry about Ritter's anti-abortion stance and his handling of police shootings while district attorney.

The constant speculation about whether Ritter can win reminds former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb of the 1998 gubernatorial race. Some Democrats feared that former Lt. Gov. Gail Schoettler was going to get clobbered by Gov. Bill Owens.

Instead, the race was so close the outcome wasn't known until the next morning.

"If all the Democrats who talked about how she couldn't become governor had worked that much on her behalf, Gail Schoettler would be governor today," Webb said.

Ritter met last week with Montoya and Sandoval, who came with six pages of questions.

"I didn't agree with all his answers, but at least he answered them," Sandoval said this week. "It wasn't, 'I'll get back with you.' He didn't skirt the issues."

Sandoval's chief concern was that Ritter never prosecuted a police officer for a fatal shooting.

Ritter pointed out that he was the first district attorney in the country to open files on police shootings to the public. Ritter also said he couldn't ethically bring a case he didn't think he could win.