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Hickenlooper Celebrates Inauguration With 3,000 Friends

Marshall Zelinger, 7NEWS Content Producer/Presenter
POSTED: 11:20 pm MST January 11, 2011

It began with him resigning as Denver's mayor at the City and County building. Hours later, he was sworn in as Colorado's 42nd governor on the west steps of the state capitol. By the evening, 3,000 supporters joined him at the Fillmore Auditorium for dinner, before an inaugural concert lasting until nearly midnight just blocks away at the Ogden Theater.

At his inaugural dinner, Hickenlooper was joined on stage by the state's previous governors.

"Don't screw up on a slow news day," said former Gov. Dick Lamm.

"Get a couch and take a nap, (a) 10-minute nap everyday," said former Gov. Roy Romer.

Outgoing Gov. Bill Ritter suggested that Hickenlooper lead by courage and compassion.

"John Hickenlooper, God bless you and good luck," said Ritter.

It was former Gov. Bill Owens who, through a joke, may have best set the tone for what Hickenlooper may face on his second day in office.

"He'll do a fine job, I'm proud of having him as a friend despite the fact that we're in different parties. Actually, as I'm looking up here, I'm in a different party from everybody up here," said Owens, a former Republican governor standing next to three former Democratic governors.

Hickenlooper thanked his predecessors, and then told his supporters he'll be held accountable for his actions in the state's top office.

"Ultimately, what's going to happen over the next four years is either we're going to succeed in reinventing government or we're not," said Hickenlooper.

The dinner and the concert were both paid for by ticket sales and donations.

"It was the No, 1 priority for Hickenlooper that all the events that were held around the inaugural were privately funded," said Ben Davis, spokesman for Colorado Can Do, the group that organized the inaugural events.

Hickenlooper passed on a black-tie inaugural ball in favor of a barbecue party at which guests wore cowboy hats and jeans. Guests ate beef brisket and macaroni and cheese and listened to a country band. In a nod to Hickenlooper's experience as a brewpub owner, the inaugural party featured more than a dozen beers. Guests took home pint glasses printed with a picture of the new governor raising a glass of "Inaugurale," a brown ale created in his honor by his former brewpub, The Wynkoop Brewing Co.

Hickenlooper extended his common-man theme Tuesday when he told reporters he and his wife and son won't be moving into the elaborate governor's mansion. The Democrat says he'll use the 1908 Cheesman-Boettcher Mansion on occasion, but that his family will remain in his home in a wealthy Denver neighborhood.

Hickenlooper sent his first thanks to the bus driver who drove his campaign bus.

At his inaugural speech in the morning, Hickenlooper promised a smaller government and more jobs in Colorado.

"We will help businesses protect and expand the jobs we have. We will attract new jobs. And we will harness the entrepreneurial spirit that has always defined Colorado through her history," said Hickenlooper during his inauguration speech. "By taking specific actions today, we want the people of Colorado to know that we heard you and we share your urgency to get Colorado back to work."