Jason Noble

jnoble2@dmreg.com

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper confirmed meeting with Hillary Clinton yesterday but offered no comment on whether he’s under consideration for the vice presidential nomination.

Hickenlooper, a two-term Democrat, was in Des Moines on Saturday for the National Governors Association’s summer meetings, arriving late Friday after a day in Washington, D.C., that included a private meeting with Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

“I can’t comment on any of that stuff,” he said when asked about the substance of that meeting. “We met for a little over an hour. Beyond that I really think you should talk to the campaign.”

When asked if he is being vetted as a potential running mate, Hickenlooper again deferred to the campaign.

A spokesman for Clinton’s campaign in Iowa declined to comment.

Hickenlooper said will attend the Democratic National Convention later this month in Philadelphia and deliver a speech on Thursday, July 28 — the final night of the event.

In a short interview with The Des Moines Register on Saturday, Hickenlooper also noted his familial and business connections with Iowa. Turns out Bourke Hickenlooper, a former Republican governor and four-term U.S. senator from Iowa, is the Colorado governor’s second cousin once removed.

The Iowa Hickenlooper left elective office in 1969, when the Coloradan was in high school.

More recently, a restaurant management company owned by Hickenlooper ran a popular downtown restaurant — the Raccoon River Brewing Co., which shut down early last year. Hickenlooper’s Wynkoop Brewing Co. managed the restaurant and brewery for its first three years, from 1997 to 2000.