Hickenlooper remains very popular among Colorado’s business community. He’s also a guy you almost can’t help liking. He’s affable and mellow, with an endearing “aw shucks” demeanor and an undeniable cool factor. (Ask him about going to Woodstock, or the Fourth of July weekend he spent at Kurt Vonnegut’s house.) At the Boulder happy hour, one person toasts Hickenlooper for installing a kegerator in the governor’s mansion. Hick grabs the microphone and corrects the record: He installed a full draft system. His quirky personality has always driven his campaigns — his television ads have famously included one spot in which he explained a complicated fiscal measure while skydiving from a plane, and another in which he showered fully dressed while promising to run a “clean” campaign. …

For Hickenlooper, even getting him to define himself politically takes a bit of arm-twisting. “I guess I’m a centrist?” he says tentatively when asked about his politics. “A moderate? You know, all those words …” he trails off, suggesting that he’s not entirely comfortable even picking his own label. “I like politics, but I’m kind of apartisan.”