by Peter Mertz
DENVER, the United States, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- When Amazon announced in September it would build a second headquarters in North America, governors across the country started licking their chops.
While Denver and San Francisco are considered front-runners for Amazon's mega-expansion, a recent New York Times analysis showed that Denver in the western U.S. state of Colorado is the top choice for the world's top retailer.
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper's Press Secretary Jacque Montgomery confirmed to Xinhua on Friday that Colorado will submit a proposal to Amazon in the first week of October for Denver to host the proposed 21st century campus.
Winning the competition for Colorado's capital was regarded as Hickenlooper's key step to continue his legacy as a successful politician and businessman.
Hickenlooper reacted quickly to the news: last week leading a western governor's workshop and talking all about how great the Rocky Mountain State would be for the retail titan.
"This is his last term and he's pulling out all the stops -- it would guarantee his legacy," Matthew Roeser, a 1992 University of Maryland journalism graduate, told Xinhua on Friday.
"The governor jumped on this opportunity like he does with everything related to benefitting Colorado," said the Carbondale contractor Roeser.
Hickenlooper has been in public office since 2003 -- elected twice as both Denver mayor and Colorado governor. He has dominated state politics since the millennium began.
In addition to his political successes, the Colorado Democrat is also called the father of Colorado's world-renowned craft beer industry.
He opened Wynkoop Brewery in a downtrodden part of Denver in 1988, which stands as a testament to his vision and business acumen.
The economic benefits of attracting a company the caliber of Amazon are immeasurable, Hickenlooper contended.
Amazon, surpassing even Wal-Mart last year in total sales and market capitalization, with revenues of 136 billion U.S. dollars last year, said it will take 15 to 20 years to hire 50,000, mostly highly skilled workers, at an average annual wage of 100,000 U.S. dollars where it landed.
But offering one of the world's most profitable companies lots of money incentives doesn't appeal to all looking to bring Jeff Bezos's company to their state.
Silicon Valley's Democratic Federal Representative Ro Khanna tweeted earlier this month that Amazon should be "investing in communities" and that governments should avoid a "race to the bottom."
Colorado state and local governments give corporations roughly 1 billion dollars a year in taxes subsidies, according to a story released by the International Business Times (IBT.com) last week.
The Denver Post cautioned earlier this month that any proposal Colorado makes to host Amazon's second headquarters campus will have to address a critical bottleneck: "finding enough workers for the tech giant in what is already one of the tightest labor markets in the country."
Moreover, an IBT.com story published this week alleged that the governor had perhaps acted improperly when he hired the same lobbying firm that is used by Amazon.
Brownstein Hyatt -- the firm that helped finance Hickenlooper's election campaign -- also represents Amazon.
IBT said that federal records show that at the beginning of 2017, Amazon hired Brownstein Hyatt to lobby for the company. A few weeks later, Hickenlooper's office awarded a 210,000 U.S. dollars taxpayer-funded government lobbying contract to Brownstein Hyatt.
IBT noted that Brownstein is simultaneously representing Amazon and a governor's office" that is spearheading a plan that could enrich Amazon."
Hickenlooper's office was quick to reject the allegations.
"No conflict of interest whatsoever," Press Secretary Montgomery told Xinhua on Friday. "Our work with Brownstein is completely different than what they do with Amazon."
"He's a rainmaker," Roeser said of the governor. "He gets things done and knows the rules."
Still some people had reservations.
"All politicians are slippery," said Kirk Blue, a retired U.S. Navy engineer in Colorado.
