Colorado governor vows to ‘arm wrestle’ for jobs

02/27/2007

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter isn't letting new manufacturing jobs bypass his state without a fight -- literally.

Shortly after fellow Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick urged new clean energy manufacturing plants to open in his state, the Colorado Democrat vowed to "arm-wrestle" Patrick for the job opportunities.

"We're going to arm wrestle you for those jobs because we want those same manufacturing plants," Ritter said. "It's a good thing to have two governors competing for those jobs, competing in this industry to build out the turbines, competing to have the wind farms located in their state. That's the right way for us to think about it."

The two Democratic governors spoke Monday at a clean energy summit in Washington, DC.