McInnis, Scott_colorScott McInnis made a stop in Cañon City over the weekend to tell fellow Republicans he’s optimistic about the future, but he worries that state government, now in the hands of Democrats, is heading in the wrong direction.

“This is the worst situation we’ve been in since the [Great Depression],” he said (via the Daily Record).

He sounds a bit like his primary Democratic competition, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who also made a Great Depression comparison when he announced he would step in and run for office last month, after Governor Bill Ritter said he would not seek a second term (via 7News).

Hickenlooper, JohnHickenlooper (left) and McInnis also look more competitive. Whereas Ritter trailed McInnis by eight points in a Rasmussen poll in December, in January Hickenlooper closed in on McInnis’ lead, which was just three percentage points, according to the polling group.

Now, Hickenlooper has moved ahead of McInnis, holding a 49 percent to 45 percent lead. Hick also edges McInnis among both male and female voters, and those golden unafilliated voters prefer the Democrat by five points. And the former brew-pub owner remains more well-known than McInnis, a former congressman from the Western Slope.

Still, ColoradoPols reiterates its “boilerplate disclaimer about putting too much stock into early polls….That said, and especially given what many consider to be Rasmussen’s built-in GOP biases, you can’t call this insignificant.”