Note: Watch for livestream coverage at gazettedev.gazette.com of Donald Trump’s appearance in Denver at about 10 a.m. Friday.

DENVER – Colorado’s own millionaire-turned-politician, Gov. John Hickenlooper, took aim at Republican Donald Trump on the eve of the billionaire development tycoon’s takeover of downtown Denver.

“I’m a business guy who went into public life, and yet he and I are the extreme opposite. We’re like the opposite side of the same penny,” Hickenlooper told The Gazette Thursday. “He’ll say whatever pops into his mind, and then if he needs to change it in a few days or a week, he’ll change his mind.”

Hickenlooper, a Democrat rumored to be on a list of potential running mates with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, said Trump’s fickle-mindedness could spell disaster for the national economy.

“I’m the best and I don’t have to worry about what I say because I’m the best … it’s a terrible formula,” Hickenlooper said, mocking Trump’s braggadocio.

Patrick Davis, who was recently named Trump’s Colorado campaign director, said this is the first chance Coloradans will have to show their support for Trump.

“I think often overlooked in this entire campaign is that while we didn’t have the Republican primary to test Donald Trump’s strengths, the Democrats did have a preference poll, and Hillary Clinton lost to Bernie Sanders,” Davis said in an interview Wednesday. “She is not as popular as she thinks she is in Colorado.”

Clinton was in Denver this week, and has been in the state throughout the primary season.

Trump hasn’t paid much attention to Colorado, but that is about to change.

He had a terrible showing at the state’s assembly and convention, failing to secure a single pledged delegate. It was rumored that he would speak at the event, but Trump sent a surrogate in his place.

But a poll conducted June 21-24 of 996 likely Colorado voters found Trump isn’t far behind Clinton. Colorado is one of a dozen states that early polls show are tossups at this point.

The CBS News YouGov poll found 40 percent of voters would vote for Clinton and 39 percent for Trump, with a 4.3 percent margin of error.

“He’s got a lot of support here,” Hickenlooper said. “That’s surprising to me because, obviously, I have serious issues.”

Other Democrats came out Thursday to lambaste Trump ahead of his appearance at the Western Conservative Summit, an annual event hosted by the Centennial Institute and Colorado Christian University. The three-day convention begins Friday.

Ironically, Trump was one of the only GOP candidates for president who didn’t speak at the convention in 2015. Now he’s the first presumptive-nominee to ever address the group billed as “the largest gathering of conservatives outside of Washington, D.C.

Trump will be introduced by the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

It’s also rumored that room will be made in the schedule for Darryl Glenn, Colorado’s GOP candidate for U.S. Senate. Glenn, from Colorado Springs, won Tuesday’s five-man primary and will face Sen. Michael Bennet in November. Glenn was the only one of the five Republican Senate candidates who attended the Western Conservative Summit in 2015.

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Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644

Twitter @CapitolSchrader

“I’m a business guy who went into public life, and yet he and I are the extreme opposite,” said Colorado Democrat Gov. John Hickenlooper about presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.. (The Gazette/Jerilee Bennett)

Colo. Gov. John Hickenlooper fielded questions during a visit to the Gazette Tuesday, May 20, 2014. Photo by Mark Reis, The Gazette

MARK REIS

Governor John Hickenlooper sporting a Donald Trump sock on his right foot. (Photo by Megan Schrader, The Gazette)