When Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Polis thinks outside the box, he’s unsurpassed for original ideas. Even when holding forth on ideas that fall short of original, the verbiage he uses to convey them is typically of a higher order than stale political rhetoric.

Then, there’s talking-points-as-usual Jared Polis. Like when he lapses into campaign mode.  The public is likely to get plenty of both Polises now that he’s campaigning for governor.

And Westword Readers were treated to both iterations last week in a comprehensive Q&A with the five-term Boulder congressman and self-made Internet multimillionaire by Westword’s longtime eyes and ears, Michael Roberts.

Some of Jared the innovator:

Prior to getting into politics, you were an extremely successful businessman. How do you think that will translate when it comes to boosting Colorado’s economy and luring businesses to the state?

Unlike many of the other candidates, I’ve created jobs and balanced budgets, and I know what it takes to help companies grow. And in the companies I’ve started, we’ve always used stock options, which are common in the technology industry. There are also other businesses in our state that have employee ownership as part of their models. In the craft-brewery industry, it’s relatively common. I kicked off my campaign at a Save-A-Lot in Colorado Springs that’s employee-owned. It’s owned by the butcher, it’s owned by the cashier. And as I learned from my business experience, not only is employee ownership good for aligning the incentives of workers with managers, but it makes sure that everybody can share in the success of the company, and we have an economy that works not just for executives and investors, but also for workers.

And the politicker:

… it is disappointing to see not only the radical right-wing agenda to throw people off of health care and privatize public education, but also this year, the incompetence that we’ve seen, and the bungling and coverups of ongoing investigations that I feel are important to give a full accounting to the American people.

To be fair, every pol worth his/her salt has to take some shots across the aisle; otherwise, the media would get bored. But would the rest of the public miss it if partisan rhetoric were to vanish?

In any event, read the whole Roberts interview for a telling overview of the Jared Polis of the moment.