October 30, 2015 12:16 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (Oct. 30)

• 4 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

What a weekend: Halloween on a Saturday night, and Daylight Saving Time gives you an extra hour to be spooky. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).

Also, if you are scared of our Halloween-themed “Get More Smarter” logo, we are sorry.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► STOP! If you still have a ballot for the 2015 election, don’t stick it in the mail (click one of the following links for more information on ballot drop-off locations). If you have still not received a mail ballot, you should contact your County Clerk and Recorder’s office ASAP about a Provisional Ballot.

Visit GoVoteColorado.com to check your voter registration status or to print out a sample ballot. You can also check out JustVoteColorado.org for more information. For more details on local school board elections, check out ProgressNow Colorado’s voter guide.

► It is oddly fitting that former House Speaker John Boehner will officially resign from office tomorrow. The Great Orange Leader will follow the Great Pumpkin into the night.

► Congressional leaders worked with the White House late Wednesday to finalize a budget deal, which was approved without much Republican support. All four Republican members of Colorado’s Congressional delegation voted against the budget deal (Reps. Scott Tipton, Ken Buck, Doug Lamborn, and Mike Coffman). The Durango Herald has more on Tipton’s opposition to the deal; Buck is doing most of the talking for the Colorado delegation,  ostensibly to allow Coffman to duck reporters.

Newly-named House Speaker Paul Ryan, aka “DJ Paulie D,” is publicly bellyaching about the budget so that he can pretend that he had nothing to do with the budget deal. Meanwhile, Politico takes an inside look at the adults in Congress who worked together to hammer out a budget deal and avoid a “catastrophic debt default.”

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Joey Bunch of the Denver Post runs down some Colorado politicos to get their take on Wednesday’s Republican Presidential debate. Amy Runyon-Harms of ProgressNow Colorado had high praise for University of Colorado students who were shut out of the debate audience:

Amy Runyon-Harms, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, the state’s top liberal advocacy group, found the candidates’ tax policies empty.

“Each of these candidates were asked how they would solve the problems our nation faces, and their responses proved that none of them have any realistic plan to address those problems,” she said. “All they could do is bash President Obama and Hillary Clinton, blame the media for the fact that the public doesn’t agree with their out-of-touch proposals, and attack each other over nonsensical sideshows like fantasy football.”

She remains ticked off that so many seats went unfilled in the Coors Event Center, to stack the deck for Republican candidates. She congratulated CU students who pushed back, though still only 150 students got in.

“I’m so proud of the University of Colorado students who stood up to the exclusion of the CU community from this event on their own campus,” Runyon-Harms said. “It’s wrong to appropriate the reputation of Colorado’s foremost public university, a reputation for honest and open debate, and then lock the student body out of this critically important debate. Tonight, the Republican presidential candidates proved that they can’t speak to needs of the CU students they are using as a backdrop.”

Former Colorado Republican Party Chair Ryan Call thinks the GOP missed a real opportunity to connect with younger voters by not making debate tickets available to students.

► In a separate story, Bunch examines the content of the debate questions from Wednesday, noting the glaring lack of questions about renewable energy and marijuana — both of which are significant issues for Coloradans.

► Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson was in Lakewood on Thursday to speak to a group at Colorado Christian University. As John Frank reports for the Denver Post, the audience may have gotten a little carried away:

In his calm, assured tone — described by one prominent conservative at the event as Christ-like — Carson told more than 1,500 people at Colorado Christian University to “stop listening to secular progressives who are trying to kick God out of our country.” [Pols emphasis]

“Christ-like,” eh? This reminds us of the Bible passage about a man who tried to stab his friend to death…no, no, wait, that’s Ben Carson.

► Taking a break from shaking their fists at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Congressional Republicans are pushing so-called “Good Samaritan” legislation that would protect companies from liability for environmental accidents if they actually decide to clean up long-abandoned mining sites.

► Hey, there he is! State Sen. Tim Neville is starting to get more publicly active with his campaign for U.S. Senate after declaring his intentions last month. As Peter Marcus reports for the Durango Herald, Neville is focused on getting some coin into his campaign war chest:

► Controversy surrounding the Jefferson County School Board made national headlines last year, and the 2015 recall election is also getting its fair share of out-of-state news coverage. The Jeffco Recall is at the top of the watch list for politicos keeping an eye on this off-year election cycle.

► Dan Arvizu, the departing director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, talks with Cathy Proctor of the Denver Business Journal about his view of the landscape on his way out the door.

► The media has gotten hold of a 112-page document meant to encourage supporters of flailing Republican Presidential candidate Jeb! Bush.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Congress may soon take up legislation designed to measure the economic impact of outdoor recreation. Independent studies have shown that outdoor recreation generates $646  billion in consumer spending on an annual basis, but there has never been an official government study on the topic.

►Former Denver Mayor Federico Peña is being criticized for his role in an immigration-reform rally in Boulder that sputtered out on Wednesday despite big expectations.

ICYMI

► The Denver Nuggets play their first home game of the 2015-16 NBA season tonight at Pepsi Center against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Nuggets are coming off a 2o-point season-opening victory in Houston on Wednesday.

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