November 12, 2015 11:51 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (Nov. 12)

• 0 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

So much for that snow. 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).

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Republican Presidential candidate Marco Rubio has been maniacally tap-dancing around the issue of immigration reform, and his latest “position” on the issue is pretty damn far from the Senate legislation that he once drafted in 2013. This is obviously a political problem for Rubio, but as he backs away from his own policy ideas, he’s leaving other Republicans with nowhere to turn. We’re looking at you, Rep. Mike Coffman.

► We might need another clown car. Republican Ryan Frazier is running for U.S. Senate, and fellow Republican Jon Keyser is also close to joining the fracas. Neither candidate can likely defeat state Sen. Tim Neville in a GOP Primary.

Meanwhile, incumbent Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. The meeting is significant, because Bennet’s support of President Obama’s Iran policy has caused plenty of tension with the AIPAC crowd.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Stupid…facts and stuff. Republicans have spent years trying to prove that there was some sort of massive voter fraud in Colorado, but they just can’t seem to mold reality to their liking. As the Aurora Sentinel reports:

An Arapahoe County jury last week acquitted a man of voter fraud charges, bringing to a close a 2013 voter fraud investigation that identified more than 100 suspects but produced just one conviction. 

[Carl] Blocker and Michael Michaelis worked for a nonprofit called Work For Progress, and prosecutors said the men registered ineligible voters. Prosecutors last year dropped charges against Michaelis after they said there were questions involving some evidence in the case.

The two men were among four charged in 2013 as part of a large-scale and controversial voter fraud investigation launched by former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler.

Gessler had identified more than 100 people he said illegally voted, but the four charged in Arapahoe County were the only people in Colorado to face charges.

Former Secretary of State Scott Gessler once testified before Congress about his belief that some 16,500 people were illegally registered to vote in Colorado — including 5,000 who cast a ballot — and history has proven Gessler to be a little…off. As it turns out, there might have been 1 person who voted illegally in Colorado. Gessler even Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler in his pretend witch hunt, to no avail.

► A Presidential straw poll conducted by Republicans in El Paso County this week included zero votes for Jeb! Bush. The survey of 136 Republicans found the most support for Ted Cruz and Ben Carson in the GOP field for President.

► A group of Colorado Sheriffs signed a letter to President Obama asking that Guantanamo Bay prisoners be kept away from Colorado…but noticably absent from the letter is the name of La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith. As Jonathan Romeo reports for the Durango Herald:

Calling the move too political, La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith chose not to sign a petition sent earlier this week by a group of 41 Colorado sheriffs against the transfer of Guantanamo Bay inmates to Fremont County…

…“We’re very far removed from it. I’m focused on what’s going on with the citizens in our county. If I felt like it would create adverse risks for us, I would get involved.”

Supermax already holds some of the nation’s most dangerous terrorists, including Ted Kaczynski, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Ramzi Yousef, who coordinated the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Smith said the presence of those high-profile criminals has never posed a danger to La Plata County.

► Somebody named Nic Morse is apparently going to challenge Rep. Jared Polis (D-Boulderish) in 2016. At least Republicans now know who will not be representing them in Congress in 2017,

► Governor John Hickenlooper is discussing his proposed budget with state lawmakers.

► Big grocers in Colorado are pushing to change a law in Colorado that prevents them from selling full-strength beer and alcohol in stores. What say you, Polsters?

► The Colorado Statesman considers some potential names to replace outgoing Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia. As for any future plans, Garcia tells the Statesman that he will not seek to run for Governor in 2018.

► Colorado legislators are starting to put more time in at the State Capitol in preparation for the 2016 legislative session. Joey Bunch has more for the Denver Post.

► House Speaker Paul D. Ryan is trying to dump the chairs of a powerful nuisance committee in Congress.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► The union for U.S. Postal Workers has endorsed Bernie Sanders for President.

► A new poll out of Texas shows Ted Cruz and Donald Trump at the top of the Republican Presidential field in the Longhorn State.

ICYMI

► We’re still two months away from 2016, but there are already TV ads running against Republican state Sen. Laura Waters Woods.

Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!