April 13, 2016 12:06 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (April 13)

• 12 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

If Thomas Jefferson were still alive, he’d be 273 years old today…which would be really weird. 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…

► The Presidential campaign of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is working hard to ensure that Cruz is definitely the second choice for Republicans. From the Washington Post:

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is close to ensuring that Donald Trump cannot win the GOP nomination on a second ballot at the party’s July convention in Cleveland, scooping up scores of delegates who have pledged to vote for him instead of the front-runner if given the chance.

The push by Cruz means that it is more essential than ever for Trump to clinch the nomination by winning a majority of delegates to avoid a contested and drawn-out convention fight, which Trump seems almost certain to lose.

The GOP race now rests on two cliffhangers: Can Trump lock up the nomination before Cleveland? And if not, can Cruz cobble together enough delegates to win a second convention vote if Trump fails in the first?

Here in Colorado, Trump supporters are planning a big protest on Friday outside the headquarters of the State Republican Party in Greenwood Village. Anti-Trump supporters are also planning a counter-protest of the Trump protest. If this all seems complicated, just keep one thing in mind: Stay away from Greenwood Village on Friday.

► Colorado Democrats are making another push to make sure that women are paid the same as men for similar work (on average, women earn only about 80% as men). On the other side of the argument are Senate Republicans, who Tweet stuff like this:

Truly liberated women don’t want/need statist paternalism peddled by Dems: https://t.co/CILK0O606R #copolitics #coleg #gop

— Colorado Senate GOP (@ColoSenGOP) April 13, 2016

“Statist paternalism?” You can find that phrase under the Thesaurus listing for “sexism.”

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Who says journalism is dead? Peter Marcus of the Durango Herald still knows how to get it done.

► Dudley Brown, Czar-in-chief of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO), can thank Ted Cruz for helping legitimize his ever-changing allegiances. Here’s a longer list of Colorado Republicans who are part of the “Cruz Colorado Crew.”

► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) has taken so many different positions in the Republican Presidential race that it’s almost impossible to keep track of everything he says. As the Denver Post reports, Gardner is back to attacking Donald Trump:

In a series of  nine messages posted Monday night [on Twitter], the Colorado Republican condemned Donald Trump for criticizing the way the state GOP picks its national delegates, a process that left Trump with zero delegates to the 34  collected by his main rival, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

“I’ve attended CO GOP conventions for years. It requires organization & attn to grassroots to win. Cruz had it. Trump didn’t. End of story,” Gardner wrote.

The jab, which he repeated Tuesday in a brief interview with The Denver Post, represents the harshest rhetoric to date that Gardner has used to attack Trump, who until recently was riding a wave of support in early primary states.

So, after reading this, you might assume that Gardner is definitely opposed to Trump as the Republican nominee for President. You’d be wrong:

Said Gardner: “I got tired of watching Donald Trump besmirch the thousands and thousands and thousands of Colorado Republicans” who participated in the caucus process.

But he again stopped short of saying whether he would decline to back Trump if he is the eventual nominee. [Pols emphasis]

► Senate Republicans have a new plan for shaking their fists at the EPA.

► The Denver Post published an op-ed from a University of Colorado student on the need for making college more affordable for middle-class families.

► Colorado Democrats are admitting to a mistake that allowed Hillary Clinton to capture one more delegate than Bernie Sanders at the March 1 Democratic caucuses…but that mistake has been rectified, as reported by ABC 7 News.

► Colorado Democrats are pushing legislation that would create stricter requirements for campaign finance reporting done by candidates for local school boards. From Charles Ashby of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:

Under current law, such candidates are required to file reports after an election, the opposite of what is required for all other elections under the state’s Fair Campaign Practices Act.

The measure, HB1282, would make school board elections operate the same as all others, including requiring them to file campaign finance reports before Election Day, said Rep. K.C. Becker, D-Boulder, who introduced the bill…

…Some lawmakers, however, said the bill would place too many burdens on candidates who are running for elected positions that don’t pay, and that may dissuade them from running.

“With all due respect, I’ve worked hard to try to get people to run for school boards,” said Rep. J. Paul Brown, R-Ignacio, who spent 12 years on the Ignacio school board. “Sometimes it’s very, very difficult to get folks to run for school board. I’m concerned that when we put roadblocks and requirements on school board candidates that it may discourage them from running.”

You read that correctly — Republicans such as Rep. J. Paul Brown oppose this legislation because it might be hard to recruit people to run for public office if we force them to follow laws and rules and stuff.

► Democratic Sen. Linda Newell is trying to increase funding for suicide prevention programs in Colorado.

► Donald Trump took part in a televised “town hall” event on CNN last night that also included his entire family.

► Trump may have lost an opportunity to pick up delegates in Nebraska because he didn’t pay enough attention to the state. It’s a silly strategic error by Trump, but we can’t really fault anyone for not wanting to go to Nebraska.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► The Colorado Springs Independent examines the increasingly-tense GOP Primary for HD-16; former Rep. Larry Liston is challenging incumbent Rep. Janak Joshi.

► Congressional Republicans are already abandoning their pledge to make a budget deal one of their “top priorities.” Surprise!

ICYMI

► Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is introducing legislation intended to make it easier to file your taxes. You cannot use this as an excuse on Friday.

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