April 18, 2016 01:08 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Monday (April 18)

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• by: Colorado Pols

From Snowmageddon to Slushpocalypse. Try not to get too squishy today. 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…

► Because April 15th fell on a Friday this year, today is Tax Day in the United States (unless you are a huge corporation, in which case today is just like any other day). Good luck scrounging up some stamps from your desk drawer.

► The legislature gave final approval to the 2016 state budget on Friday, but not without controversy. A last-minute request from the Governor’s office to give $3 million to the Kit Carson Correctional Center on the Eastern Plains — a privately-run prison that apparently cannot exist without government help — nearly upset final negotiations on the “Long Bill.”

► Colorado Democrats didn’t let something like a little Snowmageddon keep them from turning out to various Congressional District Assemblies on Friday nor the Democratic State Convention in Loveland on Saturday. Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders performed well, as expected, and can lay claim to 39 of Colorado’s 66 Democratic delegates.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Knock, knock. It’s the, uh, Loan Shark again.

► Republican Senate candidate Darryl Glenn is tired of candidates such as Jon Keyser who try to milk their military service for political gain. Glenn is a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel himself, so his tough talk on overusing your military record carries significant heft. Glenn is still riding high after a landslide victory at the April 9th Republican State Convention that will give him top line on the June 28th Primary ballot.

► Colorado supporters of Republican Donald Trump are still fuming over their candidate’s blowout loss to Ted Cruz in Colorado. A protest at the State Capitol on Friday didn’t generate the turnout that Trump supporters had hoped — at least partly because a late-afternoon rally on the eve of a weekend snowstorm isn’t the best time to plan, well, anything in Colorado. Trump penned an Op-Ed for the Wall Street Journal about Colorado on the eve of the rally.

There remains a great deal of infighting among Republicans regarding the Presidential race, and a serious side of confusion as well.

► Several Colorado candidates announced their first quarter fundraising numbers late on Friday, hoping the news would get buried like everything else under the weekend snowstorm. We’ll have more details on Q1 fundraising later today, but there’s no hiding the fact that Republican Senate candidates did not fare particularly well. Two Colorado Congressional candidates — Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) and Democratic challenger Morgan Carroll — each reported Q1 numbers that would make every GOP Senate candidate blush.

Incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Denver), meanwhile, announced today that his campaign raised about $1.8 million in Q1 and is now sitting on a warchest of $7.6 million.

► Marshall Zelinger of ABC 7 in Denver questioned three Colorado Republican candidates about their use of photos depicting themselves in military uniform. Zelinger’s reporting caused Senate candidate Jon Keyser and CD-7 Republican challenger George Athanasopoulos to add new disclaimers to images on their respective campaign websites:

The Department of Defense requires that any photograph of a military member in uniform “must be accompanied by a prominent and clearly displayed disclaimer that neither the military information nor photographs imply endorsement by the Department of Defense or their particular Military Department.”

“As a voter, why should I care?” Denver7 political reporter Marshall Zelinger asked Lt. Col. Drew Roberts, a Judge Advocate at Buckley Air Force Base.

“It’s intended to make it clear that there is no endorsement,” said Roberts. “A photo leaves an open question. We don’t want to leave an open question. We want to make it clear to the public that no sponsorship or endorsement of this candidate or this cause is implied directly or indirectly.”

► Former State Senator Gail Schwartz captured the Democratic nomination for Congress in CD-3 on Friday. Incumbent Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Cortez) will have to dispatch a Primary challenge from Alex Beinstein before he can focus his attention on the challenge from Schwartz.

► Two separate Democrats will appear on the Primary ballot in CD-5 in June. Incumbent Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs) has his own Primary challenge to worry about.

► The Supreme Court is hearing a critical immigration case today, as Politico reports:

The Obama administration struggled to find a critical fifth vote at the shorthanded Supreme Court Monday to allow President Barack Obama to revive his foundering immigration legacy by moving forward with a new round of executive actions granting quasi-legal status and work permits to millions of immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally.

Two Republican appointees the Obama administration hoped to win over — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy — were surprisingly critical of many of the arguments the administration offered against the challenge 26 states brought to the latest set of Obama’s actions, namely his moves in 2014 to protect and provide benefits to illegal immigrants who are parents of American citizens.

► Tomorrow is a big day in the Presidential race as New York voters cast their Primary ballots. As the Washington Post reports, all of the candidates are doing their best to claim a personal connection to New York City.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► The Loveland Reporter-Herald ripped into state Sen. John Cooke (who also happens to be a former Weld County Sheriff) for his comments suggesting that Coloradans knowingly violate gun safety laws in Colorado by traveling to Wyoming to make a firearm-related purchase.

► Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams has no problem touting Colorado election laws that he has personally opposed on numerous occasions.

ICYMI

► A new NBC-Wall St. Journal poll shows that Democratic Presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton is beatable in a General Election…but not if her Republican opponents have the last name of “Trump” or “Cruz.”

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