May 31, 2016 02:07 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (May 31)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Welcome to the last day of May. 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…

► Just how rich is Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump? As Politico found out, the answer depends on the skill level of your accountant.

► Republican Senate candidate Jon Keyser continues to have legal troubles surrounding his apparently fraudulent attempt to qualify for the June 28th Primary ballot. As Marshall Zelinger reports for Denver7:

Forged petition signatures uncovered by Denver7 has led three voters to sue the Secretary of State.

The lawsuit filed in Denver District Court [Friday] asks for a finding that Republican Senate candidate Jon Keyser did not have enough valid signatures to qualify for the June 28 mail-in primary election.

“This lawsuit exists because, frankly, the media and Channel 7 and you have brought to the floor, a practice that probably has existed before, but never really been documented,” attorney Mark Grueskin told Denver7 Political Reporter Marshall Zelinger.

A Denver district court judge is expected to hear opening arguments in the case this afternoon.

► Republican candidates for U.S. Senate are starting to flash their mugs on camera in TV ads around the state. If you are at all familiar with the Keyser campaign, you won’t be surprised by his first ad. As John Frank reports for the Denver Post, Keyser’s first TV spot strikes a familiar tone but is lacking in accuracy:

Whether his assertions pass the truth test is another question. PolitiFact, a prominent fact-checking outlet, recently gave a False ruling to a U.S. Senate candidate in Florida who said the deal “allows Iran to produce a nuclear weapon.” The wording in Keyser’s ad goes even further. (He was recently rebuked for a different false claim regarding Guantanamo Bay detainees.)

The Keyser campaign said it bought statewide air time through the primary but declined to disclose the size of the TV buy. [Pols emphasis]

Without the details, it’s unclear how many people will hear the message and whether it will make an impact in the race. Through April 30, Keyser only had $200,000 in the bank. though he’s courtedhigh-dollar donors in recent weeks.

With Blaha and Graham on the air with their own TV ads, Keyser’s campaign certainly felt pressure to join the club so that they could claim to be “one of three” candidates on the air. But the campaign’s refusal to disclose the size of the TV buy is a big red flag for any Keyser supporters. When Graham announced his first TV ad, his campaign included the fact that $450,000 was spent on a statewide ad blitz; this is a pretty standard practice, and declining to talk numbers usually means that you don’t have impressive numbers to discuss.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► The editorial board of the Denver Post is not particularly impressed with the Republican field of U.S. Senate candidates and their general refusal to compromise:

In both cases — and there have been others — Republicans and Democrats compromised. If Glenn doesn’t see the value in that conduct, he is not fit to be senator.

Nor is Glenn alone among Republican hopefuls to portray himself as someone who would adopt an in-your-face style in Washington. The blustery Robert Blaha told Kyle Clark of 9News the other day that his role model as a senator is Ted Cruz…

…Republicans have a big decision next month. It would be good not only for their party but for Colorado politics generally if they rejected the theatrics of loudmouth confrontation.

► State Rep. Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt (R-Colorado Springs) wants to “exorcise” demons from the body of Caitlyn Jenner. He’s not referring to any members of the Kardashian family.

► The Chair of the Delta County Republican Party is claiming that her Facebook account was “hacked,” which is how a racist diatribe about President Obama ended up becoming public. Perhaps she can join the Colorado Republican Party in its legal quest to unearth the unknown person who posted a #NeverTrump Tweet using the State GOP’s official Twitter account.

► Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign, talks about the “elephant in the room” on CBS News.

Elsewhere, the Grand Junction Sentinel publishes a deeper look at Gov. Hickenlooper in the wake of the release of his memoir last week.

► Megan Schrader of the Colorado Springs Gazette takes a look at Darryl Glenn’s quest to win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate:

A Democrat political tracker – an opposition party henchman trying to catch political faux pas on camera – crashed a small neighborhood meet-and-greet for Darryl Glenn earlier this month. The man stood obtrusively in the middle of the living room with a small camera recording Glenn’s conversations.

The man was asked to leave – and did so without incident. But the fact he was dispatched to a small event for Glenn represents a recent and seismic shift in Colorado’s Republican U.S. Senate primary race.

► “Yes, Ryan Frazier is still running” is not the ideal headline for the Senate campaign of Republican Ryan Frazier.

► Donald Trump is attacking the media — in general — in his latest diatribe about anything and anyone who isn’t enamored with Trump.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Marianne Goodland of the Colorado Independent takes a look at the crowded field of candidates running in HD-3 (South Denver).

► Ben Higgins, a North Denver man best known for his appearance on the television show “The Bachelor” is considering a run for State House in HD-4.

ICYMI

► Get more Get More Smarter Show.

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