September 25, 2024 09:54 AM UTC
Get More Smarter on Wednesday (Sept. 25)
1 Comments- by: Colorado Pols
On this day in 1981, Belize joined the United Nations; how’s that for obscure trivia? Let’s Get More Smarter! If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of an audio learner, check out The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to find us on Facebook and the website formerly known as Twitter.
FIRST UP…
► There’s still no word on whether or not Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump is actually going to visit Aurora before the end of the election, but he’s expanding his rhetoric in the meantime to declare that all of Colorado is about to be killed by Venezuelan gangs…or whatever.
Susan Greene of The Aurora Sentinel looks at the damage done to the community because of the nonsense surrounding claims of Venezuelan gang takeovers:
Aurora, a city infamous for its movie theater massacre and record of police misconduct, has a new cause for national notoriety: election-season fear mongering about its undocumented immigrants.
Assertions that a Venezuelan gang has taken over apartment complexes, scared away police officers and overrun parts of the city have gone so viral among some conservatives this election season that Donald Trump cited them in the Sept. 10 presidential debate and continues to embellish them on the campaign trail.
“In Aurora, Colorado, entire apartment complexes are being taken over by armed Venezuelan gangs with weapons the likes of which even the military doesn’t see,” Trump said at a rally in Wisconsin earlier this month. “They’re terrorizing residents and they’re just menacing the whole state. …And they’re vicious, violent people.”
If Trump does come to Aurora, Gov. Jared Polis hopes he “behaves.” From CBS4 Denver:
“Aurora is our third biggest city, over 400,000 people, it’s a terrific city, I was there last week. If the president comes, I hope he doesn’t bring him an element of lawlessness or people that are causing trouble. Obviously, we welcome anybody to the city of Aurora, to Colorado, but obviously, we worry about some of the criminal elements that he brings with him, he’s a convicted felon himself, and a lot of people who associate with him might engage in acts of terror against the residents of Aurora,” said Polis. “So if he comes, welcome, behave yourself, play some golf at one of our municipal golf courses, dine in one of our great restaurants, we’d be thrilled to have you but tell your crazy hangers-on not to come with you.”
► Meanwhile, Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance WILL apparently be in Colorado soon…for a different reason. As The Colorado Sun reports:
The Ohio Republican, who would be vice president if Trump is elected, is set to attend a Denver fundraiser Oct. 8, according to the flyer.
The event will be hosted by Larry Mizel, a Republican megadonor and Israel booster who lives in Denver and is founder and executive chairman of MDC Holdings, a home construction company headquartered in Denver. Former U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican, is also listed as a host.
Tickets start at $3,300 and the fundraiser will benefit the Trump 47 Committee, a joint fundraising committee that splits its proceeds between Trump’s campaign, his leadership political action committee, the Republican National Committee and state political parties across the country.
► But…but…Trump is better at the economy!
Post by @kamalahq
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Perhaps voters thinking about the economy are finally putting 2 + 2 together and realizing the answer isn’t “7”. From The Washington Post:
Although voters still favor former president Donald Trump over Harris on handling the economy, his advantage has dropped dramatically in recent weeks. Trump now averages a six-percentage-point edge on the economy, compared with a 12-point lead against President Joe Biden earlier this year, according to an analysis of five polls that measured voters’ opinions before and after Biden dropped out.
A Fox News poll this month, for example, found that 51 percent of registered voters favor Trump on the economy, compared with 46 percent who favor Harris. That’s compared with a 15-point advantage Trump had over Biden in March. Other recent polls — by ABC-Ipsos, NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist, USA Today-Suffolk University and Quinnipiac University — show similar shifts.
► As Nate Cohn writes for The New York Times, Republicans may be losing their electoral college edge:
Ever since Donald J. Trump’s stunning victory in 2016 — when he lost the popular vote by almost three million votes but still triumphed with over 300 electoral votes — many who follow politics have believed Republicans hold an intractable advantage in the Electoral College.
But there’s growing evidence to support a surprising possibility: His once formidable advantage in the Electoral College is not as ironclad as many presumed. Instead, it might be shrinking.
According to The New York Times’s polling average, it does not seem that Kamala Harris will necessarily need to win the popular vote by much to prevail.
Click below to keep learning things…
Check Out All This Other Stuff To Know…
► Check out this absolutely beautiful (and brutal) takedown during last weekend’s Club 20 debate in which Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Velasco makes a fool of Republican challenger Caleb Waller, who can do little else but mumble the word “freedom” in response.
► Marianne Goodland of the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman reports on another showdown at Club 20 — this one between the candidates running for Congress in CO-03:
It was the first debate between Democrat Adam Frisch and Republican Jeff Hurd, and the gloves came off from the first moment…
…Frisch won the coin toss. He began by highlighting his family history and pointing out he’s driven 70,000 miles in the district. Rural Colorado has been left behind, Frisch said. The number one thing he said he hears is that everyone on the Western Slope feels forgotten and taken advantage of by Denver.
“We’re tired of big city people telling us” how to live, work and play, and “tired of national partisan politics, the yelling and screaming and the ‘anger-tainment’ industry that seeps into our lives,” which Frisch called disruptive to families and a distraction from issues residents have in common.
“I don’t have any room for partisan politics,” Frisch said, adding that, unlike his opponent, he doesn’t take corporate contributions or money from Denver lobbyists, a theme he repeated throughout the debate.
► The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is making some interesting recommendations for the Secret Service, as The Washington Post reports:
A Senate committee investigating the July 13 shooting at a Donald Trump rally is urging Congress to evaluate the Secret Service’s budget and require that the agency provide security to U.S. leaders and political candidates based on the threats they face, and not whether they are in office, according to a preliminary report released Wednesday…
…The Secret Service has said it is seeking a significant increase to the agency’s $3 billion annual budget to hire more agents, update equipment and increase training after the Pennsylvania shooting and a potential attempted attack against Trump in Florida on Sept. 15.
The bipartisan Senate panel appeared divided over how much more money to give the agency amid concerns that some agents denied responsibility or “deflected blame” for the security failures at the rally. Senators suggested that Congress require the Secret Service to record its radio transmissions at “all protective events.”
► If you’d rather not see JD Vance, your best bet would be to travel to Washington D.C. That’s because Vance has been so busy inventing stories about illegal immigrants that he has forgotten to do his actual job. As The Washington Post explains:
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) has skipped every Senate vote since he became Donald Trump’s running mate on July 15.
Vance, a freshman senator from Ohio, has missed 38 votes over the last two months, including a vote on expanding the child tax credit in early August and one last week creating a right to in vitro fertilization. And he’s highly unlikely to cancel his campaign rally in Michigan to be in Washington tonight to vote this week on a funding extension to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Vance is set to debate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz next Tuesday in New York, and his voting record — or absence from his day job — could come under scrutiny, especially as he skipped votes on key issues this presidential campaign.
Missing a vote on expanding the child tax credit is particularly interesting given that Vance has been campaigning around the country talking about expanding the child tax credit (which is not even his idea).
► Allies of Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump are growing more concerned about his manic, undisciplined campaign.
► Add this to the list of things that House Speaker Mike Johnson has failed to accomplish. From Colorado Public Radio:
Families, activists and legislators are pleading with House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson this week to allow a vote on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act.
RECA aims to expand and extend compensation for tens of thousands of people exposed to radiation through the U.S. nuclear weapons program. Such families are known as “downwinders” because many were exposed to radiation via blowing fallout.
A supermajority of 69 senators, including Sen. Michael Bennet and Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, voted to pass the bill in March. However, despite bipartisan support, the bill stalled once it reached Speaker Johnson’s desk, where it expired in June.The standstill has left families without funding for screenings or treatment for radiation-related illnesses.
“Coloradans risked their lives to mine the uranium that powered the Manhattan Project during WWII and nuclear deterrence during the Cold War. They deserve compensation for their sacrifice,” said Hickenlooper in an email. “RECA has passed the Senate twice. The longer the House waits to vote, the longer they prolong the wrongs these Americans have endured.”
► The Associated Press reports on the financial strain facing nonprofits that help women in need of reproductive health care services:
Organizations that help pay abortion costs are capping how much they can help as travel costs rise and the wave of “rage giving” that fueled them two years ago has subsided.
Colorado’s prominent Cobalt group, a powerful advocate for reproductive rights, says with unprecedented demand from women coming to the state for health care, they’re funding, too, has been affected.
Abortion funds, which have operated across the U.S. for decades, in many cases as volunteer groups, ramped up their capacity fast after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending a national right to abortion. Donations rolled in from supporters who saw the groups as key to maintaining abortion access as most Republican-controlled states implemented bans.
The expansion of the funds and increasing access to abortion pills are major reasons the number of abortions has risen slightly despite bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy in 14 states and after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant, in another four.
But the funds have found that even with record budgets, it’s not enough to fill all the gaps between the cost of obtaining abortions and what women seeking them can afford as they have to travel farther for legal procedures.
The National Abortion Federation, which helps people seeking abortions across the country, used to cover half the cost of the abortion for callers who couldn’t afford it. Since July, it’s pulled back to 30%. Brittany Fonteno, the organization’s president and CEO, said the allocations had to be cut because of the rising demand and costs — even though the fund has a record $55 million budget this year.
► Chalk up another big endorsement for Amendment 79, which seeks to enshrine abortion rights access in the State Constitution.
► Fox 31 Denver examines Proposition 131, the ranked choice voting ballot measure.
► As POLITICO reports, an effort by Republicans to change Nebraska’s electoral vote system — in which votes are awarded depending on the outcome in individual districts — will not happen in 2024. This is good news for Vice President Kamala Harris, who stands to pick up an extra vote in Nebraska that she would not be able to hold if the state awarded all of its electoral votes to one candidate.
► Colorado reached a new agreement on a contract for state workers thanks to the Colorado WINS labor union.
► A pharmaceutical company is suing Colorado because it can no longer overcharge people for generic EpiPens.
► Aurora’s new police chief is making the media rounds to explain his approach to the job.
Say What, Now?
If only we could Make Lauren Boebert a Private Citizen Again. Although, MLBPCA is a bit too complicated for an acronym.
Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
► Meh, close enough.
► Every day seems to get worse for Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, whose history with pornography and adult websites is dooming his chances in November.
ICYMI
► Put your wallet in your front pocket when Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams is lurking.
► Check our our updated ballot measure “Big Line” with all of the official titles included.
► Tired of reading? Then listen instead to the latest episode of the Get More Smarter Podcast:
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In the Texas Senate battle, Allred has Cruz on the ropes. It's polling inside the margin of error: Republicans admit Texas is 'too close for comfort' as Ted Cruz’s Senate race narrows (msn.com)