October 28, 2016 11:47 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (October 28)

• 10 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Eleven. There are only 11 days left until Election Day. 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). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Got ballot? If you don’t — or if you know someone who still hasn’t received a ballot — then you need to do something about it. Go to JustVoteColorado.org to start investigating the problem and contact your county clerk for answers. You can always vote at a polling place as well, whether or not you have received a mail ballot (but only if you haven’t already submitted a completed ballot). Check here for your nearest polling location. Denver7 also includes a good list of election-related information.

► If the political winds are shifting and Republicans are finally starting to get serious about voting in Colorado…well, it hasn’t happened yet:

Dems hold 28,425 vote edge in CO statewide ballot returns thru 10/27: D-272,059 (38.6%); R-243,634 (34.6%); U-179,246 (25.4%) #copolitics https://t.co/CrHppqOwjM

— Ernest Lee Luning (@eluning) October 28, 2016

Whether or not Republican ballots are starting to get returned in greater numbers wouldn’t be all that relevant, anyway. Republicans have always had a substantial lead in early voting returns in Colorado — until this year. Colorado Republicans are simply not voting with the same enthusiasm as Democrats in 2016, and there is still no indicator that this is going to change anytime in the next 11 days.

As Election Day nears, the more important numbers to watch are turnout figures in specific competitive races. Democrats are still outperforming Republican voters in CD-6 (the most closely-watched Congressional race in Colorado), as well as in SD-19 (the most carefully-tracked state senate race) and outside the Metro Denver area in HD-59 (one of the top state house races).

► Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump is returning to Colorado on Saturday for a rally in Jefferson County. Trump will appear at the Jefferson County Events Center in Golden at noon on Saturday. If you were hoping for some insight into the strategy behind Trump’s latest Colorado visit…we can’t help you here.

► And then there were five. For the fifth time in the last couple of weeks, a Colorado media outlet deems an attack ad against Democrat Morgan Carroll to be complete nonsense. If we didn’t know better, we’d almost think that Republicans and Rep. Mike Coffman were intentionally trying to screw up their negative ads.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Crack CBS4 “investigative reporter” Brian Maass has found a whole dozen people (out of 3.7 million registered voters in Colorado) who may have illegally cast ballots in two different states in recent years. This is a statistical anomaly — not serious voter fraud.

If you were interested in trying to orchestrate voter fraud, Secretary of State Wayne Williams has some suggestions for where to begin.

► Congressman Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) may have removed Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz from his Christmas card list. We wouldn’t blame him if he did.

► Public lands issues have made most of the headlines in the battle for CD-3 between incumbent Republican Rep. Scott Tipton and Democratic challenger Gail Schwartz. As  David O. Williams writes for the Rocky Mountain Post, immigration reform may turn out to be a significant swing issue this year.

► Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump continues to vaccilate between anticipating defeat in November and pretending to make a late push to close ground with Democrat Hillary Clinton. As Chris Cillizza writes for “The Fix,” Trump’s personal financial contribution to his Presidential campaign is nowhere near where His Hairness would have you believe:

We got a look at the state of the Trump campaign’s finances on Thursday night. He raised just under $29 million in the first 19 days of October as compared to more than $57 million for Hillary Clinton. He had $16 million on hand; Clinton had $62 million.

Trump gave his campaign only $31,000 in in-kind contributions over that period, bringing his total investment in the campaign to $56 million. But, much of that spending came during the Republican primary process. Trump, after some controversy, wound up forgiving personal loans totaling $50 million in mid July.

Since then, Trump has dropped roughly $2 million a month of his own money into the campaign. As far as we know, he hasn’t yet done so in October. (The latest fundraising filing only covers donations through the 19th of the month.)

It is of course possible that since the filing deadline closed last week, Trump has dropped the $44 million that would bring him up to $100 million in personal donations to the campaign. But if he had already done so, doesn’t it seem like he would have made sure to tell everyone? He’s not exactly the kind of guy who hides his light under a bushel, after all.

► No injuries were reported after an airplane carrying GOP Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence skidded off a runway in New York on Thursday. We’d make a joke here about the campaign “going off the rails,” or something similar, but it’s just too easy.

► Republican Senate candidate Darryl Glenn is attacking Sen. Michael Bennet over the latter’s support for Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Whoop-dee-do!

► Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan was reluctant to step forward as a candidate for Speaker of the House last fall. His instincts were probably correct, as the Washington Post explains:

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan is on the verge of a reckoning with House conservatives that threatens to end his speakership and extinguish his own future as a national political leader.

The intraparty fight is set to begin in the days after the Nov. 8 election, when Ryan (R-Wis.) will be under immediate pressure from approximately 40 hard-line House conservatives frustrated with his handling of spending fights and shifting position on GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump. The conservatives are eyeing a November leadership election and December spending deadline to determine how Ryan can lead Republicans — or if he can lead them at all…

…Meanwhile, some mainstream conservatives who comprise the bulk of the House GOP — a group that has largely been pleased with Ryan — are starting to openly contemplate whether he will want to continue as speaker.

Remember back when we used to have a Republican Party in the United States? Good times.

► As the Colorado Independent reports, outside groups have spent more than $1 million in an effort to influence the outcome in SD-26 (Cherry Hills), where Democrat Daniel Kagan is battling Republican Nancy Doty for an open state senate seat.

► Colorado’s economy has performed pretty well during President Obama’s time in office. 

► The town of Ignacio continues to resist attempts to open a medical marijuana dispensary in the area. Windmill tilting is alive and well in Southern Colorado.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► The FBI says it is reopening an investigation into the use of a private email server by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately for Republicans, Donald Trump is still the GOP nominee for President.

► Are you on the edge of your seat contemplating the outcome of races for the University of Colorado Board of Regents? No? Oh.

Nevertheless, as the Colorado Independent reports, there is an inexplicable amount of interest in one particular Regent race:

Regent races may be typically sleepy affairs, but this year’s at-large race between Democrat Alice Madden and Republican Heidi Ganahl has gotten more attention than usual. There is also big money pouring in on both sides— an unusual development in races for regent in Colorado. Madden is backed by a Super PAC called Blueflower, which has spent more than $120,000 on her behalf so far, according to campaign finance data. Ganahl is supported by a Super PAC called Colorado Right Now, which has spent a whopping $350,000 to boost her bid. The Super PAC is airing TV commercials for Ganahl; Madden does not have the campaign funds to do so. The two have not had a debate. And they both blame each other for that.

This could very well be one of the weirder stories of the 2016 election cycle: Somewhere in the neighborhood of a half-million dollars is being spent on just one CU Regent race.

ICYMI

► Never fear, Donald Trump supporters! A secret bloc of closet Trump supporters are preparing to shock the world on Election Day.

Um, yeah…good luck with that.

Don’t forget to check out The Get More Smarter Show. You can also Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!