November 10, 2016 10:53 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (November 10)

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• by: Colorado Pols

There are just 726 days until Election Day in 2018. 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…

► If you still have a mail ballot at home, go ahead and fold that sucker into a neat paper airplane. Here are some paper airplane templates that may or may not work.

If you want to know what happened to all of those other ballots, the Secretary of State has updated ballot return numbers this morning.

► In a move that should come as a surprise to, well, nobody, Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler made it known on Wednesday that he will likely seek the Republican nomination for Governor in 2018. State Treasurer Walker Stapleton is among the Republicans who will also likely run for the big job in Colorado. On the Democratic side, look for names such as Ed Perlmutter, Ken Salazar, Cary Kennedy, and state Rep. Michael Johnston. We’ll have a new Big Line for 2018 next week.

► The next time you see a photograph of Donald Trump and Paul Ryan together will be the first time. As the Washington Post reports, “Trumpism” and “Ryanism” are on a political collision course:

Donald Trump will lunch with Paul Ryan at 12:30 p.m. at the Capitol Hill Club after he drops by the White House to meet with Barack Obama. The Speaker of the House declared at his post-election press conference yesterday that the president-elect has won “a mandate.” But a mandate for what?

Trump’s victory represents nothing less than a repudiation of Ryan’s brand of Republicanism, both substantively and stylistically. The two have sharply different views of what it means to be a conservative, and they want to take the Republican Party down different paths…

…There are many other issues on which Ryan and Trump disagree, such as eminent domain, but they are somewhat moot because they will not be on the docket in the next four years. As Jonathan Martin puts it in today’s New York Times, “Trump ran as a Republican, but he was effectively a third-party candidate who happened to campaign under the banner of one of the two major parties.”

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Members of the House Democratic caucus were scheduled to meet this morning to hold leadership elections. Denver Democrat Crisanta Duran is expected to be named Speaker of the House. Senate Republicans will also make their choices for leadership, including picking a new Senate President.

► Donald Trump won the Presidency, but not according to voters in Colorado. What will that mean for the Centennial State once His Hairness takes office in January?

► Former U.S. Attorney and serial name-floater Troy Eid will be a part of Trump’s Presidential transition team.

► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) will take the helm of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) for 2018. As Politico reports:

The freshman senator, whose political team has been laying the groundwork to help the Senate GOP’s campaign arm for nearly a year, made a final round of phone calls to win enough support to take the job. His competition, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), is expected to support Gardner’s bid next week in leadership elections.

Tillis is expected to play a major role in the organization, potentially as a vice chair, a source familiar with the plan said.

Gardner’s political consultants at OnMessage worked for Carlos Beruff, who stayed in a primary against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) this cycle after Rubio got in the race, and the group has also worked for primary opponents of senators now serving in the GOP caucus. That’s a point of concern among some Republican insiders who are bracing for primary challengers against the likes of Sen. Jeff Flake.

Being in charge of Republican Senate re-election efforts sounded like a much better job before Tuesday. While it’s true that Democrats will have to defend more seats in 2018 than Republicans, the minority party normally does well in the first off-cycle election under a new President. Republicans did surprisingly well in Senate races this year, which moves the bar for success considerably higher in two years.

► Republican Darryl Glenn finally conceded the U.S. Senate race to incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet on Wednesday, not that anyone was waiting for Glenn to declare Bennet the winner.

► The Denver Post outlines everything you need to know about Colorado’s new “medical aid in dying” law. Proposition 106 passed fairly easily on Tuesday, and the law goes into effect sometime in January.

► Supporters of a ballot measure intended to remove a slavery reference from Colorado’s constitution remain puzzled at why it failed on Tuesday.

► Republicans maintain control of the University of Colorado Board of Regents after Heidi Ganahl’s victory over Democrat Alice Madden in what turned out to be an oddly-expensive race.

► Voter turnout in Colorado set a new record, as Charles Ashby reports for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel:

According to data maintained by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, nearly 83 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot in Tuesday’s races. That compared to about 71 percent in 2008 and 72 percent in 2012.

Of the 3.1 million active registered voters in the state, about 2.6 million cast a mail-in or in-person ballot by the end of voting on Tuesday.

Despite Democratic Party efforts to register voters during this election, which resulted in more registered voters than Republicans for the first time since the early 1980s, fewer of them actually cast a ballot.

About 34 percent of Republicans cast ballots this year compared to 33 percent of Democrats. Unaffiliated voters, who make up a larger portion of the electorate than the two major parties, saw even fewer votes cast at 31 percent.

► You’re welcome, Rep. Clarice Navarro.

► Once again, Colorado bucked national trends in a wild election year.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Votes are still being counted in a number of tight races in Colorado, including close battles for two Jefferson County Commissioner seats.

► How come polls suck?

ICYMI

► There have been plenty of protests around America after the election of Donald Trump as President.

► In a close Senate race in New Hampshire, Democrat Maggie Hassan finally edged out incumbent Republican Kelly Ayotte.

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