August 15, 2018 10:50 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (August 15)

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

A man, a plan, a canal, Panama (the Panama Canal opened on this day in 1914). It’s time to 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 a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY… 

► Another big Primary Election is in the books. The Washington Post breaks down the winners and losers from Tuesday’s elections in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont, and Wisconsin, including some historical firsts:

For the first time, voters of a major party nominated an openly transgender woman for governor. Christine Hallquist won the Democratic nomination for governor in Vermont (though she’ll have to work hard to actually make that race against Gov. Phil Scott (R) competitive). In Connecticut, Democrat Jahana Hayes won her primary for Congress and is set to become the first black woman to represent New England in the House. In Minnesota, Democrat Ilhan Omar is one of two candidates who won primaries in the past two weeks vying to become the first Muslim woman elected to Congress.

Perhaps the most notable individual result was in Minnesota, where former two-term Gov. Tim Pawlenty was soundly rejected by Republican Primary voters. From the Associated Press:

Republicans needed only the governorship to take full control of state government in Minnesota, a traditionally left-leaning state that had become a lone outpost of divided government in the conservative Upper Midwest. Big donors saw Pawlenty as the man to do it.

Johnson had been viewed as a longshot given Pawlenty’s unparalleled name recognition and the money that quickly flowed to his campaign when he announced his campaign in early April. Pawlenty was the last Republican to win statewide in Minnesota with his 2006 victory for a second term.

But voters were unwilling to coronate Pawlenty, who didn’t bother challenging Johnson at the state party convention. His loss effectively ends a political career that peaked with two terms as governor and a short-lived 2012 presidential bid.

As the right-wing Washington Examiner writes, there is no place for the likes of Pawlenty in the current Republican Party.

► Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer conceded the Republican Primary to Secretary of State Kris Kobach on Tuesday. Kobach won a narrow race after being endorsed by President Trump, but his victory could put the Governor’s race up for grabs as a result. Kobach is a Trumpian favorite but a train-wreck in general.

► According to a new poll from CNN, Democrats have a 52-41 advantage in the latest survey on the national generic congressional ballot. The CNN poll also shows that health care is the top issue for most voters heading into November.

► The Colorado Springs Gazette published one of the dumbest editorials you will ever read on Tuesday. The editorial in question was edited throughout the day as Colorado journalists mocked its stupidity; it was later inexplicably defended by Gazette Editorial Page Editor Wayne Laugesen.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► White House walk-backer Sarah Huckabee Sanders apologized on Tuesday for inaccurately claiming that President Trump has created three times as many jobs for black workers as former President Obama. From the Washington Post:

At a news conference Tuesday, Sanders said Obama created 195,000 jobs for African Americans during his eight years in office.

“When President Obama left after eight years in office — eight years in office — he had only created 195,000 jobs for African Americans,” Sanders told reporters. “President Trump in his first year and a half has already tripled what President Obama did in eight years.”

Sanders’s statement was false. According to official statistics, black employment in the United States increased by nearly 3 million jobs from January 2009 through January 2017. From January 2017 through July of this year, black employment has increased by about 700,000 jobs.

Later Tuesday, the White House Council of Economic Advisers took responsibility for the mistake and published new data comparing black job creation following Obama’s elections in 2008 and 2012 with black job creation following Trump’s election in 2016.

[Grumble] Stupid facts [grumble].

► White House staffers are apparently terrified that their voice might show up in secretly-recorded conversations made by former staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman.

► Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) is in charge of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) in 2018, which means it is his job to maintain the GOP majority in the U.S. Senate. Gardner recently asked President Trump for help in Arizona and was partially rewarded. As Roll Call reports:

Arizona politics headed eastward to New York’s North Country on Monday, as President Donald Trump signed a Pentagon policy bill there named after one of his frequent nemeses, Republican John McCain, who went unmentioned by the president, and singled out for praise a woman seeking to become McCain’s Senate colleague: Rep. Martha McSally…

…McSally is seeking the seat being vacated by the retirement of Sen. Jeff Flake, and she faces an Aug. 28 primary against former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former State Sen. Kelli Ward.

That led  National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Cory Gardner of Colorado to ask the president to endorse McSally, which he didn’t quite do on stage during the official event in upstate New York.

A GOP source with knowledge of the discussion confirmed Politico’s report that Gardner has asked Trump to endorse McSally, but Trump was non-committal. Trump has spoken warmly of Arpaio for years, and last year he pardoned the former lawman after he was convicted of criminal contempt related to civil rights violations by his department directed toward immigrants.

► The Colorado chapter of Americans for Prosperity gave State Rep. Tim Leonard (R-Evergreen) its “Pinnacle of Prosperity Award” for being such a great lawmaker. The timing of this “award” is interesting to say the least; earlier this month Leonard dropped his re-election bid after getting smacked (again) by a Jefferson County judge over his persistent refusal to live up to his child support obligations.

► Are you not afraid of Colorado turning into California? 

► The editorial board of the Denver Post is not amused that opponents of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis are “using the [immigration] wedge issue with such dishonesty.”

► Still waiting on that pay increase from the Republican tax plan? It’s always just around the corner.

► Fox 31 Denver reports on the latest developments for an Aurora family trying desperately to prevent the deportation of their 4-year-old daughter who was adopted from Peru.

► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) wants to bring “virtual health care” to rural Colorado. You can insert your own joke about Gardner’s failure to bring actual health care to Coloradans.

► The Colorado Republican Party filled three recent vacancies in time for the November ballot. 

► As CBS4 Denver reports, the City of Aspen has declared a Stage 2 Water Shortage for the first time in history.

► The Denver City Council advanced language for a November ballot measure that would create Colorado’s most aggressive system for public financing of political campaigns.