July 11, 2023 12:08 PM UTC
Get More Smarter on Tuesday (July 11)
11 Comments- by: Colorado Pols
Don’t forget the sunscreen if you’re outside today; it’s a scorcher. 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 Twitter.
FIRST UP…
► Kyle Clark of 9News breaks down the latest breaking down of the Colorado Republican Party in a detailed Twitter thread that is worth a full read.
Meanwhile, the State GOP is reportedly so cash-poor that they are being evicted from their longtime office space in Greenwood Village.
► One of the recent “projects” for State Republican Party Chair Dave Williams has been an attempt to broker some sort of deal with the Colorado Libertarian Party in order to avoid potential “spoiler” candidates for the GOP (though Williams is also using this theoretical alliance to threaten other Republicans). The Colorado Libertarian Party has its own problems, however, including a recent ban from Twitter:
► As Noelle Phillips reports for The Denver Post, the EPA is facing a lawsuit over what are being called lax regulatory actions on air quality controls:
The Center for Biological Diversity and 350 Colorado petitioned the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear their complaint, bypassing the lower courts. The two groups say the EPA approved a state plan to reduce ozone pollution even though that plan will not meet federally mandated goals for clean air…
…Colorado has failed for 15 years to meet national air quality standards, and last year the EPA classified the northern Front Range as a severe violator of ozone standards.
Areas that violate ozone standards are required to submit plans to the federal government that demonstrate steps the state will take to reduce air pollution.
But state regulators sent a plan to the EPA that acknowledged Colorado would again fall short in efforts to lower toxic air pollution to an acceptable level by 2024. The state’s plan laid out a formula to reach an older, more lax target by 2027.
► Senator John Hickenlooper (D-Denver) is speaking out more forcefully about tactics employed by Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who has been blocking military promotions because he thinks America should be nicer to white supremacists:
As The Washington Post reports, Tuberville absolutely refuses to cede the low ground:
Tuberville (R-Ala.) said that the definition of a “white nationalist” is a matter of “opinion” during a television interview Monday night in which he was given the opportunity to clarify remarks from this spring when he appeared to be advocating for white nationalists to serve in the U.S. military.
During the CNN interview, Tuberville repeatedly said he rejects racism but pushed back against host Kaitlan Collins when she told him that by definition white nationalists are racist because they believe their race is superior to others. Tuberville at one point in the back-and-forth characterized white nationalists as people who hold “a few probably different beliefs.”
Tuberville’s remarks drew a sharp rebuke Tuesday from Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who urged Tuberville to apologize.
Philip Bump of The Washington Post has more on Tuberville’s decision to die on a weird white hill:
Were Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) to announce his resignation tomorrow, his legacy in the U.S. Senate would be primarily defined by the fight in which he’s currently engaged. For months, he has blocked the ability of the Senate to quickly confirm military promotions, a response to the Defense Department policy affirming access to abortion for service members and their families in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
That would be what primarily defines his legacy. It would be intertwined, though, with his espousing one of the most baffling positions in modern American politics: White nationalists are being unfairly disparaged. [Pols emphasis]
Tuberville’s defenses of white nationalists are inextricable from his efforts to hold the military to account. In addition to taking a stand on abortion, Tuberville has repeatedly complained about the military’s use of training on diversity and inclusion.
There are no words.
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Check Out All This Other Stuff To Know…
► Xcel Energy wants to raise rates — again — though by a smaller amount than originally proposed. As Mark Jaffe writes for The Colorado Sun:
Xcel Energy filed a plan for a $312 million electricity rate increase last year, but as hearings on the bill hike open this week at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission the figure has been whittled down to $45 million.
The new rate proposal is the result of negotiations by Xcel Energy with more than a dozen parties — including state regulators, consumer advocates, major commercial and industrial customers and municipal governments.
Those negotiations took place against the backdrop of soaring utility bills last winter that prompted consumer outrage, concern from legislators and Gov. Jared Polis and a new law aimed at resetting the ratemaking process.The increase would amount to $1.54, about 1.7%, on the average, 600 kilowatt-hour residential bill, raising it to $91.60 a month.
Consumers can voice their opinion on the proposed rate hike in a Zoom meeting today.
► In an unrelated story, Xcel Energy is being sued by 155 insurance companies over losses related to the 2021 Marshall Fire in Superior.
► The Polis administration announced a familiar name for a new appointment on Monday. From a press release:
Governor Jared Polis appointed Mark Ferrandino to lead the Office of State Planning and Budget (OSPB)…
…Ferrandino previously served as Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Revenue (DOR) in the Polis-Primavera administration, the Deputy Superintendent of Operations, the Chief Financial Officer of the Denver Public Schools (DPS), a member of the Joint Budget Committee (JBC), and as Speaker of the House of Representatives of Colorado.
“Setting budgets and funding priorities are among the most powerful tools governments have to make transformational change, and I am thrilled to begin serving in this position on behalf of Governor Polis, his administration, and Coloradans. In partnership with the Governor and state legislature, I look forward to bettering people’s lives through responsible budgeting,” said Mark Ferrandino.
Ferrandino succeeds Lauren Larson who is transitioning from her role as Director of the Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting. Larson has served the state of Colorado since 2012 and was appointed by Governor Polis in 2018. Previously she worked at the White House OMB as the Chief of the Treasury Branch for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and was President of the National Association of State Budget Officers.
The administration will announce the process for recruiting a new Executive Director of the Department of Revenue in the near future.
► MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell may have finally run his bedding company into the ground while he wastes his time blathering on about stolen elections:
If Lindell is running out of money, that’s probably really bad news for Colorado Republicans — including former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters — who have long relied on his wallet to fund their own nonsense.
► Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman is salty with the City of Denver for what he says is a failure to live up to its end of a bargain related to the sharing of police resources.
► Log Cabin Republicans in Colorado are not happy with recent messaging from the State Republican Party that aggressively attacked LGBTQ rights. From Colorado Newsline:
The Republican organization that represents LGBTQ party members said that a recent email sent by the official Colorado GOP, which characterized LGBTQ people as “groomers,” unfairly defines them and furthers an ideological rift in the party.
The email, which was sent on June 29, was “narrow-minded and pandered to the far right,” a statement from the Log Cabin Republicans of Colorado reads. “This rhetoric is an irritating splinter to the greater Colorado Republican Party & other common-sense voters in the state.”
The GOP email, intended for supporters with the subject line “Pride is evil,” featured an opening image in which the words “Pride Month” turn into the word “demon” — art actually created by a transgender artist — and accused LGBTQ people and Democrats of “indoctrinating children” and forcing “mutilation and chemical castration” on children.
“These degenerates want to violate our children and their innocence,” the email reads. “They want boys and girls to think they can change their biological sex and encourage them to suffer barbaric medical procedures that are irreversible.”…
…Throughout the email, the Colorado GOP referred to members of the LGBTQ community as “degenerates,” “radicals,” “reprobates,” “predators” and “creeps.”
This seems like less of a “rift” and more of a chasm. Why LGBTQ Republicans continue to put up with this hateful rhetoric is baffling.
► A federal judge dismissed three lawsuits filed by a Colorado Springs man that sought to invalidate recent legislation passed in Colorado expanding gun violence prevention measures such as background checks and expanded red flag laws.
► As Saja Hindi reports for The Denver Post, the City of Denver needs a new plan to deal with an influx of migrants:
The defeat of a $40 million proposal for private security corporation GardaWorld to take over migrant sheltering operations for Denver means the new mayor and City Council can pivot to an entirely different plan.
Mayor-elect Mike Johnston has not publicly announced what he plans to do next, and it’s unclear what his advisers will advocate. A representative from his team said he was unavailable for an interview last week. But Johnston has told The Denver Post that the issue is critical and complicated, and one in which he hopes to work “collaboratively to identify an equitable and fair solution to this crisis.”
Like his predecessor outgoing Mayor Michael Hancock, Johnston recognizes that the increasing number of migrants making their way to non-border towns like Denver is forcing local governments across the country to come up with strategies to help asylum-seekers without negatively impacting their residents. Hancock has said repeatedly that officials have to balance the desire to welcome newcomers with humanity and compassion, and figure out how to be fiscally responsible with taxpayer money because the current state of affairs is untenable.
After Johnston’s swearing-in ceremony, the new administration could decide to reopen the request for proposals to outsource the migrant response to one company, as Hancock’s administration first did in January.
► Gas-powered lawnmowers and other similar equipment is facing a reckoning very soon.
► As The Colorado Sun reports, the “tiny home” movement keeps growing larger.
► Elliott Hood, a Democrat running for statewide CU Regent in 2024 (the only statewide race on the ballot) announced that he had raised a record $52k in his first fundraising quarter.
► Denver International Airport is poised to break last year’s record of number of firearms seized by TSA personnel.
► As all political observers in Colorado know, if you’re going to show mountains in your mailers or TV ads, make sure you show mountains that are actually IN Colorado. The same general rule applies on other states, as Business Insider reports:
Republican Tim Sheehy has based his Senate campaign in Montana in part on his support for the state’s agricultural sector.
On the “Issues” section of his campaign website, he argues that he knows “firsthand the challenges we face with the over consolidation of corporate agriculture,” pointing to his co-founding of a cattle company to showcase his “direct participation and investment in production agriculture here in Montana.”
But the photo he originally used to illustrate that “direct participation” — a sunny, green pasture filled with grazing cattle — was actually taken by a photographer hundreds of miles away, in Kentucky. [Pols emphasis]
D’oh!
► Colorado’s Seth Masket has been tracking support for Republican Presidential candidates among grassroots Republican leaders around the country. As Masket explains via POLITICO, former President Donald Trump is still leading the field comfortably…but there are plenty of “undecideds” still to be corralled.
Say What, Now?
Congressman Ken Buck (R-Greeley) really has no idea how any of this works:
Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
► Governor Jared Polis wrote a letter to Taylor Swift.
► [Sigh]
ICYMI
► The Associated Press is investigating the many, many ethical lapses within the U.S. Supreme Court.
► Don’t miss the latest episode of the Get More Smarter Podcast, featuring an interview with KRDO-TV (Colorado Springs) political reporter Spencer Soicher:
Don’t forget to give Colorado Pols a thumbs up on Facebook and Twitter. Check out The Get More Smarter Podcast at GetMoreSmarter.com.
"Tuberville (R-Ala.) said that the definition of a 'white nationalist' is a matter of 'opinion'"
You know what is coming next? They will require that slavery and the Holocaust be taught with both sides of the argument receiving equal time.
There you go, giving them ideas
For now they're settling for not being able to discuss how slavery was a race-based industry where white people ruled over black people and treated them like animals or worse. So long as children can't hear how one racial group mistreated another we'll all think happy thoughts together.
re: Buck’s notice of the deficit spending and national debt rising
He doesn’t take a moment to describe consequences of the alternative proposed by some Republicans — NOT removing the debt limit. PBS outlined consequences of that strategy.
Exactly
I see that the Colorado GOP is not the only state level Republican party in financial crisis. The Minnesota GOP has $ 334,000 in debt and $ 53 in their bank account. Michigan and Arizona have solvency problems as well.
Let the nutbags drive them into the ground.
Good Minnesotans could burn that $53 with one cheap-beer happy hour.
…or buy a slightly-used pillow factory at auction?
Wow! I wouldn't want MN GOP to buy it – might be equal to or weirder than Lindell – but this sounds like a good business opportunity for someone, depending of course on pricing.
For the not awake crowd, it is a good chance to get some ZZZ's with one of their favorite pillows.
It's entertaining, for large enough values of the word, that Lolbertarian Party of Colorado didn't actually deny violating Twitter's rule against "threaten[ing], incit[ing], glorify[ing], or express[ing] a desire for harm or violence."