► Today is the day for ballot certification in Colorado for the 2024 General Election. Click here to see the list of candidates via the Colorado Secretary of State.
► Congress is back in session after a six-week recess, and the overarching story is pretty much the same: Will Republicans make any attempt at governing? As Caitlyn Kim reports for Colorado Public Radio:
House Speaker Mike Johnson acceded to his right flank and attached a bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote to an unrelated short-term funding measure that would run into March. It’s something the far-right House Freedom Caucus has been calling since leaving in July without passing 12 individual appropriations bills…
…It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections and many election experts and officials warn the requirements in the SAVE Act could disenfranchise eligible voters.
“It’s a solution in search of a problem,” said David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research. “It is essentially a piece of legislation that would require people to continue to show their papers to government authorities even though they’ve already shown their papers to government authorities at motor vehicles agencies or at a naturalization ceremony.”
The SAVE Act would require voters to show proof of citizenship — such as a birth certificate, a passport or social security card, documents most Americans don’t carry around with them — in order to be able to register to vote in federal elections.
Attaching the SAVE Act to a short-term funding bill is also a non-starter for the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate. So, not only is this a pointless policy argument — it’s also a pointless barrier to funding the government.
► Congressperson Lauren Boebert (R-Somewhere in Colorado) continues to stick her nose into the story about Venezuelan gangs in Aurora…without bothering to learn any actual information beforehand. Republicans in general are making a mess of this story in a rush to highlight illegal immigration ahead of the 2024 election. As 9News reports, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffmanhas been all over the place on his statements:
Claims about a Venezuelan gang’s activity in Aurora have included conflicting statements from the city’s mayor, Mike Coffman. On Friday, Coffman went back to saying he agrees with police that there hasn’t been an apartment complex “takeover.”…
…On July 29, conservative councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky wrote on Facebook about a large gathering at a shopping center parking lot. “Venezuelan flags” were flying among thousands who “took over and completely shut down a part of our city”, she wrote.
Two days later on July 31, Mayor Coffman shared a similar thought on talk radio.
“If you know Aurora, then what you know is that we have areas in our city, unfortunately, that have been taken, and we have to take back,” he said on “The Dan Caplis Show”.
That was then. Coffman is now singing an altogether different tune, which is a totally Mike Coffman thing to do:
On Friday, he wrote on Facebook he now agrees with APD’s Interim Chief that “a Venezuelan gang is not in control of either of these two apartment complexes.”
Really, really good work, Mayor Coffman.
► Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will debate for the first time on Tuesday in Pennsylvania. Jess Bidgood of The New York Times considers the strange history of the moment:
It seems a strange twist of American history that the only man to have run against two female nominees in two presidential elections is one with a long and explicit record of denigrating women.
From the earliest days of his presidential candidacy in 2015 to a Trump Tower news conference on Friday, Donald J. Trump has repeatedly attempted to attack, embarrass and threaten the women standing in his way — especially on the debate stage.
Mr. Trump has, of course, treated men with intense bellicosity, launching a blizzard of interruptions against President Biden during their first debate in 2020 and lobbing personal insults at the likes of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz during the primary in 2016.
But a review of his onstage clashes with women shows how, over nine years in politics, he has honed a playbook of explicitly gendered attacks against both female candidates and journalists that he is likely to draw from on Tuesday when he debates Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Trump has used his physical presence and body language to intimidate women, made veiled threats, complained that they were uniquely mean and belittled their qualifications in a way that many women view as open sexism.
In fact, the first time he ever spoke of a female presidential candidate on a debate stage, it was to brag about the control he had over her.
“I said, ‘Be at my wedding,’ and she came to my wedding, you know why?” Mr. Trump said, answering a question about his previous donations to Hillary Clinton in the first Republican primary debate in 2015. “She had no choice, because I gave.”
POLITICO has more on Trump’s debate strategy heading into Tuesday evening:
Donald Trump is laying the foundation for a “rigged” debate on ABC News before he squares off with Kamala Harris.
In interviews, fundraising appeals, rallies, and posts on social media, the former president has repeatedly blasted the host network and accused its top talent of being biased against him. He’s even accused the network, without evidence, of providing the questions in advance to the Harris campaign…
…Claiming he’s up against unfair odds and working the refs ahead of a major event is a routine strategy from Trump — one he employed ahead of his debate with President Joe Biden in June as well. And in recent days he has only escalated his criticism and allegations against ABC, which is hosting one of the most anticipated moments of the 2024 election on Tuesday.
The debate is scheduled for 7:00 pm (Mountain Time) on Tuesday.
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► The Presidential campaign for Kamala Harris is out with a new 60-second ad highlighting the REPUBLICAN opposition to Donald Trump:
►Molly Cruse and Stina Sieg of Colorado Public Radio look at how cities are responding to a June ruling from the United States Supreme Court that allows cities to arrest or ticket people for sleeping outdoors.
►Seth Klamann of The Denver Post has more on legislation introduced by Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Jefferson County) related to funding for drug addiction treatment:
A new bill introduced in Congress by U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen seeks to incentivize more states to offer drug abuse treatment through Medicaid, six years after she sponsored a bill requiring Colorado to provide that care.
The bill was introduced in the U.S. House late last month. If passed, it would make it easier for states to cover treatment for drug abuse, like inpatient hospital stays or residential treatment, via Medicaid, in part by ensuring that the federal government will cover 90% of new costs in the first five years after a state adopts the program.
Under current law, Medicaid doesn’t cover drug treatment. States can request coverage via a waiver system, as Colorado did after Pettersen, then a state House member, passed a bill requiring it do so in 2018. Several states have pursued waivers, but many haven’t. The waiver process can be cumbersome and time-consuming, presenting a decisive — or convenient — barrier for states who may already be leery about drug treatment, said Rob Valuck, the head of the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention.
The bill would remove that barrier by allowing states to begin offering Medicaid-covered treatment without seeking a waiver.
► Tom Hesse and Ryan Warner of Colorado Public Radio talk separately with the two major party candidates in CO-03: Democrat Adam Frischand Republican Jeff “Bread Sandwich” Hurd.
► The New York Times looks at the cratering stock of the Trump Media Company and its main offering, the social media platform known as “Truth Social”:
In 10 days, the former president will be free to sell his shares in Trump Media & Technology Group — the publicly traded parent company of Truth Social, his social network and main online megaphone. A provision that barred him from selling any of his 115 million shares will expire on Sept. 19.
His stake is worth $2 billion, an enticing bounty given that Mr. Trump invested only a few million dollars into Trump Media, which was formed just weeks after he left the White House in early 2021. But his shares are worth a lot less than they were in March, when Trump Media made its Wall Street debut.
A sale by Mr. Trump would have big implications, both financial and political. It almost certainly would tank the price of Trump Media’s volatile stock, decreasing the value of whatever remains of Mr. Trump’s stake. An ensuing slump in the share price might also leave the company’s more than 600,000 shareholders — many of them supporters of the former president and users of the platform — feeling sabotaged and alienated.
Wait…you mean to say that investing in a Trump business venture might not work out financially for anyone not named Donald J. Trump? Weird!
Trump’s 57% stake in the Trump Media Company has fallen by $4 billion since the company’s Wall Street debut in March. As the Times explains, this isn’t really about “business” anyway:
Trump Media is losing tens of millions of dollars each quarter and struggling to generate sufficient advertising revenue from Truth Social to justify even its current lower valuation. But in many ways the stock trades as a meme stock and a barometer of enthusiasm about Mr. Trump’s candidacy for president. It has been pushed and pulled all summer by debate performances, court cases, the attempt to assassinate Mr. Trump and poll results.
► Republican congressional candidate Gabe-ish Evans is trying to unseat incumbent Democrat Yadira Caraveo in CO-08 without saying much of anything about his policy preferences…on the rare occasion that he can find someone else willing to talk with him. David O. Williams reports from Basalt, Colorado for the Colorado Times Recorder:
In this mountain town 18 miles northwest of Aspen – far from the Front Range flatlands of Adams and Weld counties – Republican state Rep. Gabe Evans was looking for anyone to meet and greet in his quest to represent Colorado’s newest congressional district.
Currently held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Thornton pediatrician, Colorado’s 8th Congressional District (CD8) is so hotly contested that Evans on Friday sought the financial assistance of Pitkin County Republicans at the Two Rivers Café, which is in the 3rd Congressional District seat currently held by far-right Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert.
When Evans found the only person on hand who’d heeded his Facebook post about the meet and greet was a freelance reporter asking if he was on a fundraising mission, Evans pointed out the importance of the CD8 race nationally. [Pols emphasis]
“I mean, this is a national top-10 battleground seat. This is for control of the U.S. House. It’s the biggest swing seat in Colorado,” Evans said. “And so I’m all over talking about this because you truly do have control of the U.S. House that runs through Colorado’s 8th Congressional District.”…
…Evans was asked if, in the wake of last week’s federal court hearing moving Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 election interference case forward, it was time to move on from the MAGA former president, who endorsed Evans this year.
“So, no, Donald Trump endorsed me, but … I’m focused on policies,” Evans replied. “I spent 22 years in the military. I’m married, I’ve got two boys. And so what I tell everybody when they say, ‘Gabe, how are you going to make decisions?’ I say, ‘Well, it’s the same way I make decisions down at the state Capitol now, which is, my faith guides me.’”
We’re going to go out on a limb here, but maybe — just maybe — Evans would have better luck campaigning IN HIS OWN DISTRICT.
► Charles Ashby of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports on some of the local fallout from the ongoing civil war in the Colorado Republican Party:
Anyone in Mesa County who knows Kevin McCarney knows he is anything but a Republican in name only.
He’s known as a stalwart conservative, an early supporter of Donald Trump, an idealizer of former President Ronald Reagan and a one-time fan of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, at least until he didn’t much care for how she went about trying to prove election fraud that earned her several felony convictions.
But a RINO is exactly what the former Mesa County Republican Party chairman is being called because he was one of three elected in a controversial meeting last month to replace embattled Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams and his two main lieutenants, Vice Chairwoman Hope Scheppelman and Secretary Anna Ferguson.
At that meeting, held in Brighton a week before an “official” party meeting was held Aug. 31 at a church in Castle Rock, more than 173 members of the state party’s central committee voted 161.66 to 12 to oust Williams and the others.
At the same time, they voted to select former El Paso County GOP chair Eli Bremer to replace Williams. McCarney was elected as the party’s new secretary.
September 09, 2024 12:01 PM UTC
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