► We’re turning the page on the 2024 election with the release of the first Big Line for 2026. The next election cycle will be a lot busier in Colorado.
► President-elect Donald Trump has selected a Coloradan as his nominee for Secretary of Energy, and it’s bad fracking news: Chris Wright, CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, was selected to the position held by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry during Trump’s first administration. There’s not a lot of ambiguity here; the only climate-related questions Wright will concern himself with involve whether to prioritize traditional drilling techniques or focus on fracking. As Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, told The Denver Post: “I can only assume his favorite place in Colorado is the Great Sand Dunes because that’s the only pile of sand big enough to bury his head in.”
Kyle Clark of 9News has more on this appointment; you really need to watch this:
Well, that’s rad.
► One of Trump’s more high-profile nominations is in a predictable amount of trouble. As The New York Times reports, Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz has lots of explaining to do:
An unidentified hacker gained access to a file shared in a secure link among lawyers with clients who have given damaging testimony related to Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to be attorney general, a person with knowledge of the activity said.
The file is said to include sworn testimony by a woman who said that she had sex with Mr. Gaetz in 2017 when she was 17, in addition to testimony by a second woman who said that she had witnessed the encounter. The material does not appear to have been made public by the hacker.
This news comes on the heels of additional details provided by an attorney over the weekend. From The Washington Post:
A woman testified to the House Ethics Committee that former congressman Matt Gaetz paid her for sex and that she witnessed President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general having sex with a 17-year-old at a party, her lawyer said over the weekend.
Florida attorney Joel Leppard said in an interview with The Washington Post that one of his clients witnessed Gaetz having sex with the minor at a drug-fueled party in July 2017 — and that Gaetz was unaware of her age at the time but subsequently was told she was underage. ABC News first reported the news.
This woman and a second woman, also represented by Leppard, testified that they were paid by Gaetz to have sex with him and other individuals who attended these “sex parties.” They were paid through Venmo or other conduits — including the PayPal of Nestor Galban, whom Gaetz has referred to as his “adopted son.”
We’re still waiting on news about whether the House Ethics Committee will release a report on its investigation into Gaetz, who resigned from Congress last week just days before the report was initially slated to become public. We’re also waiting to hear if Republicans such as Congressman-elect Gabe Evanswill voice concerns about Trump’s plan to skip the traditional FBI background check process for top administration posts.
For details on each nomination, The Associated Press is maintaining a handy list.
► Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that Senate Republicans are having a hard time pretending that it would be cool to allow Trump to make a bunch of “recess appointments”:
Republicans are having internal conversations about the impending constitutional standoff. No president has used their constitutional authority to force the Senate to recess to appoint their nominees, leaving murky legal questions that one expert in congressional procedure, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, called “unprecedented and complicated.”
Senate Republicans are bracing for impact, potentially having to choose between protecting the authority of the body in which they serve or bucking the leader of their party.
Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has been the most forceful and public on the issue so far, insisting that the Senate must maintain its authority and constitutional duty to “advise and consent” on political appointees. [Pols emphasis]
“Each of these nominees needs to come before the Senate and go through the process and be vetted,” he said last week at a dinner at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank.
But McConnell won’t be in leadership next year. While he is likely to offer some advice when asked by the incoming leadership team, he will be just one of 53 Republican votes. The number of longtime institutionalists in the Senate is on the decline as those loyal to Trump have grown in numbers.
Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), who will be majority leader next year, has left the door open to allowing recess appointments, saying “all options are on the table.” Trump posed the question as a litmus test ahead of the internal Senate GOP vote to choose a new leader next week, boxing in the future leader.
►As Axios reports, Colorado Springs finally joined the 21st century in approving recreational marijuana sales.
► As Susan Greene reports for The Aurora Sentinel, immigrants in Colorado’s second-largest city are trying to prepare for mass deportations:
It was early September, the height of election-season hyperbole about Venezuelan gang violence in Aurora, when former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief Tom Homan hit town campaigning for conservative candidates.
“If the right guy gets in office in January, I am coming back, and I won’t forget the City of Aurora and the people that live here. You can take that to the bank,” he said at city hall.
Sure enough, Homan became one of Donald Trump’s first appointees, whose position as “border czar” will play a key role in an unprecedented nationwide deportation plan the president-elect has dubbed “Operation Aurora.” Trump said Homan “will be in charge of all deportation of illegal aliens back to their country of origin.”
This won’t be the first time Aurora — a city where one in five residents is foreign-born — has anticipated roundups. When Trump first became president in 2017, school boards, social service providers, churches, community groups and civil rights advocates put in place a host of protections for immigrants, in addition to several laws passed by the state legislature. It turned out that legal and procedural snags kept Trump from carrying out the mass raids and deportations he planned in his first term, legal and civil rights experts say.
They expect Trump’s crackdown on immigrants will be far more successful in his second term, when his administration will have learned from past legal and legislative obstacles and devised ways to work around them. Besides, experts note, with the Supreme Court and the Republican-led Senate and House presumably behind him, Trump is likely to face less pushback this time around.
If Trump’s mass deportation plan actually takes effect, the odds are very good that you know someone who will be impacted; 1 in 10 Coloradans are immigrants.
► Senator John Hickenlooper is pushing legislation to help people replace important documents lost during natural disasters.
► We really need to get a grip on vague citizen initiatives in Colorado. As 9News explains:
Colorado voters this November approved redirecting tax dollars to law enforcement agencies. The ballot measure didn’t say where the money should come from.
Proposition 130 directs $350 million in state funding to help recruit, train, and retain local law enforcement officers…
…Prop 130 didn’t authorize new taxes. The allocation likely means lawmakers will have to make cuts in the state budget to cover the cost. [Pols emphasis]
Law enforcement agencies across the country took a hit after the pandemic. Staffing numbers have improved since then, but Colorado still has fewer police officers per capita than it did in the 1990s, according to data from the FBI.
Prop 130 doesn’t say how soon state lawmakers have to distribute the money. It comes at a time when the legislature is already facing financial problems. Forecasts have shown Colorado may need to cut around $900 million in spending or dip into reserves to balance the budget next year.
What’s the point of having an elected legislative body if we’re going to allow half-assed citizen initiatives at the same time?
►The Aurora Sentinel reports on another example of how Republicans in charge of the City of Aurora keep horking things up:
In a surprisingly less contentious city council meeting, Aurora council members did an about face and ended a weeks-long debate on repealing the city’s occupational privilege tax or “head tax.”
Councilmember Françoise Bergan’s motion to table the repeal ordinance indefinitely passed 5-3, with Councilmembers Alison Coombs, Curtis Gardner and Crystal Murillo opposed.
“I believe in principle,” Councilmember Stephanie Hancock said. “The occupational tax was repealed, and the council voted on it, and I don’t believe we should go back on our promises.”
The long debate has centered around Aurora’s occupational tax, which requires employees and their employers to each pay $2 per month per employee. The tax was initially intended to help fund city services for workers who might not contribute through other taxes. It generates an estimated $5.9 million annually.
Earlier this year, city lawmakers voted to repeal the tax, citing its financial and administrative burden, particularly on small businesses. The tax was supposed to end in January 2025. However, concerns about losing nearly $6 million in annual revenue have since reignited debate over the decision.
And how do Republicans propose to deal with this budget shortfall? By asking the magical revenue fairy to save the day!
Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky opposed bringing the tax back and said in multiple meetings she would find funding for the fire stations and additional public safety funding elsewhere.
Neither she nor any other council member offered alternative funding or cuts for funds to build and operate the fire stations. [Pols emphasis]
► At least you didn’t invest in Truth Social. As The Washington Post explains:
In the days since the election, however, the stock has fallen, losing nearly half its value since last month’s peak. And on a Truth Social investor board, users who had been predicting a post-vote surge began voicing their agitation. “The fact is we are in trouble,” one wrote.As its top shareholder prepares for the White House, Trump Media is facing what some financial experts are calling an identity crisis that has undermined its worth…
…“Trump Media’s whole argument was: We’re going to allow freedom of expression in a way that hasn’t existed in years,” said Mike Stegemoller, a finance professor at Baylor University who has studied the company. But Trump’s new real-world and online power has “taken away that competitive advantage … and that doesn’t bode well for a company that already makes very little revenue.”
The Washington Post shared with Trump Media the information it intended to highlight in this report. Company spokeswoman Shannon Devine responded in a statement that the story was “ridiculously tendentious.” [Pols emphasis]
Pro tip for spokespeople: Don’t use a word that nobody has ever seen before in your big statement to the media.
November 19, 2024 11:33 AM UTC
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There are 35 shopping days until Christmas, so get your butt moving. Let’s Get More Smarter! 
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