October 21, 2015 10:31 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (Oct. 21)

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Great Scott!!! 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).

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► If you have not yet received a mail ballot for the 2015 election, you should contact your County Clerk and Recorder’s office. Go to GoVoteColorado.com to check your voter registration status or to print out a sample ballot. You can also check out JustVoteColorado.org for more information. For more details on local school board elections, check out ProgressNow Colorado’s voter guide.

► Here’s the good news: The Jefferson County recall election will be over in two weeks. Now, the bad news: Right-wing School Board member Julie Williams has teamed up with Jon Caldara and the Independence Institute to produce one of the more despicable campaign advertisements in recent memory. Williams is using her son, a “special needs student,” as a political prop to tell an already-debunked story alleging pro-recall supporters tricked him into participating in a protest of his own mother.

Last September, the school district spent some 270 hours (at a cost of more than $3,780) investigating Williams’ concerns, and found NO EVIDENCE that her son was involved in any sort of rally or parade targeting the school board…but Williams and Caldara went ahead and made a campaign ad about this made-up story anyway. Classy.

► Republican Congressman Paul Ryan says he will stand for election as Speaker of the House if the various warring factions of the GOP unite behind him. The conservative House Freedom Caucus doesn’t seem interested in meeting Ryan’s Friday deadline for support; current Speaker John Boehner has called a vote for Oct. 28 in the hopes that he can finally retire and get the hell out of dodge.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid endorsed Ryan for Speaker on Wednesday…which probably doesn’t help Ryan very much.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Colorado’s Congressional delegation is divided over the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). As Edward Graham reports for The Durango Herald:

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the country’s most successful land-conservation program, was allowed to expire at the end of September after congressional leaders failed to reauthorize the program. Now, as politicians take stock of the program’s influence across the country, many are pushing for permanent reauthorization of it.

The LWCF, established in 1964, was created to secure outdoor recreation lands for future generations. Over the course of its existence, the program has provided almost $17 billion in funding for the expansion of parks and protected forests across the country and has protected more than 500 million acres of land across the country.

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said it’s important to renew the fund to ensure future generations continue to have access to public areas.

► Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-Denver) is proposing to raise the minimum age for purchasing cigarettes from 18 to 21. Leave it to the (never) classy Jon Caldara to come up with a wholly inappropriate comment:

“What are these 18-year-olds supposed to smoke after she screws them? You should be able to have the traditional cigarette after sex. So when she’s screwing them out of their rights, what will they smoke after that?”

Yeah, this is the same guy behind the despicable Julie Williams campaign advertisement. Jon Caldara is a sad man.

► Republicans are bringing Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert to Colorado Springs on Saturday to speak at a fundraising event at the Doubletree World Arena. Gohmert has been a leading critic of House Speaker John Boehner. He’s also kind of a buffoon.

► Colorado grocers are pushing a ballot measure for 2016 that would expand liquor sales to include grocery stores. Under current state law, Colorado grocers can only sell “3.2 percent beer.” Critics of the effort worry that changing the laws will cripple small business liquor stores.

► Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reporter Charles Ashby avoids the hyperbole and reports the straight facts on a one-sided forum held to discuss attack the EPA over its proposed Clean Air Regulations:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan would have long-term negative impacts on the nation’s coal industry if it survives a legal challenge, one expert on the issue said on Tuesday.

At a one-sided forum sponsored by several right-leaning groups, Denver attorney and former Colorado Public Utilities Commission chairman Ray Gifford told about 100 Western Slope residents and government officials the impact the plan would have on coal-fired power plants specifically, and the coal industry in general.

Under the plan, which is to become official in the next few weeks but doesn’t fully go into effect for a few years, states would be required to reduce ozone emissions from power plants by 32 percent of 2005 levels by 2030.

Coal industry advocates say reducing pollution will have negative effects on the coal industry? No shit, sherlock.

► Former state Rep. Bob Gardner is heading up a group trying to foreclose on a man’s house in Colorado Springs because they say he filed a frivolous lawsuit, or something.

► Colorado unemployment rates have dipped to levels not seen in 15 years. As Aldo Svaldi reports for the Denver Post:

Parts of Colorado…have now clawed back to levels not seen since the 2001 recession.

Metro Denver’s unemployment rate, not adjusting for seasonality, dipped from 3.6 percent in August to 3.2 percent in September, the lowest rate measured since May 2001, according to a monthly update from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

Boulder’s unemployment rate fell to 2.6 percent from 3.2 percent over the same period — that county’s best showing since July 2000.

Colorado’s seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate fell to 3.3 percent in September, down from 3.8 percent in August.

If that 3.3 percent rate holds up on revision, it would be the lowest the state has recorded since the spring of 2007, before the housing crash and global financial crisis sent the economy spiraling into the Great Recession.

► Americans continue to support legal marijuana, according to a new Gallup poll, with 58% now in favor of a nationwide legalization.

► Senate Democrats want Congressional Republicans to stop with the Benghazi and reimburse taxpayers for the expense of three years of nothingburgers. Democrats are accusing the GOP of trumping up the issue in order to raise money for Republicans in general. Thanks, Kevin McCarthy!

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Front range cities want more water diversions. Western Slope Coloradans don’t like that idea one bit. And the earth continues to rotate around the sun.

► Taxes, weed, Internet service, and…bees? There’s something for everyone on the ballot in Colorado this year.

► New polling numbers suggest that Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is convincing Democratic voters that she really is a liberal politician.

ICYMI

► You’ve probably heard that today is “Back to the Future Day,” the date when Marty McFly visited the future in Back to the Future 2. One of the predictions from the movie was that the Chicago Cubs would win the World Series in 2015; ironically enough, the Cubs might be eliminated from the playoffs today if they lose Game 4 of the NLCS to the New York Mets.

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