October 29, 2015 12:24 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (Oct. 29)

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• by: Colorado Pols

More than three total hours of debating last night, and just one question about legalizing marijuana. That was the biggest upset of the night. 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).

Also, if you are scared of our Halloween-themed “Get More Smarter” logo, we are sorry.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► If you still have not returned your mail ballot for the 2015 election, today is probably the last day that you should consider mailing it back (click one of the following links for more information on ballot drop-off locations). If you have still not received a mail ballot, you should contact your County Clerk and Recorder’s office ASAP.

Visit 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.

► If you missed last night’s Republican Presidential debates in Boulder, we’ve got you covered! Check out our Debate Diary/Live Blog of the primetime debate here. We even live-blogged the opening act — the “Less-Than-One Percenters” debate. Who won? Who lost? Opinions from the mainstream media are mixed, but here’s our takeaway from the big show:

This was a good night for Donald Trump and Chris Christie. Trump maintained his stage presence but also managed to appear like more of a serious candidate; he’s been leading the GOP field for 100 days, and tonight Trump looked the part. Christie got off some memorable lines and may have staved off the campaign reaper for awhile. John Kasich also had a pretty good night, but it could have been a great night had he been more consistent.

The big takeaway for us was the damage to Marco Rubio. The Florida Republican took a few shots from moderators and candidates, but he reacted like somebody shot his dog. The question about Rubio has always been about what he’ll do when push comes to shove; if tonight is any indication, Rubio will fall down. A lot.

This was also not a good showing by Ben Carson, who came across as being very weak on the issues. Ted Cruz made some mistakes, Mike Huckabee was forgettable, and Carly Fiorina sounds like a broken record now. As for Rand Paul, he should just end his Presidential campaign now. Seriously, like, right now. He’s done.

And lest we forget poor Jeb!. He couldn’t possibly be any less interesting or memorable. You could replace Jeb! with a robot and nobody would know the difference.

Many media outlets seem to think that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio had a strong night, though we didn’t see it that way; Rubio did a good job of deflecting tough questions, but that tactic also highlighted his lack of real answers (particularly on growing accusations that he isn’t doing his job as a U.S. Senator). There is also a general consensus that Jeb! Bush, Ben Carson, and Rand Paul were the biggest losers of the night…although the overall top loser may have been the media, writes Jeff Jacoby for the Boston Globe.

► Things should start getting back to normal in Boulder after a week in which the area became “politics central.” There’s a lot of political coverage in the local media today, including KDVR, the Boulder Daily Camera, and the Colorado Statesman.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Gun violence was not a major topic during last night’s debates, which were focused more on economic issues, but guns were a top issue outside the venue. As Jesse Paul reports for the Denver Post:

Gun control was a major focus on the University of Colorado campus ahead of  the Republican debate, with scores of protesters waving signs calling for more strict background checks.

Former Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democratic presidential candidate, met behind closed doors at the university’s main center with families of victims in the Aurora theater, Columbine and Newtown shootings.

O’Malley commended the group’s efforts to “transform their loss into something (important),” telling the group of about two dozen that he is the candidate to help them get meaningful legislation passed.

► Anadarko, one of the largest oil and gas development companies operating in Colorado, reported a $2.2 billion loss for Q3 and plans to scale back investment in Weld County by 50 percent.

► Congressman Ken Buck (R-Greeley) opposed a budget deal that was passed in Congress on Wednesday. From the Greeley Tribune:

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., voted against H.R. 1314, the budget deal negotiated by Congressional leadership and President Obama, which passed Wednesday 266 to 167 with solely Republican opposition.

The deal, released near midnight on Monday, was rushed to the floor for a vote on Wednesday, the news release from Buck’s office stated. The legislation increases the debt limit without any entitlement reform and adds an additional $80 billion in discretionary spending over the next two fiscal years.

“This budget deal blows through the debt limit and the spending caps we fought hard to implement in 2011,” Buck said. “We’re trading short-term spending for the promise of long-term savings.”

We’d tell you what Buck is proposing instead, but he hasn’t gotten that far yet.

► Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan — sorry, Paul D. Ryan — was officially elected as the 54th Speaker of the House today. Ryan received the support of almost every Republican in the House in today’s vote, with nine members declining to support DJ Paulie D.

► A Colorado panel convened to address racial profiling ended its discussions at about the same place they began. From the Associated Press:

Colorado lawmakers tasked with crafting legislation to collect data on racial profiling finished months of work Wednesday by failing to agree on any significant measures to introduce next year.

A committee of six lawmakers agreed only on a measure to let people voluntarily identify their race and ethnicity on their driver’s licenses and identification cards. But that bill was meant to work in conjunction with another proposal that would let law enforcement issue citations electronically to make it easier to compile data.

The impasse by committee members, who have met since late August, shows the difficult time lawmakers have had finding agreement on law-enforcement reforms in the aftermath of high-profile cases of alleged police misconduct around the nation. They have agreed on some ideas, such as encouraging more agencies to use officer-worn cameras and strengthening protections for citizens to record police actions, but they have disagreed on others.

If the panel couldn’t agree on anything, how did it know that it had completed its work?
► Jefferson County School Board President Ken Witt thinks students in the district are being used as political pawns. Of course, that’s exactly why there is a recall election underway; students have been pawns since the right-wing board’s political takeover in Nov. 2013.

► Two candidates for Pueblo City Council have returned donations from the Pueblo County Republican Party. Campaigns for municipal office in Pueblo are supposed to be nonpartisan affairs. Those checks probably would have bounced anyway, given the shoddy financial state of the Pueblo GOP.

► It’s simple, really: Jeb! Bush just isn’t very good at running for President. 

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had one of the biggest moments of the debate last night when he attacked the media, and CNBC moderators, for its coverage of the Presidential race. As Ezra Klein writes for Vox, Cruz is completely off-base with his comments.

► South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham may have been the star of the “Less-Than-One Percenters” debate last night — which is a pretty low bar to clear — and one of his more memorable moments came when he talked about the importance of combating Climate Change as a policy imperative. Graham says you don’t need to be a Democrat to understand that we need to deal with Climate Change.

ICYMI

► The Denver Nuggets opened the 2015-16 NBA season with a 20-point victory over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.

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