November 11, 2015 12:40 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (Nov. 11)

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Happy Veterans’ Day; or as they call it in Canada, Remembrance Day. 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…

► The fourth Republican Presidential debate of the 2016 election was held last night in Milwaukee. We decided against doing another Debate Diary/Live Blog of the debate because after the Oct. 28 debate in Boulder, we were feeling a bit of debate fatigue. Our friends at “The Fix” examine some of the winners and losers from last night, which by most accounts was fairly lame tame. Republican frontrunner Ben Carson ended up with the least amount of speaking time on stage; conversely, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz manhandled the microphone.

Dan Balz of the Washington Post writes that the Milwaukee debate did succeed in establishing some of the major fractions that currently exist among Republican voters and activists:

One fault line underscored the frustrations of many grass-roots activists, who long for a nominee who espouses small-government conservatism without apology and who think they have lost the past two elections because their nominees were unable to do that.

The other fault line reflected the desire among conservatives for a tough stance against illegal immigration and the unease among mainstream Republicans that such policies will prevent the party from attracting more Hispanic votes and potentially doom them to defeat in 2016.

There were no clear winners, at least not so much as in the earlier debates, in part because there were strong moments for many of the candidates, as one after another grabbed for the spotlight.

The Republican Presidential candidates are scheduled to debate once more before the end of the year, on Dec. 15 in Las Vegas.

► State Sen. Laura Waters Woods is expected to be the top incumbent target for Democrats in 2016, and the Democratic Senate Campaign Fund is up with an early cable TV ad as part of its plan to take back the SD-19 seat in Arvada.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► The Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity has released a new attack ad against Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) that attempts to blame the Democrat for the failure of a health co-op in Colorado.

► Sen. Bennet, meanwhile, is speaking out against a District Court decision on Monday that overruled President Obama’s decision from last fall to provide deportation protections for certain groups of immigrants in the United States.

► A group of Colorado Sheriffs signed a letter to President Obama asking that Guantanamo Bay prisoners be kept away from Colorado because they are scary. From the Denver Post:

A group of 41 Colorado sheriffs have  signed on to a letter asking President Barack Obama not to send inmates housed at Guantanamo Bay to Fremont County prisons…

…The sheriffs include Tony Spurlock of Douglas County, Jeff Shrader of Jefferson County, David Walcher of Arapahoe County and Bill Elder in El Paso County.

“Our mission here, a primary component of it, is to protect,” Shrader told The Denver Post on Monday. “There is risk if prisoners, these extreme prisoners, would be brought to Colorado.”

Shrader said the Jefferson County jail could be used to house the prisoners in question if they need to appear in Denver’s federal court, putting the communities he protects and his staff in danger.

“I just think that risk is too great for the people in Colorado,” he said.

Of course, Colorado prisons already house a number of foreign terrorists — and have done so for many years without incident — but the Sheriffs apparently think Colorado jails should only house nice people.

► Hillary Clinton plans to make a public appearance in Boulder this month to coincide with a fundraiser being held for the Democratic Presidential candidate at the home of Mo Siegel, one of the founders of Celestial Seasonings tea. The fundraiser is scheduled for Nov. 24, but details on the public event for Clinton have not yet been finalized.

► A group of local officials plan to tour several Colorado Superfund sites this week to “better understand” the federal process for hazardous waste cleanup.

► Hundreds of people participated in a march in Denver on Tuesday evening as part of a campaign to increase the minimum wage in the U.S. to $15 per hour. As the Denver Post reports:

The crowd, mostly fast-food workers, home and day care workers, and others who are paid low wages, gathered in front of the Denver City and County Building on Bannock Street. They were rallied by a brass band playing upbeat marching tunes. Organizers and the crowd chanted “Keep your eye on the prize!” and “This is what democracy looks like!”…

…The Denver rally was one of a number of such rallies across the nation Tuesday.

► The Greeley Tribune reports on a large tourism-related grant being sought by northern Colorado communities:

Go NoCO officials — which include staff of Estes Park, Larimer County, Windsor and Loveland — will hear Thursday morning in Denver if their combined Regional Tourism Act application for four regional tourism projects worth $333 million is awarded state tax incentives. They’ve asked for $20 million in state funding to get the projects off the ground.

The only Weld County project in the proposal — a golf course with a planned PGA tour event and a waterfront destination resort — could bring an estimated 43,000 visitors per year to Windsor alone.

Go NoCO, a nonprofit entity, was established by the municipalities in response to the state’s Regional Tourism Act, which awards state tax dollars to the construction of extraordinary tourism ventures. Portions of the sales taxes collected from the projects, once completed, can be used to help finance them, as well. This is the last year projects could be funded.

Perhaps Go NoCO could organize some tours of the various oil and gas drilling operations that have grown throughout the region. Nothing attracts tourists like fracking!

► The Denver City Council is considering extending a two-year moratorium on new applications for recreational marijuana businesses. The current moratorium allows only medical marijuana providers to apply for new business licenses in Denver.

► The 2015 election will become official on Friday when a canvass board meets to certify the results. Thursday is the last day for ballots to be “cured.”

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► A federal investigation in New Mexico will move to a grand jury to decide whether Gov. Susana Martinez’s top political advisor, Jay McCleskey, illegally handled large donations for the Governor’s 2010 inauguration festivities. McCleskey worked on several campaigns in Colorado prior to managing Martinez’s gubernatorial bid; he is a former regional political director for the Republican National Committee.

► Ohio Governor John Kasich continues to face criticism from conservatives over his performance in last night’s GOP Presidential debate. 

ICYMI

► Amanda Marcotte of Salon takes a look at the economic policies of every Republican candidate for President and finds a common thread — no candidate has an economic plan that is even remotely plausible.

Get More Smarter by liking Colorado Pols on Facebook!