January 05, 2016 12:07 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (Jan. 5)

• 4 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

There are about 354 shopping days before Christmas. 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…

► Several current and former Colorado lawmakers were on hand in Washington D.C. today as President Barack Obama discussed his executive action on expanding background checks for gun purchases. As we wrote earlier today:

Starting next week, Colorado Republicans are going to take their perennial shot at repealing everything that was passed in 2013, invoking the names Morse, Giron, and Hudak the whole way. But the longsuffering public servants in the photo you see above should be proud. The laws they gave everything to pass are still on the books. Colorado’s success in passing common-sense gun safety laws stands as a hard-won model that may yet be emulated in other states.

It was not for nothing.

► Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett is causing a bit of a stir over his decision to “prosecute the laws that already exist” when it comes to gun safety. As we explained on Monday:

In short, DA Garnett is doing exactly what the gun lobby says we should be doing–enforcing existing law. It’s been illegal for many years to attempt to buy a gun with prohibiting factors on your record, to include any kind of active arrest warrant. Obviously, a police officer in the position of having to arrest a wanted suspect doesn’t want said suspect to be able to buy a gun, even if the warrant is for a speeding ticket.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► #YallQaeda is still hunkered down at a federal wildlife facility in Oregon as its brilliant leaders try to figure out a scenario that ends well for the militant terrorists. As the Washington Post reports, the terrorist group has spent enough time together to come up with a name for their group:

The armed activists, led by rancher Ammon Bundy, announced plans to stay indefinitely. Bundy’s father, Cliven, is a Nevada rancher who has sparred with the government for years and who in 2014 had an armed standoff with federal agents trying to prevent him from illegally grazing his cattle on federal land. After the federal authorities backed down, experts said the showdown “invigorated” anti-government groups in the United States.

On Monday, Ammon Bundy said his group of occupiers had taken on a name: Citizens for Constitutional Freedom. He also said the group wanted to help people in the county “in claiming their rights, using their rights as a free people.” He did not offer any further specifics on how long they intended to stay.

“Citizens for Constitutional Freedom” — supporting the right to squat in federal buildings because the stupid govmint won’t let them break other laws.

► Republican Presidential candidate Marco Rubio will be in Denver today…but not for his first public event in Colorado. Rubio is in town to raise money at an event hosted by oil company executive Roger Hutson and his wife Meredith. Aside from coming to Colorado for the Oct. 28, 2015 Republican Presidential debate, Rubio has not visited our state as a Presidential candidate.

► New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie doesn’t have much of a chance at winning the Republican nomination for President, but he’s going to use his time in the spotlight (okay, it’s probably more like a “night light” than a spotlight…) making the case for why his fellow Republicans should not support Donald Trump as the GOP nominee.

► Trump was making news of his own on Monday, as his campaign released its first paid media advertisement of the 2016 cycle.

► As tradition goes here at Colorado Pols, we’re finishing up our annual look at the Top 10 political stories of the year. At #7: Cory Gardner Makes Liars Out of Everybody.

► If you still haven’t formally affiliated with a particular political party, you’re screwed until 2017; yesterday was the deadline to pick a party to play caucus with.

► Colorado House Democrats plan to again introduce legislation that would close loopholes allowing companies with an offshore presence to avoid paying Uncle Sam. Democrats say the 2016 legislation will look different than a similar bill that was killed by Senate Republicans in 2015.

► Colorado’s immigrant driver’s license program is facing a new batch of problems as law enforcement officials investigate claims of fraud from immigrants who were swindled by third-party groups.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► A former candidate for Denver City Council is being sought by police after a warrant was issued over fraudulent petition signatures “gathered” for Corrie Hock to make it onto the ballot. As Jon Murray reports for the Denver Post:

Corrie Houck, 44, faces felony counts in Denver County Court of attempting to influence a public servant and forgery, plus misdemeanor counts of perjury. A warrant for her arrest was issued, with bond set at $5,000…

…Candidates for council seats last year typically turned in far more signatures than the 100 required, since some signers inevitably were ineligible to vote in Denver.

But the Denver Elections Division noticed that on Houck’s six candidacy petitions, filed March 11, more than half of the signatures didn’t match signatures on file for those voters, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. And three supposed signers had died in the year before Houck collected signatures.

Under Denver election law, you only need 100 valid signatures from Denver voters in order to get your name on the city council ballot. That’s it — just 100. This really isn’t that difficult.

► The Colorado State Board of Education unanimously approved the sole finalist for the position of Colorado Education Commissioner. Can someone please take us through the process for how Richard Crandall, a former Republican elected official in Arizona, could end up as the sole finalist for a job that pays $255,000 per year? There wasn’t even a close second on the list?

ICYMI

► Sorry, friends, but 2015 wasn’t just a weird outlier. Donald Trump is still the prohibitive favorite for the Republican Presidential nomination in the first national poll conducted in 2016.

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