January 07, 2016 12:09 PM UTC
Get More Smarter on Thursday (Jan. 7)
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It sucks to be a meteorologist these days. Weather forecasters in Colorado are petrified to make specific predictions on snow accumulation — probably because it’s becoming damn near impossible to guess correctly with Climate Change. 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…
► State Senator Tim Neville officially kicked off his 2016 campaign for U.S. Senate this week, which forced several national political publications to acknowledge that Neville is indeed the Republican frontrunner. The National Journal has more on Neville’s announcement, which might sound a lot like what you read here yesterday.
Meanwhile, fellow Republican Robert Blaha appears to be getting ready to formally launch his bid for the GOP Senate nomination. From John Frank of the Denver Post:
Republican Robert Blaha purchased a 60-second TV spot after the Denver Broncos playoff game Jan. 17, the first public indication that he is preparing to officially launch his U.S. Senate bid.
Blaha, who lost a 2012 congressional bid, spent $9,000 of his own money on the TV ad that will air on CBS, registering it under the name “Robert Blaha for U.S. Senate.”
In an interview Thursday, Blaha confirmed he bought the time and will enter the race — a move he telegraphed in September and then delayed for months. He plans to roll out the campaign in a series of events in the coming days.
Republicans already have 6 announced candidates for the right to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. What do they think this is? A Presidential primary?
► CNN was trying to organize a live debate on gun safety between President Obama and folks from the National Rifle Association (NRA). Of course, the NRA wants absolutely nothing to do with an honest conversation about gun safety, so they declined.
Get even more smarter after the jump…
IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…
► Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a Koch Brothers-funded political organization that has had mixed success in Colorado, is getting involved in the TABOR debate. From the Denver Post:
The political arm of the Koch brothers’ conservative network is asking Colorado lawmakers to sign a pledge to protect TABOR, an effort designed to block Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper’s top legislative priority.
The Americans for Prosperity petition intensifies the political battle on a major budget issue before the 2016 legislative session and helps explain why Republicans are shifting their tone on the discussion about the hospital provider fee.
Hickenlooper is pushing legislation to convert the billion-dollar fee program to an enterprise fund that makes it exempt from the revenue caps in the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
The move would give state lawmakers more money to spend in the next budget year, as taxpayer refunds are contributing to spending cuts in education and other areas. But the conversion to an enterprise fund would negate taxpayer refunds in the foreseeable future, and critics suggest that the move weakens TABOR.
This is a bit of a confusing move for AFP, which risks alienating moderate and Republican business leaders in Colorado who are adamant that TABOR changes are needed in order to boost the state’s economy. Americans for Prosperity played an active role last fall in opposing a sales tax increase in Colorado Springs and fighting against a recall effort of school board members in Jefferson County and elsewhere. All of those efforts failed.
► Congressional Republicans sent President Obama legislation yesterday that would dismantle Obamacare. The President is warming up the veto pen. Great work, Congress; now, if only voters had elected you to seek out pointless political statements.
► Pueblo Republican Victor Head says he plans to buy a couple of silencers for his guns before Obama’s Executive Order tightening background checks takes effect. Now, if only somebody could attach a silencer to Victor’s head.
► Colorado Senators Michael Bennet (D-Denver) and Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) created their own separate search teams in order to fill the robes of a U.S. District court vacancy in Colorado. As it turns out, Bennet and Gardner came up with pretty much the same list of candidates. From Monica Mendoza at the Denver Business Journal:
On New Year’s Eve, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, and his federal judicial search committee announced it had selected three nominees: Magistrate Judge Kristin Mix and attorneys Regina Rodriguez and Sam Walker.
“We are very grateful to the committee for all of their work to select the most highly qualified candidates to serve,” Bennet said. “We look forward to having the opportunity to review their applications and speak with each candidate in person.”
But in an unusual twist, Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, had convened his own search committee and in November advanced four names: Mix, Rodriguez, Walker and attorney Patrick O’Rourke. O’Rourke did not appear on the Bennet panel’s list.
The move by Gardner to create a judicial evaluation committee was unusual and broke with tradition. Typically, senators of the president’s political party recommend the names of potential nominees. In this case, both Bennet and President Barack Obama are Democrats.
Boy, that Cory Gardner fellow sure is “shaking things up.”
► At #6 on our list of the Top 10 political stories of 2015: Republicans Visit Boulder for a Crowded Presidential Debate.
► Has North Korea really successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, as that country’s strange little leader has claimed? A former ambassador to South Korea isn’t so sure, as FOX 31 News reports:
“I urge you not to focus too much on the hydrogen bomb issue. They clearly want a hydrogen bomb. Whether they succeeded now or will in the future, the real question is what are we doing to do about this threat?” asked former ambassador Chris Hill, who now heads up Denver University’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies.
► Centennial Republican Jack Tate is moving up in the legislative world. Tate was sworn-in as the newest State Senator in SD-27 on Monday; Tate was chosen by a Republican vacancy committee to fill the seat that was resigned by former Sen. David Balmer. Another Republican vacancy committee is scheduled to meet on Saturday to select Tate’s successor in House District 27.
► Will Republicans really have an actual fight on their hands at the 2016 GOP National Convention? Karl Rove, who did most of the thinking for former President George W. Bush, thinks we are headed for a rare occurrence. From Politico:
For the first time in 68 years, the Republican Party will need more than one ballot to pick its nominee this summer in Cleveland, Karl Rove predicted in his annual list of prognostications.
“Delegates will be fractured—with many legally bound, for at least one ballot, to support the winner of their state or district—and at least two ballots will be required,” he wrote in The Wall Street Journal. “But the candidate with the most delegates going in will win.”
Rove also warned that Donald Trump would lose a General Election to Democrat Hillary Clinton, but he thinks all of the other top GOP candidates could win in November. In other news, Karl Rove apparently has not met the field of candidates seeking the Republican Presidential nomination.
► Wade Buchanan, the longtime President of the Bell Policy Center, is saying goodbye. Buchanan is stepping down from the top job after 15 years.
OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK
► As is the case with virtually all of his colleagues in the Senate, Arizona Sen. John McCain absolutely despises Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. McCain is now going after Cruz for his Canadian citizenship in response to questions about whether Cruz is legally able to serve as President of the United States. From the Washington Post:
John McCain proved the power of revenge on Wednesday night when asked about his longtime nemesis Ted Cruz’s eligibility to be president, despite being born in Canada.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” McCain said on the Chris Merrill Show on Wednesday. “I know it came up in my race because I was born in Panama, but I was born in the Canal Zone which is a territory. Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona when it was a territory when he ran in 1964.”…
…McCain shivving Cruz won’t drastically damage the Texas senator’s strength in the race. For some, it will affirm that Cruz is the anti-establishment force they love. But, McCain’s comment shows how the establishment can influence the race — by using the platform senators (and others) have to kill or boost stories.
Expect more of this. And the establishment will relish every minute of it.
► The leader of a native American tribe in Burns, Oregon wants #YallQaeda to get the hell out of town.
ICYMI
► The Denver Broncos have made it official: Peyton Manning will be the team’s starting quarterback in the upcoming NFL playoffs.
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