The first day of Spring was on Sunday…no, really. 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).
► Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump unveiled the first group of names for his “foreign policy team” should His Hairness actually become President. Meanwhile, as Politico reports, there is optimism among some Democrats that a GOP ticket headed by Trump could cost Republicans their House Majority:
Democrats have for the past year discussed the GOP’s 30-seat majority as a long-term problem, solvable only by shrinking it over several successive elections. But Trump’s remarkable rise in the GOP presidential race, and the backlash he has already provoked among the broader electorate, has suddenly raised the prospect of a large November wave against Trump and the Republicans who would share the ballot with him.
The House GOP’s leading indicators — its most vulnerable members, like Reps. Bob Dold and Carlos Curbelo — are already sounding the alarm against Trump and his rhetoric on women, Hispanics and other groups. The party’s outside groups are preparing an intensified fundraising push to help defend the chamber. The respected Cook Political Report downgraded Republicans’ chances in 10 districts Friday. And though the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has been stung by overzealous predictions in past years, won’t say outright that the majority is in play, the party is clearly thinking about it.
► Colorado lawmakers have a lot of work to do in the second half of the 2016 legislative session, as Peter Marcus writes for the Durango Herald.
Get even more smarter after the jump…
► The U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-2 in favor of dismissing a lawsuit in which the states of Nebraska and Oklahoma sought to sue Colorado over our state’s decision to legalize marijuana. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
► Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump can say pretty much anything he wants without repercussion — including questioning the Mormon faith of 2012 Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
► On Friday in Denver, HUD Secretary Julian Castro joined Mayor Michael Hancock to talk about affordable housing. Castro has long been thought to be near the top of the list of potential running mates for Democratic Presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
► Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) is a co-sponsor of legislation intended to improve how sexual assault allegations are handled on college campuses.
► The Colorado Statesman reports on results from county assemblies over the weekend (if you have a subscription to “The Hot Sheet”). Poor Tom Lucero just can’t get any love from Northern Colorado Republicans:
Perhaps the biggest upset of the weekend came out of the Larimer County Republican Party’s Assembly where establishment candidate, Loveland City Councilor Hugh McKean kept the right-wing’s choice, businessman Tom Lucero off the ballot when McKean received 71 percent of the vote to Lucero’s 29 percent.
► Colorado Senate Republicans continue to push legislation intended to kneecap President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
► A bill intended to make oil and gas companies liable for earthquakes caused by drilling operations has passed through the State House. As Cathy Proctor reports for the Denver Business Journal:
HB16 1310, sponsored by Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, would allow homeowners to seek compensation for damage to individuals, their homes or other property caused by oil and gas drilling. The Senate sponsor is Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora.
“This bill holds oil and gas to the same standards as other industries in Colorado,” Salazar said in a statement after the vote Friday.
Governor John Hickenlooper is voicing concerns over the legislation, which is not unexpected given Hick’s general support of the oil and gas industry over the years. The bill is not expected to make it very far once it lands in the State Senate.
► State Rep. Dan Pabon (D-Denver) faces DUI charges stemming from a Thursday evening traffic arrest.
► State Sen. Morgan Carroll has picked up another big endorsement in her bid to unseat Congressman Mike Coffman in CD-6 (Aurora). From a press release:
The Human Rights Campaign PAC, the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, announced their endorsement today of Colorado State Senator Morgan Carroll for the U.S. House of Representatives in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District.
“The Human Rights Campaign is proud to endorse Morgan Carroll to represent Colorado’s 6th Congressional District,” said JoDee Winterhof, HRC Senior Vice President for Policy and Political Affairs. “She has been a true advocate of equality and fairness and has pledged to continue advocating for the needs of the LGBT community as a Member of Congress. We are pleased to support her candidacy and, once she is elected, we look forward to working with her in Congress.”
► If you listen to right-wing radio in Colorado, you’re likely to come across this sentiment at some point: America is doomed because of Islam!
► As George Will writes for The National Review, there is no defense for Senate Republicans who refuse to allow so much as a hearing for President Obama’s selection to fill a Supreme Court vacancy:
Republicans who vow to deny Garland a hearing and who pledge to support Donald Trump if he is their party’s nominee are saying: Democracy somehow requires that this vacancy on a non-majoritarian institution must be filled only after voters have had their say through the election of the next president. And constitutional values will be served if the vacancy is filled not by Garland but by someone chosen by President Trump, a stupendously uninformed dilettante who thinks judges “sign” what he refers to as “bills.” There is every reason to think that Trump understands none of the issues pertinent to the Supreme Court’s role in the American regime, and there is no reason to doubt that he would bring to the selection of justices what he brings to all matters — arrogance leavened by frivolousness.
► Your gigantic cell phone may be going back out of style if Apple has anything to say about it.
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Smaller cell phones??? The horror!! …
… bring on that 42" hi-def holographic 3-D IPhone!
What Apple should be spending their time on is developing "The Flavor Flav Necklace" rig !!! (They could sell billions.)