April 12, 2016 11:58 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (April 12)

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Today is David Letterman’s birthday. 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…

► Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump continues to cry foul over results from Saturday’s GOP Convention in Colorado Springs, calling Colorado’s caucus operation “rigged” in favor of opponent Ted Cruz. From the Denver Post:

The remarks generated a frenzy of criticism across the nation about  the Colorado caucus system and renewed questions about why the state didn’t hold a vote to allow broader participation.

The attention spotlighted party errors in the balloting that hurt the Trump campaign and raised questions about a possible challenge to the Colorado delegation at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. A group that calls itself Colorado Votes Matter is organizing a protest Friday at GOP headquarters in Greenwood Village.

Colorado Republican Party Chair Steve House maintains that the GOP did not do anything to intentionally help Cruz in capturing nearly all of Colorado’s 37 delegates. Trump’s campaign says it is considering a challenge to the seating of Colorado’s delegates at the July Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

► Colorado Democrats are admitting to a mistake that allowed Hillary Clinton to capture one more delegate than Bernie Sanders at the March 1 Democratic caucuses.

► Senate Republicans once again blocked legislation intended to ban so-called “gay conversion therapy” in Colorado. This sentiment has backfired on Republicans in states such as North Carolina and Mississippi, and you can expect that it will be a significant issue in the 2016 election cycle in Colorado.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Who is Calandra Vargas? Congressman Doug Lamborn’s campaign staff is frantically trying to figure out the answer to that question this week.

► ICYMI, here’s the speech that changed the Republican Senate race.

► State Sen. John Cooke had some, uh, interesting comments yesterday during a Senate debate about overturning the 15-round gun magazine limit in Colorado. The former Weld County Sheriff advised his colleagues to just drive up to Wyoming if they wanted to buy a 15-round magazine (which is still against the law in Colorado).

► Colorado Republican Party Chair Steve House continues to insist that the state GOP’s official twitter account was “hacked,” leading to a since-deleted Tweet crowing about the #NeverTrump movement’s success in helping Sen. Ted Cruz capture nearly all of Colorado delegates at Saturday’s GOP convention.

► Meanwhile, as Politico reports, the “Never Trump” movement is running into serious opposition…from a stronger-than-expected group of Trump supporters.

► Republicans who don’t like either Ted Cruz or Donald Trump continue to search for a unicorn as a third option for the GOP Presidential nominee. As our friends at “The Fix” explain, House Speaker Paul Ryan is not that unicorn:

To believe the Ryan fantasy, you have to believe that everything the GOP electorate has told us about themselves so far this year will suddenly end when the doors open at the Cleveland convention.  That the delegates — the base of the base — who drove the likes of Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio from the race will suddenly pick Ryan, the face of the GOP establishment, requires a logical leap that only the most desperate among us could make.

That’s putting aside the fact that Ryan has repeatedly emphasized the need to work with Democrats on issues and who, tonally, is much closer to Jeb(!) than to The Donald. And the fact that Ryan has run in a total of zero primaries or caucuses and received a total of zero votes from actual Republican presidential primary voters this year. And the fact that in order to believe that Ryan will be the nominee, you must believe that the party will throw over not only the top delegate getter in the primary process (Trump) but also the guy who will have the second most delegates (Cruz).

It’s. Just. Not. Going. To. Happen.

For his part, Ryan has not wavered in his public response that he has no interest in becoming the Republican Presidential nominee in 2016; Ryan is expected to issue a super-duper denial of interest sometime this afternoon.

► Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz is picking a fight with Matt Drudge of “The Drudge Report.” This isn’t going to end well.

► The State of Missouri has finally finished counting ballots from its Primary vote ON MARCH 15. Donald Trump is the official winner for Republicans, while Hillary Clinton was the choice of a majority of Democrats.

► Colorado Republican Senate candidate Jon Keyser did not attend the State Republican Convention in Colorado Springs on Saturday. Instead, Keyser was in Las Vegas trying to court mega-donor casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

► Congressman Scott Tipton (R-Cortez) is facing his toughest re-election challenge yet in the form of former state Sen. Gail Schwartz, but first things first: Tipton needs to make sure he gets through a Primary challenge from Carbondale resident Alex Beinstein.

► Colorado Senate Republicans shot down legislation intended to expand access to birth control options for low-income women.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► How FOX News destroyed the Republican Party.

► Colorado Spring and Pueblo have come to an agreement on a stormwater policy. There’s really no way to make this story sound any sexier.

ICYMI

► The Colorado Rockies begin a three-game home series against the San Francisco Giants today. Plan your metro-area driving routes accordingly.

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