April 25, 2016 11:34 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Monday (April 25)

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by: Colorado Pols

Enjoy the weather today; the sun is going on hiatus for the rest of the week. 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…

► Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich say that they have formed some sort of alliance in hopes of preventing Republican frontrunner Donald Trump from capturing the GOP nomination for President. As our friends at “The Fix” explain, this isn’t likely to turn out well:

When most of the country — including me — was watching the season 6 premiere of “Game of Thrones,” the campaigns of Ted Cruz and John Kasich announced a major strategic alliance. Kasich would stop campaigning in — and trying to win — Indiana’s primary on May 3. Cruz would do the same in Oregon on May 17 and New Mexico on June 7…

…This is a massive gamble born entirely of desperation. What likely became clear to the Cruz campaign and, to a lesser extent, the Kasich campaign, is that they weren’t going to beat Trump in Indiana’s winner-take-most primary and, by losing, would put the real estate billionaire on a reasonable path to the GOP nomination.

And so, they acted. Which they deserve credit for — since most of the time politicians in unwinnable/untenable situations continue to cling to the idea that everyone else is wrong and they are right, right up until they lose.

But, action doesn’t always produce the desired results. And, I think that’s what is going to happen here.

As “The Fix” notes, there are a number of strategic problems with this so-called alliance, not the least of which is the general lack of overlap between Kasich voters and Cruz voters (i.e., if you like Kasich, you probably don’t like Cruz, and vice-versa). The other big problem here is that this “alliance” feeds directly into Trump’s narrative that the entire process for selecting a Republican nominee is rigged against him.

► The race for President takes another big step on Tuesday with the “Acela Primary” as voters go to the polls in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island to cast ballots in both the Democratic and Republican Primaries.

There is also a big Democratic Primary for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, where Katie McGinty hopes to use endorsements from President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to defeat former Congressman Joe Sestak. The winner of the Democratic Primary will face Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in a General Election that is expected to be one of the most expensive of the 2016 cycle.

► Campaign finance reports are a good indicator of the state of a political campaign, and the details of these reports can be particularly revealing. In the case of Republican Senate candidate Jon Keyser, his Q1 fundraising report tells the story of a campaign that is barely functioning from a financial perspective.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► The Colorado Secretary of State’s office announced the fate of two more candidates seeking to petition their way onto the Primary ballot. Democrat Mark McIntosh failed to qualify for the ballot in HD-6 (Rep. Lois Court is term-limited). Democrat Zachary Rothmier also failed to make the ballot in the race for CU Regent in CD-1.

Only three more candidates are still waiting to hear from the SOS office as to the validity of their petition signatures: U.S. Senate candidates Jon Keyser, Robert Blaha, and Ryan Frazier.

► Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., should take some advice from Kenny Rogers in the wake of yet another legal defeat to their claims that they should be allowed to discriminate against LGBT customers. According to a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union:

The Colorado State Supreme Court today decided to let stand an appellate court ruling that Masterpiece Cakeshop violated Colorado’s anti-discrimination law when it refused to sell a same-sex couple a cake for their wedding reception.

“The highest court in Colorado today affirmed that no one should be turned away from a public-facing business because of who they are or who they love,” said Ria Tabacco Mar, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT Project, who argued the case. “We all have a right to our personal beliefs, but we do not have a right to impose those beliefs on others and discriminate against them. We hope today’s win will serve as a lesson for others that equality and fairness should be our guiding principles and that discrimination has no place at the table, or the bakery as the case may be.”

Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act prohibits businesses, such as Masterpiece Cakeshop, from refusing service based on factors including race, sex, national origin, or sexual orientation. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Colorado filed suit on behalf of Mullins and Craig in 2013. In December 2013, an administrative judge ruled that the bakery had illegally discriminated against the couple. In 2014, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission affirmed that ruling. Masterpiece Cakeshop appealed. In a unanimous decision issued on August 15, 2015, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that the bakery unlawfully discriminated against Mullins and Craig by refusing to sell them a cake for their wedding reception.

You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em…

► The Rothenberg/Gonzales Political Report has made another adjustment to its projections in CD-6, where state Senator Morgan Carroll is trying to unseat Congressman Mike Coffman (R-Aurora). Rothenberg has changed its classification of the CD-6 race from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up/Tilt Republican.” If the race moves up again, the next stop is “Democrat Favored.”

► When taking advantage of financially-troubled Coloradans is called a “market opportunity.”

Which Colorado legislators are being influenced financially by these Loan Sharks? Well, we’re glad you asked…

► Donald Trump will not continue protesting his big loss in Colorado on April 9. From the Denver Post:

Two Colorado Republican insiders said Friday that Donald Trump no longer plans to challenge the sweep of national delegates that rival Ted Cruz won in Colorado this month — a reversal that comes as his supporters continue to criticize the caucus system that selected these all-important representatives.

The Trump campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but Guy Short, a Colorado power broker involved in talks at the national level, said Paul Manafort, a Trump strategist, told him at a closed-door meeting in Florida that Trump was stepping back from his vow this week to protest the Colorado results.

“After the briefing I went up to speak with Manafort and asked him directly if Trump would challenge the Colorado delegation. He said no. He said ‘cooler heads prevailed.’ He said they ‘are moving forward,’ ” Short told The Denver Post.

► The re-election campaign of Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) has already spent more than $500,000 on TV ads in Colorado’s largest broadcast markets. To put that in context, most of the Republican candidates for U.S. Senate don’t even have that much money in the bank.

Republican Senate candidate Darryl Glenn, the winner at the GOP State Convention on April 9, talked about his low-budget campaign on Politics Unplugged on Denver7 on Sunday.