May 09, 2016 10:32 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Monday (May 9)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Sunday was Mother’s Day; if this is news to you, then you best get busy ordering a shitload of flowers. 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…

► Media outlets across Colorado have been busy asking Republican elected officials about their opinion of presumptive GOP Presidential nominee Donald Trump. From the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, among others:

Donald Trump wasn’t the first choice, or even the second, for many Colorado Republicans, but he’s now the only choice.

Or not. Depending.

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, the first-term GOP senator who first endorsed fellow senator Marco Rubio of Florida, moved on to another senator, Ted Cruz of Texas, after Rubio flamed out. When Cruz collapsed and Ohio Gov. John Kasich quit, only Trump was left.

The usually loquacious Gardner has had little to say about his party’s apparent standard-bearer…

…Former state Rep. Jon Keyser said he would support the GOP nominee because “Hillary Clinton’s multiple derelictions of duty disqualify her from office and I will support the Republican nominee to ensure Hillary Clinton never becomes president.”

U.S. Rep Scott Tipton, who is seeking a fourth term in the House, is a Trump backer, said his campaign spokesman, because, “Our country cannot afford a third Obama term.”

Denver7 and 9News are also reporting on the mixed reactions of Colorado Republicans toward Trump. Congressman Ken Buck (R-Greeley) tells 9News that he is still not ready to support Trump for President. Elsewhere, “The Fix” provides a handy list of the “Top 10 Republicans who hate Donald Trump the most.”

► Colorado lawmakers ares scheduled to wrap up the 2016 legislative session on Wednesday after months of partisan bickering. Megan Schrader previews the final half-week of the session for the Colorado Springs Gazette.

The biggest question remaining for legislators is on how to deal with the so-called “Hospital Provider Fee” (HPF) issue, as the Greeley Tribune explains. Meanwhile, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, a former Republican Attorney General, questions the logic of some of his fellow Republicans at the state house:

“I don’t quite understand a lot of my fellow Republicans saying, ‘Oh, we have to preserve TABOR,’” Suthers told The Colorado Independent. “The easiest way to preserve TABOR, and not increase taxes, is to remove the provider fee from the calculation. But obviously there’s a group in the Senate that feels differently.”

How Republicans choose to deal with the HPF could be a defining moment for the 2016 election cycle in general. It is no secret that many traditional GOP partners in the business community are not going to be happy if Senate President Bill Cadman ignores their pleas in order to make “Americans for Prosperity” happy.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Republican Senate candidate Jack Graham was on “Politics Unplugged” on Denver7 on Sunday. Fellow Republican candidate Jon Keyser, meanwhile, appeared on “Balance of Power” with 9News. 

► Colleen O’Connor of the Denver Post profiles Colorado’s new Lieutenant Governor, Donna Lynne:

She is considered  one of the top women business leaders in Denver and, nationally, one of the  Top 25 Women in Healthcare, serving as executive vice president of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan…

…His pick pleased even the Republicans who sat on the Senate State Affairs Committee, and on Wednesday night she cleared the last hurdle when the Senate unanimously endorsed her nomination…

…Both Democrats and Republicans liked how strongly she supports  the SMART performance-based budgeting act, and how she views taxpaying citizens as customers who might not like the quality of services they’re getting for their money.

Lynne will be officially sworn-in as the new L.G. on Thursday.

► Former Alaska Governor and one-time Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin doesn’t like the idea that House Speaker Paul Ryan won’t back her pal Donald Trump, so Palin says she’ll back Ryan’s Republican opponent in a GOP Primary.

► There are now two competing bills seeking to change Colorado’s Presidential caucus system to a Primary vote. But as Peter Marcus writes for the Durango Herald, there may not be time for a compromise this week.

► Donald Trump angry! Donald Trump smash!

► Could there be a legislative compromise in the long-running battle over selling full-strength wine and beer in grocery stores?

► The 2016 Colorado legislative session might have been a disappointment for supporters of many issues, but at least we are going to do more to regulate fantasy sports!

► The third Saturday in May will be home to a new “holiday,” as Conservation Colorado notes in a press release:

The Colorado state legislature on Friday night passed a bill establishing the third Saturday in May as a holiday to celebrate, as the bill’s summary states, “the significant contributions that national, state, and local public lands within Colorado make to wildlife, recreation, the economy, and to Coloradans’ quality of life.” The bill passed with bipartisan support, with a 36-29 vote in the House and a 25-8 vote in the Senate. It is now headed to the governor’s desk.

“Colorado is a national leader when it comes to conservation issues, and our support for public lands is no exception,” said Scott Braden, Wilderness and Public Lands Advocate at Conservation Colorado. “People come from far and wide to visit our mountains, deserts, forests, and grasslands, and for that they deserve to be celebrated.”

The effort to establish a Public Lands Day in Colorado was put forth, in part, as a contrast to response to extreme land seizure efforts such as the weeks-long siege of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by armed militants in January.

No word on the proposed dress-code for those “Public Lands Day” parties you may soon be invited to attend.

► National demographic changes are likely to be as devastating to the Republican Party in 2016 as their Presidential nominee.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► National pundits increasingly see Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Denver) as a solid favorite to win re-election in 2016.

► At Least You Don’t Live in North Carolina, as the New York Times reports:

Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina on Monday escalated the nation’s clash over transgender rights by suing the Justice Department, which said last week that the state had violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it passed a law prohibiting people from using public restrooms that do not correspond with the gender listed on their birth certificates.

In the suit, the governor accused the Justice Department of a “radical reinterpretation” of the law.

“The department contends that North Carolina’s common sense privacy policy constitutes a pattern or practice of discriminating against transgender employees in the terms and conditions of their employment because it does not give employees an unfettered right to use the bathroom or changing facility of their choice based on gender identity,” said Mr. McCrory’s lawsuit, which was filed in a Federal District Court in North Carolina. “The department’s position is a baseless and blatant overreach.”

Yeah, this isn’t going to end well for the top Carolina.

ICYMI

► The United States is NOT the highest-taxed nation in the world, no matter how many times Donald Trump says otherwise. 

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