June 17, 2016 01:17 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (June 17)

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• by: Colorado Pols

It’s possible that Colorado could see two straight 100-degree days this weekend as campaigns scramble to finish their door knocking before Primary Day. 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). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Remember, friends: If you haven’t yet received a mail ballot, you should check your registration or address status ASAP. Go to JustVoteColorado.org for more information.

► Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump may be a bit of a consensus-builder after all…though not in the manner he would prefer. As Politico reports:

In 2016’s race to the bottom, Donald Trump is going to find out if you can become president when two-thirds of Americans don’t like you — and a majority can’t stand you…

…Trump is setting modern records for political toxicity — at least for a major-party candidate this far out from an election. Seventy percent of Americans surveyed in an ABC News/Washington Post poll out this week had an unfavorable opinion of Trump, up 10 points over the past month. The poll showed Trump’s favorable rating cratering at 29 percent, down from 37 percent last month…

…Trump’s unpopularity is without historical peer in the modern era of presidential campaigns. Mitt Romney averaged a 46-percent unfavorable rating in mid-June 2012, according to the HuffPost Pollster database. John McCain’s unfavorable rating four years prior was only 40 percent, and more voters had a positive opinion of the Arizona senator than a negative one. In June 2004, then-Sen. John Kerry had a 58-percent favorable rating, according to Gallup, with only 35 percent viewing him unfavorably.

On the bright side, to whatever extent there is a sliver of light here, Trump isn’t quite as disliked as Congress in general.

► It didn’t take long for Colorado Republicans to un-bite their tongues in reaction to last weekend’s shootings in Orlando.

► If “con artist” were an honorable title, we’d probably say that Aurora School Board member Eric Nelson is producing a masterpiece.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► At Least You’re Not in Charge of Corporate Sponsorships for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. As Bloomberg reports:

A growing number of prominent U.S. corporations are opting to drop or scale back their sponsorship of the Republican national convention next month in Cleveland, as the nomination of Donald Trump promises a level of controversy rarely seen in such gatherings.

Among those to signal in recent days that they won’t sponsor the convention this year are Wells Fargo & Co., United Parcel Service Inc., Motorola Solutions Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Ford Motor Co., and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. All of those companies sponsored the previous Republican conclave, in Tampa, Florida, in 2012… [Pols emphasis]

…Big corporations usually shy away from partisan politics, but they often support conventions to promote their brands and schmooze with state and federal officials. Trump’s nomination threatens both of those priorities, according to Republican operatives who advise companies on political activities.

► The New York Times reports on some strong words from Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in response to Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s comments in the aftermath of the Orlando shootings:

“We went through the same kind of thing,” Mr. Hickenlooper said in an interview this week, recalling the mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., in June 2012, in which 12 people were killed.

He said that he was struck by Mr. Trump’s instinct to turn the Orlando shootings of more than 100 people, nearly half of whom were killed, into an exercise in self-congratulation as opposed to one of empathy.

“His meanspirited response, and trying to seize the political opportunity,” Mr. Hickenlooper said of Mr. Trump, was unfair to “the injured victims and their family members.”

“He cared nothing for compassion, there was no sense of dignity, and those are the things that generally a community grieving finds nourishing,” Mr. Hickenlooper said.

► The Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland in just 31 days. Republicans should definitely be panicking.

► Is your pot too potent? Backers of a proposed ballot measure regarding legal marijuana in Colorado certainly think so. As Kristen Wyatt reports for the Associated Press:

A ballot measure cleared for petitioning Thursday by the Colorado Supreme Court would set new potency and packaging limits on recreational marijuana.

Under the proposal, packaging would have to include warnings that marijuana carries a risk of “permanent loss of brain abilities.” The measure also includes a new potency limit, meaning that popular forms of marijuana such as vape pens and some edibles would be illegal…

…If the petition is successful, Amendment 139 would be the most significant attempt to roll back access to marijuana in any of the four states and District of Columbia that have legalized recreational pot.

► Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) continues to pick up positive press after taking part in a Senate filibuster designed to force Republicans to actually vote on some common-sense gun safety measures.

► The Colorado Statesman will now be a weekly insert with Thursday’s edition of the Denver Post.

► Denver’s annual PrideFest celebration kicks off this weekend under an unfortunate cloud after last weekend’s shootings in Orlando.

► Democrat Hillary Clinton is running her first Presidential campaign ads in Colorado. The Clinton campaign is spending $475,000 to air two different spots — through July 10 –in the Denver and Colorado Springs markets

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Former Republican Presidential candidate Marco Rubio has been widely criticized for his poor attendance record as a member of the U.S. Senate…but does he want to go back for another six years? After repeatedly saying that he would not run for re-election to the Senate and would “be a private citizen” in November, Rubio now appears to be considering taking another shot at the job he doesn’t like.

► As the Washington Post reports, a group of Republican delegates from across the country are still hoping they can come up with a way to not nominate Donald Trump for President.

ICYMI

► Watch The Get More Smarter Show!

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