Category Archives: Gov. Jared Polis

Heidi Ganahl’s Inexplicable Defense of Danny Moore

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  by: Colorado Pols July 20, 2022 at 11:47 AM MDT

Republican gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl was originally scheduled to hold her first public event today with Danny Moore, her running mate and Lieutenant Governor pick. The Ganahl campaign wisely rescheduled the Aurora event after remembering that today is the 10th anniversary of the Aurora Theater Shootings, in which 10 people were killed and 70 others injured. Instead, Ganahl and Moore will appear for the first time in public at an event on Friday.

Thus we have a few more days to try to understand why Ganahl selected a “Big Lie” adherent as a running mate after spending the last 10 months trying to duck questions about whether or not she believes the 2020 election was fraudulent. This decision led to news headlines like the one below from The Denver Post:

Via The Denver Post (7/18/22)

During an appearance on The Mandy Connell Show on KOA Radio earlier this week, Ganahl took a strange approach to explaining why she chose Moore. Her basic answer was that Moore is not really an election denier, which is an inexplicable narrative attempt given the mountains of evidence to the contrary. Here’s that exchange:

 

MANDY CONNELL: So, before the show, I started looking at the news coverage of the announcement of Danny [Moore]….the news coverage all leads with ‘Ganahl picks election denier.’ What exactly is the story behind that as you understand it.

HEIDI GANAHL: Danny is not an election denier. He had concerns, just like many people across Colorado and this country did, about what happened in the election and election integrity…and as a citizen was asking questions and made a post on Facebook that caused some drama when he was on the [Colorado Congressional] Redistricting Commission. [Pols emphasis]

“Danny [Moore] is not an election denier,” says Ganahl. Saying it doesn’t make it true.

As multiple news outlets reported in March 2021, Moore did a lot more than just post something on Facebook on a single occasion. There was so much evidence for this, in fact, that 9News anchor Kyle Clark said matter-of-factly, “Danny Moore is an election rigging conspiracy theorist.” In his defense, Moore tried to make an absurd argument that he was just trying to “spark a conversation.”

Moore was still denying being a denier and going with this silly excuse in May 2021, which is an important part of this timeline. Because as The Colorado Times Recorder reported, Danny Moore hosted attorney and coup architect John Eastman at his home for an event in April 2021. During an informal “election integrity” forum on April 24, 2021, Eastman both praised and defended Moore:

 

John Eastman

JOHN EASTMAN: Defend Danny Moore! [Pols emphasis] He just got removed as the chairman of the redistricting commission but he’s still on the commission. He’s terrific. He hosted me for a Leadership Program of the Rockies event at his house, just Wednesday night. Defend him. They’re going to go after him, because he’s trying to make this an honest process. And so, let him know that he has your support.

If Danny Moore is not an election denier, then it is REALLY WEIRD that he spends so much time talking about how the 2020 election was fraudulent. It is even stranger that he would open up his home to other election deniers, including the man who tried to orchestrate a coup based on nonsense claims of a fraudulent election.

Does Ganahl think that she can just make this all go away if she keeps saying, “Danny Moore is not an election denier?” This is as ludicrous as standing on the pavement this week and saying, It’s not hot outside. You wouldn’t stand next to her, sweating profusely, and respond, Yeah, you’re right; this is a very comfortable temperature.

Instead of lying about your running mate and his belief in the “Big Lie,” it would have been much easier to select a Lieutenant Governor who didn’t have this in his background. This also would have allowed Ganahl herself to back away from her long refusal to give a straight answer about the “Big Lie.” But now, Ganahl is back to square one after everything she said (or refused to say) over the last 10 months about election fraud.

It’s tough to say with a straight face that you are not an election denier when you pick an election denier for your running mate. But this, apparently, is exactly what Heidi Ganahl wants to be doing for the last 3 months of her campaign.

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Get More Smarter on Tuesday (July 19)

1
  by: Colorado Pols July 19, 2022 at 11:36 AM MDT

Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the Aurora Theater Shootings that killed 12 people and injured 70 others. Let’s Get More Smarter. 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 an audio learner, check out The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to find us on Facebook and Twitter. 

 

CORONAVIRUS INFO…

*Colorado Coronavirus info:
CDPHE Coronavirus website 

*Daily Coronavirus numbers in Colorado:
 http://covid19.colorado.gov

*How you can help in Colorado:
COVRN.com

*Locate a COVID-19 testing site in Colorado:
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment 

 

► Republican gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl has had a lot of bad days in the 10 months since she announced her campaign, but Monday has to rank near the top of that terrible list. Ganahl announced her running mate and Lieutenant Governor choice on Monday; it was not an Hispanic male leader from rural Colorado, as Ganahl had been teasing for weeks. Instead, Ganahl chose “Big Lie” believer Danny Moore, a Centennial businessman with no governing experience who lives about 9 miles away from her in the South Denver Metro Area. 

Most Colorado media outlets reacted similarly, which is to say that they largely panned Ganahl’s odd selection. This headline from Colorado Public Radio sums up much of the reaction.

Ganahl’s campaign was planning to hold a public event with Moore on Wednesday in Aurora until somebody realized that it was the 10th Anniversary of the Aurora Theater Shootings:

 

► Is Climate Change man-made? That debate is almost irrelevant at this point other than to guide potential solutions to the problem. Make no mistake — it IS a problem. As The Washington Post reports:

Has it ever, in human history, been this hot in the British Isles? Maybe not.

If you want to mark an unnatural, scary, real-world data point for climate change, it is here in Britain, right now, which saw its hottest day on record Tuesday, with temperatures hitting 40.2 Celsius or 104 Fahrenheit at London Heathrow. It’s an extreme-weather episode, a freak peak heat, not seen since modern record keeping began a century and a half ago.

And probably not since weather observation got serious here in 1659. And maybe far longer.

Hitting 40C, for British climate scientists, is a kind of a unicorn event that had appeared in their models but until recently seemed almost unbelievable and unattainable this soon.

Much of Europe is experiencing unprecedented heat waves. If nothing else, we must do what we can to prevent British men from walking around shirtless.

 

► Meanwhile, President Biden may be preparing to act aggressively to combat Climate Change. This from a separate story in The Washington Post:

President Biden is considering declaring a national climate emergency as soon as this week as he seeks to salvage his environmental agenda in the wake of stalled talks on Capitol Hill, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations.

The potential move comes days after Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) told Democratic leaders that he does not support his party’s efforts to advance a sprawling economic package this month that includes billions of dollars to address global warming. If an emergency is invoked, it could empower the Biden administration in its efforts to reduce carbon emissions and foster cleaner energy.

In anticipation of a potential announcement, Biden is set to travel to Somerset, Mass., to deliver a speech on climate change on Wednesday.

 

► Republican Primary Election losers Ron Hanks (U.S. Senate) and Tina Peters (Secretary of State) will not be granted recounts from the June 28th Primary because neither campaign has the financial resources to pay for such an effort.

The recount request was silly anyway, since neither Hanks nor Peters finished anywhere close enough to their respective opponents to justify such a time-consuming and pointless endeavor. Nevertheless, some Republican activists are still discussing options for challenging the 2022 Primary Election results. These folks really need a new hobby.

 

Click below to keep learning things…

 

(more…)

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Ganahl/Moore: The Park Meadows Mall Ticket

1
  by: Colorado Pols July 18, 2022 at 1:24 PM MDT

The Republican candidate for Governor, Hiedi Heidi Ganahl, did more than lie to Coloradans with the announcement of her Lieutenant Governor choice. In selecting Centennial businessman Danny Moore to be her running mate, Ganahl undercut one of her regular attacks on incumbent Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.

Ganahl often alleges — without any evidence — that Polis doesn’t pay enough attention to Coloradans outside of the Denver Metro area. On July 11, for example, Ganahl Tweeted this:

 

We’ve said many times in this space that the Republican cries of a “War on Rural Colorado” are just silly, but Ganahl has nevertheless made this one of her main talking points. Since Ganahl lives in Metro Denver (in the Lone Tree area), her campaign seemed to understand the importance of the perception of adding a non-Denver running mate to the ticket; this is why Ganahl had been teasing that her LG pick would be an Hispanic male leader from rural Colorado. But when that option backed out on her, Ganahl had to scramble to find somebody else who was willing to run alongside her in the General Election.

In selecting the Centennial-based Moore, Ganahl chose a running mate who lives 9 miles away from her home in Lone Tree. We’re not going to list exact addresses here, but you can see the general area in which both candidates live in the image below:

Heidi Ganahl and Danny Moore live about 9 miles apart, on either side of the Park Meadows Mall in South Denver.

This isn’t a huge issue, of course; it matters only because it contradicts something that Ganahl regularly uses as a talking point in the Governor’s race.

Ganahl says she will be a Governor for all of Colorado…but mostly for those who shop at Park Meadows Mall.

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Heidi Ganahl Lied About Her Running Mate

23
  by: Colorado Pols July 18, 2022 at 8:44 AM MDT

UPDATE: Wherefore art thou, Felix?

—–

Heidi Ganahl

Republican gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl (finally) announced her Lieutenant Governor running mate on Monday morning.

It was not who she said it would be.

Earlier this month, Ganahl said on a right-wing radio show that she would name on July 7 an Hispanic male as her running mate — someone who was a leader in rural Colorado. That day came and went with no announcement, as 9News reported:

Ganahl spoke with Casper Stockham on KLZ 560 AM radio on July 1 and said she would make her pick on Thursday.

“We also have a great lieutenant governor pick that we’re going to announce next Thursday,” Ganahl said on the show. “But he is a, a very strong Hispanic leader from rural Colorado, who I think, will help us do the job of uniting Colorado.” [Pols emphasis]

Las Animas County Commissioner Felix Lopez was obviously Ganahl’s initial choice, but he backed out on Ganahl just before July 7. Ganahl’s campaign stayed quiet until last Friday, when it claimed that an LG announcement would be coming today (for reals this time).

This was the announcement: Ganahl has selected Danny Moore, a businessman from Centennial who only checks one of those three boxes that she talked about in a half-dozen interviews after the June 28th Primary:

Who is Danny Moore? Moore is a true “Big Lie” believer who has tried to cover his tracks with lame attempts at claiming that he is just “trying to spark a conversation.” Back in early 2021, Moore was briefly named the Chairman of the Colorado Congressional Redistricting Commission before it was revealed that he hadn’t been truthful about his “Big Lie” commitments; the rest of the Commission promptly voted 11-0 to remove Moore as Chairman despite his ridiculous attempts to claim that concerns about him were racially motivated. If Ganahl wanted to avoid more questions about her beliefs about election fraud in 2020, selecting Moore will do just the opposite.

Moore has no governing experience whatsoever, but he and Ganahl know each other from their many years working together for the Leadership Program of the Rockies, a right-wing candidate brainwashing factory.

The next obvious question is this: WHY Danny Moore? After all, Moore only checks one of the three boxes Ganahl had indicated for her running mate selection. As we noted earlier, Felix Lopez was supposed to be the Ganahl choice; 9News followed up on that story and got Lopez on the phone — briefly — before the Las Animas County Commissioner pretended he had a bad phone connection and hung up on reporter Marshall Zelinger (no, seriously — watch this 9News segment). No rational person could watch that 9News story and come away believing that Lopez was not Ganahl’s first choice. Hence this Tweet from Kyle Clark of 9News:

So, the short answer about “WHY Danny Moore” is this: He said yes.  Seriously — that might be the main reason.

Ganahl needed someone to be her running mate, and she couldn’t spend weeks getting rejected by other candidates. Ganahl and Moore will hold an event together on Wednesday during which they will likely both get very angry about being asked about the 2020 election results. The Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) will probably send out a supportive statement and then run like hell out of Colorado for the rest of the 2022 election cycle.

If Ganahl’s LG pick seems very odd, just know that you are not alone. Colorado media outlets have generally responded to the news of Moore’s selection with much head-scratching:

Via The Denver Post (7/18/22)

From The Denver Post:

The selection of Moore is the latest example of Ganahl embracing far-right conspiracists. She’s now working on this campaign with top associates of former President Donald Trump, Brad Parscale and Boris Epshteyn, and she recently appeared on Steve Bannon’s show, WarRoom. Ganahl, an elected University of Colorado regent, has consistently declined to condemn John Eastman, the former CU visiting professor who was central in the plot to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election.

At many points during her winning primary campaign, she refused to say whether she felt Joe Biden was legitimately elected and chastised journalists for asking her about it.

 

We’ll continue to follow this story and update as necessary.

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Ganahl: Most Colorado Kids Can’t Read, Write, or Do Math

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  by: Colorado Pols July 13, 2022 at 11:49 AM MDT

Earlier this year we posted a bracket-style look at the worst major political campaigns in the last two decades in Colorado. The Winningest Loser in our bracket was Republican Bob Beauprez’s disastrous campaign for Governor in 2006, but we noted at the time that 2022 Republican gubernatorial nominee Hiedi Heidi Ganahl was making a run at the title with her dumpster fire of a campaign.

Indeed, the closer we get to Election Day, the more Ganahl’s campaign seems to be morphing into Beauprez’s 2006 debacle. Here’s yet another example…

In August 2006, Beauprez was forced to make a half-assed apology for making a ridiculous claim about abortion during an interview on Colorado Public Radio’s “Colorado Matters” (in fact, we still have the transcript of that interview in our archives). Beauprez had claimed that more than 70% of African-Americans were getting abortions, a figure that is so ludicrous that it doesn’t even need a complete fact checking:

“I’ve seen numbers as high as 70 percent – maybe even more – in the African-American community that I think is just appalling.”

Beauprez’s apology was not great, but at least he acknowledged his own idiocy: “I was wrong about the statistic I quoted in a recent interview with Colorado Public Radio and I apologize to the African American Community and anyone else who was offended,” said Beauprez in a statement. “I should have verified the statistic before repeating it.” [Pols emphasis]

This is a lesson that Ganahl should have learned. We recently stumbled across this “Mom on a Mission” video from Ganahl’s campaign that tries to use an equally-absurd statistic as fact. You can click on the link above to watch the entire 34-second video, but here’s the key part:

“And 60% of our kids here in this state cannot read, write, or do math. That is not okay.”

— Republican gubernatorial nominee Heidi Ganahl

 

 

Again, we don’t need to spend any time doing serious research to know that this statistic is straight bananas. Ganahl would have you believe that 6 in 10 Colorado children are both illiterate and incapable of solving basic math problems. This is as dumb as saying that 100% of Colorado children under the age of 3 are unable to read, write, or do math…but at least that figure would be accurate.

Ganahl is an elected Regent at the University of Colorado, so she should have at least absorbed SOME information about public education just by osmosis over the last 5-6 years. Of course, this isn’t the only time Ganahl has said something bizarre about public education in Colorado; she also seems to think that we are teaching sex education to kindergarteners, which is silly.

So where did Ganahl come up with this 60% figure? Here’s our guess:

Over the course of her campaign for Governor, Ganahl has regularly mentioned statistics about how Colorado children perform in schools. You can find plenty of numbers showing that X% of kids test below grade level in various subjects, which is a completely fair thing to point out (however, Colorado students generally test better than the national average when it comes to reading). But the details matter. At some point, Ganahl stopped parsing out the numbers for different grade levels and subjects and just lumped it all into one ridiculous percentage.

And that number just keeps rising. By the time we reach November, Ganahl will be saying that 90% of the state’s entire population is illiterate.

Ganahl has long acknowledged that she’ll say pretty much whatever you want her to say if she thinks it might earn your support. Most politicians will exaggerate on various issues to some degree, but this is different — it’s just flat out lying. For the Ganahl campaign, such an approach seems to be standard operating procedure.

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Ganahl Choice for Running Mate May Have Backed Out

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  by: Colorado Pols July 7, 2022 at 1:33 PM MDT

UPDATE (4:11 pm): We’ve been trying to think through how this all went so awry for the Ganahl campaign. The only thing that really made sense is that perhaps Felix Lopez rejected Ganahl’s offer to be her running mate. If Lopez backed out at the last minute, it would be plausible that Ganahl’s campaign was in such a rush to deny that Lopez was ever the choice in the first place so that they could refute later reporting that he might have turned Ganahl down.

From what we hear, this is pretty close to what actually happened. We’re fairly confident that Lopez was the choice for LG and that’s who Ganahl had been talking about for the last week. Sometime in the last day or two — maybe even today — Lopez had a change of heart and told Ganahl that he had decided not to join the campaign.

This would be an odd but appropriate bit of karma for Ganahl, who reportedly turned down Walker Stapleton’s offer to be his running mate in 2018.

—–

UPDATE (3:11 pm):

—–

UPDATE (3:00 pm): Colorado Politics has removed Luning’s story altogether now, which is weird. Most news outlets would stand by the reporting and let it play out.

Also, still no public word from Ganahl’s campaign.

And, again, the only reason any of this is happening today is because Ganahl spent the last week saying she was going to announce her running mate today. This is a massive own-goal by the Ganahl campaign.

—–

UPDATE (2:30 pm): It would be legitimately difficult for any campaign to intentionally make this much of a mess:

—–

UPDATE (1:30 pm): It looks like we were on the right track below. As Ernest Luning reports for the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman, Ganahl has chosen Las Animas County Commissioner Felix Lopez as her running mate:

Ganahl teased her lieutenant governor pick Saturday in a radio interview, saying she planned to introduce a Hispanic leader from rural Colorado as her running mate on Thursday, though her campaign later decided to postpone the announcement until later this month, a spokeswoman told Colorado Politics.

Welp. So much for that postponement.

—–

Heidi Ganahl making her #FAIL face

For the second consecutive election cycle, the Republican nominee for Governor is bungling the announcement of a Lieutenant Governor running mate.

Over the course of the last week or so, Republican gubernatorial nominee Hiedi Heidi Ganahl has told anyone who would listen that she was going to announce her pick for Lieutenant Governor on Thursday, July 7.

But despite repeatedly hyping up the big announcement, Ganahl’s campaign has decided NOT to break the news on her Lieutenant Governor (LG) today.

It’s never a good idea to make a significant announcement the week of July 4th — lots of people are tuned out and/or on vacation (including reporters) — but this is something that a less-incompetent campaign would have figured out before allowing its candidate to repeatedly promise such big news.

Ganahl has been hyping this news since before the June 28th Primary Election. For example:

♦ Ganahl first told Steffan Tubbs of KOA Radio — the day before the Primary Election — that she had selected a potential running mate: “It’s an amazing Hispanic leader from rural Colorado,” she said on June 27.

♦ Ganahl said the same thing on The George Brauchler Show on KNUS radio on the day of the Primary Election, telling the host on June 28 that she had chosen an “Hispanic leader in rural Colorado.”

♦ On Wednesday, June 29 — the day after Ganahl’s Primary Election victory over Greg Lopez — she said on The Jimmy Sengenberger Show on KNUS radio that “We’re gonna announce [a running mate] in the next couple of days…he’s a great Hispanic leader from rural Colorado and is going to just wow people.”

♦ On Thursday, June 29, Ganahl told Dan Caplis on his KNUS radio show that she would soon announce “a strong Hispanic leader from rural Colorado” as her Lieutenant Governor choice.

Most recently, Ganahl teased a specific date for her LG announcement while speaking on KLZ 560 radio. Last Saturday (July 2), Ganahl said that she had “A great LG pick that we’ll announce on Thursday…a strong hispanic leader from rural Colorado that can help us unite Colorado.”

Maybe Ganahl didn’t mean to be so specific and was saying that she would announce a running mate on some future Thursday. Or, more likely, they just messed this up.

Ganahl’s campaign has been remarkably awful from the outset. It is not unusual for the Ganahl campaign to make weird event changes at the last minute, and it would seem that things haven’t gotten much better now that Ganahl is being advised by known coup plotters. Failing to make a long-promised announcement is just another in a long line of stupid (and avoidable) mistakes for this campaign.

Lang Sias in 2018

Unlike her 2018 predecessor, Ganahl is under no official pressure to make a quick LG announcement. Four years ago, Republican gubernatorial nominee Walker Stapleton had to rush to unveil the yawn-inducing Lang Sias as his running mate because state statutes required that such a decision be made within seven days of the Primary Election. This became a problem for the Stapleton campaign, both in terms of public perception and for official reasons; Stapleton’s campaign probably broke the law by missing this deadline and trying to back-date an agreement with Sias.

[FUN FACT: Ganahl was believed to have been Stapleton’s first choice as a running mate, but she turned him down.]

That requirement has since changed so that a gubernatorial nominee has seven days after the certification of the Primary Election to officially name a running mate. Under the current statute that gives Ganahl another few weeks to screw this up.

So, who is it gonna be? According to Ganahl, her running mate has already been selected. She says it is a male Hispanic leader from rural Colorado, and from what we hear, Ganahl’s LG pick is a current county commissioner.

Here’s a short list of potential running mates who fit this criteria: Longinos Gonzalez (El Paso County); Ronnie Maez (Archuleta County); Felix Lopez (Las Animas County); and Carlos Garcia (Conejos County).

Gonzalez doesn’t make as much sense because it’s a bit of a stretch to call El Paso County a “rural” community. That leaves Maez, Lopez, and Garcia. Of those three potential candidates, Lopez has the highest (relative) current profile as the President of Colorado Counties, Inc. Oddly enough, he also has the same last name as the Republican candidate Ganahl just defeated in the Primary, Greg Lopez.

We’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out if Ganahl is going to once again share the ballot with a Republican named Lopez, which brings us to another problem with this delayed announcement: The longer Ganahl waits, the more likely it is that the name of her running mate gets leaked. If that happens, her official announcement becomes a lot less interesting as a news item.

Regardless of what happens here, breaking her promise of a big announcement just adds to Ganahl’s long list of mistakes as a candidate for governor. Go ahead and mark another ‘X’ in the #FAIL ledger.

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Republicans Attack Polis By…Noting His Accomplishments?

3
  by: Colorado Pols July 6, 2022 at 12:26 PM MDT

Kristi Burton Brown (KBB) is the Chairperson of the Colorado Republican Party, which is a lot of responsibility for someone whose previous job – literally the last position she held prior to being elected GOP Chair – was serving as President of FEC United. If you’re unfamiliar with FEC United, they are an armed militia group founded by right-wing conspiracy enthusiast Joe Oltmann. Burton Brown served as the head of this militia group right up until she was elected GOP Chair in March 2021.

The reason we bring this up is to say that KBB is definitely more familiar with conspiracy theory nuttery than she is with real world campaign messaging. For proof of this, look no further than this positively idiotic narrative attempt that KBB tweeted out on Wednesday morning about Democratic Gov. Jared Polis. 

Making this document public before turning off the “grammar check” on your word processor is a silly mistake that many people have made before; sadly for KBB, there is no automated way to check whether your paragraphs make logical sense aside from any grammatical errors. The text in KBB’s tweet is also difficult to read, but luckily for us, there is also an email version sent out by the Colorado Republican Party.

Let’s take a closer look at this word vomit titled “52 Times Jared Polis and the Democrats Lied or Hurt Working Families.” Why 52? Maybe to honor the number of states in America.

 

(more…)

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Nobody Knows Better Than Colorado How Big Oil Spins Lies

2
  by: Colorado Pols July 6, 2022 at 9:31 AM MDT

As the Colorado Sun’s Mark Jaffe reports today, three years after the passage of Senate Bill 19-181, legislation reforming the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s mission to prioritize public health over fostering growth of the oil and gas industry, the full effects of the law are becoming apparent. And contrary to the dire warnings from the industry and their Republican allies in the General Assembly that this legislation would “shut down oil and gas in Colorado,” nearly two thousand new wells are moving forward under the new rules this year:

The demise of the oil and gas industry in Colorado — predicted after the passage of legislation and regulations focused on protecting public health, safety and the environment — does not appear to be imminent.

Plans for nearly 1,900 new oil and gas wells are before the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in 2022 — some already approved and others in various states of review.

This comes as a relief to the industry and to the chagrin of environmental groups who call it “business as usual” even as Colorado tries to chart a new path to cut ozone and greenhouse gas emissions…

In order to understand the full context of the debate over this legislation, it’s necessary to go back to 2019 when SB19-181 was originally passed and signed into law. Reforming the COGCC’s mission to prioritize public health was a longstanding goal of newly-elected Gov. Jared Polis, who had personal experience with oil and gas drilling adjacent to his property. Colorado Republicans, badly smarting from their historic defeat in the 2018 general elections, hyped this proposed legislation with the industry’s help into what they sold to voters as a mortal threat to the oil and gas industry. The principal political casualty of this effort was former Rep. Rochelle Galindo of Greeley, who resigned under the threat of a recall for which SB19-181 was (at least in polite company) the stated reason.

Dan Haley of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.

A year after the SB19-181 was passed, the COVID-19 pandemic sent oil prices into the negative as storage costs exceeded the value of the product. This indeed brought oil and gas drilling effectively to a halt in Colorado. But in July of 2020, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association’s Dan Haley actually suggested that SB19-181 was worse for the industry than then pandemic.

In truth, after the high water mark of the Galindo recall, opposition to SB19-181 began to fall apart as the industry realized (and was forced to be honest with investors) that the legislation would not destroy the oil and gas industry in Colorado after all. When the price of oil rebounded this spring over $100 a barrel, so did production in Colorado.

And today, the very same Dan Haley who claimed SB19-181 was worse for the industry than a global pandemic says everything is cool:

“We are hopefully getting to a spot where things are workable,” said Dan Haley, CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, one of the state’s industry trade groups. “Oil and gas companies are learning what’s expected of them.” [Pols emphasis]

So, not worse than COVID then. That’s great! Except, of course, for the years he spent saying otherwise. In a world where attributes like honesty and credibility have value, anyone who lies to your face to this egregious an extent should never again be considered a trustworthy source. But we don’t live in that world, and as surely as Sarah Huckabee is going to be the next governor of Arkansas, Dan Haley will most likely suffer no credibility penalty with the local press for his outrageous falsehoods. And that’s a shame, because few issues are subject to more misinformation today than the price of gas. Do you really think someone who wanted you to believe SB181 hurt the industry more than COVID is going to be honest about why gas prices are so much higher today than the last time oil hit $100 a barrel?

And yes, we know a lot of readers are waiting for us to acknowledge the disappointment among environmentalists that SB19-181 didn’t come closer to the industry’s dire predictions. The reality is that this legislation was never intended to shut down the oil and gas industry, but to reform its practices and prioritize public health–goals that should be laudable even among those on the left who want more. In the industry’s clamorous and factually indifferent opposition to SB19-181, the extreme difficulty of passing even incremental reforms becomes apparent.

Right now, the high cost of gas is central to the Republican Party’s midterm election message–and the forecast is that they’ll take at least one chamber of Congress this fall with it. They’re counting on voters to do the oil and gas industry’s dirty political work.

The rebuttal to that, at least in our state, is simple: no one has lied to you like the oil and gas industry.

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Polis is “Clearly Favored” in General Election

18
  by: Colorado Pols June 30, 2022 at 10:07 AM MDT

Republicans selected Hiedi Heidi Ganahl to be their nominee for Governor this fall against incumbent Democrat Jared Polis and American Constitution Party hopeful Danielle Neuschwanger. Ganahl has thus far seemed uninterested, unable, or unwilling to pivot toward a broader group of Colorado voters, but that may not matter much according to one national projection.

As 538.com sees Colorado’s race for Governor, Polis is expected to win re-election in just about any way you look at the race:

Via 538.com

 

Yikes! Those are not encouraging numbers for Ganahl, but perhaps she can channel her inner Lloyd Christmas in the meantime:

 

As of today, 538.com projects that Polis will defeat Ganahl by about 13 points in November.

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What Pivot? Ganahl Bashes Media, Says She’ll Be Like DeSantis

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  by: Colorado Pols June 29, 2022 at 2:35 PM MDT

Fresh off her victory in Tuesday’s Primary Election, Republican gubernatorial nominee Hiedi Heidi Ganahl made an appearance today on “The Ross Kaminsky Show,” which was guest-hosted by conservative blowhard Jon Caldara.

We would think that Ganahl would want to pivot her narrative toward a broader General Election audience now that the Primary is over, but instead she is still bashing the mainstream media and is now comparing herself to Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

After affirming that she is definitely NOT a “RINO” (Republican in Name Only), Ganahl is prompted to go after the Colorado media and happily obliges.

Take a listen, or read the transcript that follows:

 

CALDARA: You’re going to have a media that’s in the pocket of the Governor. How do you deal with that?

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

GANAHL: Well, I already have been, and I’ve learned that there’s no grace there. They have no interest in putting a fair story out, as evidenced by what happened in my own press conference last night, when the 9News gal just shifted all of this great conversation about the issues that people care about in Colorado to…I’ll let you guess what the question was about. And I was like, ‘you know what, we are moving on. We’re talking about the future. We’re talking about our kids, and crime, and the cost of living.’ They have no interest in talking about that because it’s just a constant ‘gotcha.’

But I’m going to take a page out of [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis’s book and, you know, give them hell back. [Pols emphasis] I’m going to call them out when they’re doing that, and I’m going to do my best to be on conservative radio and people who will get our voice out as much as I possibly can. 

Ganahl is still very salty that reporters continue to ask her if she thinks the 2020 election was fair. As we’ve said many, many times in this space, Ganahl could put this question to bed IF SHE WOULD JUST PROVIDE AN ANSWER. But she won’t. Before the Primary Election, we assumed this was because Ganahl didn’t want to lose the support of MAGA diehards. Perhaps the real reason that Ganahl won’t answer that question is because she truly believes that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.

As the conversation continues, Ganahl gets even more riled up about the mean ol’ media who won’t give her a chance. This is the point where we remind you that Heidi Ganahl had REFUSED to sit down for an interview with ANY legitimate news outlet until mid-June. But, somehow, this is everyone else’s fault:

 

CALDARA: And on the bright side, there are fewer and fewer people watching those news stations and reading those newspapers. So, that’s a start. And also, by challenging the press I think you actually stand a better chance of earning some press, because even Coloradans are sick of the sympathetic media that runs this town. It’s just…it’s just disgusting. Call them out. I urge you to call them out. It will only help you and your campaign.

GANAHL: Thanks Jon, but I need everybody’s help on that, too. I need people to have my back on social media when I do push back and not do an interview with our buddy Kyle [Clark] because he’s an activist, not a journalist. Instead of, you know, getting upset or angry, have my back. Support me, and I’ll do any other interview they want me to do. But we can’t play their game anymore. [Pols emphasis] We’ve got to push back and have a spine and say, ‘I’m not going to go into your turf. Come to my turf, and play our game.’ 

CALDARA: Incredible.

Incredible indeed. First off, that’s some real galaxy brain thinking by Caldara to suggest that the best way to get media coverage is to attack the media. Good luck with that.

Ganahl takes this thread further by promising that she will never agree to an interview with Kyle Clark of 9News (which is not a great idea, considering 9News is the most-watched local news station in Colorado). She then pledges that “I’ll do any other interview they want me to do.” Again, we remind you that Heidi Ganahl REFUSED to sit down for an interview with ANY legitimate news outlet from the time she launched her campaign in Sept. 2021 until about two weeks ago.

Ganahl was likely surprised to find out that she had won the GOP nomination for Governor, considering that she initially planned not to even make a public appearance on Election Night. Nevertheless, a better candidate running a better campaign would have been more prepared to make the appropriate pivot toward a broader swath of Colorado voters.

If you’re not excited about the prospect of Ganahl continuing into November, you’re not alone. Ganahl just had the first test of the rest of her campaign, and she failed miserably.

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Ganahl Plotting to Ensure Polis Victory, Says Neuschwanger

8
  by: Colorado Pols June 29, 2022 at 1:56 PM MDT

We haven’t heard a whole lot from Danielle Neuschwanger since the former Republican candidate for Governor decided to take her talents to the American Constitution Party for the General Election.

Neuschwanger will be running for Governor this fall against Republican Hiedi Heidi Ganahl and incumbent Democrat Jared Polis. Or, perhaps, Neuschwanger is running against BOTH candidates together. Check out this wacky rant Neuschwanger posted to her Facebook page today:

 

NEUSCHWANGER: And so, for them to say, ‘you should drop out and get behind the Republican candidate,’ show me a Republican candidate worth getting behind. Because I don’t see one in the GOP Governor race in Colorado.

Yes, I’m talking about Heidi Ganahl. I do not think that she is a quality candidate. I think that she is intentionally going to throw this race to [Jared] Polis. I think that that’s been the plan all along — the same with Joe O’Dea and Pam Anderson — to set him up for a Presidential run. [Pols emphasis] And unfortunately I cannot have Polis for another four years, so the only chance we have is to stay and fight.

So, um, yeah.

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Whoa! Heidi Ganahl Won’t Host Election Night Party

12
  by: Colorado Pols June 27, 2022 at 11:41 AM MDT

UPDATE: Somehow Hiedi Heidi Ganahl found a way to make this all even weirder:

—–
Republican gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl is not exactly projecting confidence ahead of Tuesday’s Primary Election showdown with Greg Lopez:

Heidi Ganahl will spend Election Night singing into an unplugged microphone.

This is a pretty amazing declaration by ANY campaign, let alone one that was supposed to be the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for Governor. It is very uncommon for high-profile campaigns to refuse to host an Election Night party to gather and thank supporters. The only other example of this we can think of occurred in 2016, when then-Senate hopeful Jon Keyser made it known that he planned to watch his own defeat in private. Here’s what Republican pundit Kelly Maher said at the time about Keyser’s announcement:

“That’s a really bad sign. The only reason to not have an event is if you have some information that doesn’t point to a favorable outcome.”

As we wrote in 2016, even Scott McInnis held an Election Night party in 2010 when he knew he was going to lose the GOP Primary for Governor.

This is a terrible look for the Colorado Republican Party even if Ganahl ends up winning the nomination tomorrow. That the real action for Republicans on Tuesday will be at some place called “Deep Space” is a joke that writes itself.

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What Does Voter Turnout Tell Us About November? Not Much

6
  by: Colorado Pols June 27, 2022 at 11:06 AM MDT

Voter turnout numbers in Colorado resemble 2018 more than 2020.

Political pundits often attempt to connect voter turnout numbers in a Primary Election as some sort of harbinger of things to come in a General Election. Most of the time there is little correlation between the two elections, and that is particularly true in 2022.

The Colorado Secretary of State’s office released ballot return numbers on Friday indicating that Republican ballots are being returned in larger numbers than Democratic ballots. Should this trend continue through Tuesday evening, we’d expect some in the GOP to attempt to spin a narrative that Colorado Republicans are more enthusiastic about voting in 2022 than Democrats. There are two very significant problems with this story, however:

First off, the 2022 Primary Election in Colorado is very different than in years past. Republicans have contested races in three of the five major statewide races (U.S. Senate, Governor, Secretary of State) and in four Congressional districts (CO-03, CO-05, CO-07, and CO-08). Democrats, meanwhile, have NO contested statewide races and a competitive Primary in only one Congressional district (CO-03). For many Democratic voters, there are no races on their ballots for which a choice is even available. There’s little incentive for Democrats to even bother submitting ballots when there is nothing to be decided.

The second issue that is skewing ballot return numbers involves Unaffiliated voters. As Colorado Newsline explains:

This year’s preliminary ballot-return data shows that unaffiliated voters are largely responsible for the GOP’s turnout edge so far. Nearly 30% of the Republican primary ballots returned as of June 24 were cast by voters not affiliated with any party — double the number reported at the same point prior to the state’s previous midterm primary election in 2018. [Pols emphasis] Colorado law allows the state’s 1.7 million unaffiliated voters — a larger group than either its 1.1 million active registered Democrats or its 956,904 registered Republicans — to vote in either party’s primary election in a given year, but not both.

In other words, more voters are casting Republican ballots in the Primary Election — but that’s not an indication that Republican voters are more enthusiastic about participating in this year’s elections.

Primary Election turnout is generally not all that indicative of what might happen in November anyway, but this is particularly true in 2022. To borrow a quote often attributed to Sigmund Freud, “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

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The GMS Podcast: Predicting the Primary Election

0
  by: Colorado Pols June 22, 2022 at 8:44 AM MDT

This week in episode 112 of the Get More Smarter Podcast, your hosts Jason Bane and Ian Silverii make their final prognostications in advance of the June 28th Primary Election with the help of Armin Thomas of Split-Ticket.org.

We’ll also discuss calls from The Denver Post to shutter the Benson Center for Western Civilization Thought and Policy at the University of Colorado…thanks to its association with coup plotter John Eastman. And Eastman pal/gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl goes on TV with her first advertisement just eight days before Election Day.

Listen to previous episodes of The Get More Smarter Podcast at GetMoreSmarter.com.

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Let us have it at AngryRants@getmoresmarter.com. Or send emails to jason@getmoresmarter.com or ian@getmoresmarter.com.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher |

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Spreading The Wealth Around With…TABOR!

16
  by: Colorado Pols June 21, 2022 at 12:46 PM MDT

Republicans seethe while Gov. Polis makes TABOR rain.

With the state of Colorado in a rare and temporary condition of having plenty of revenue resulting from a quick recovery from the economic disruption of COVID and lots of federal relief money still working its way out the door, state economic forecasters had good news for the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee today–and thanks to a change in the distribution formula for refunds to taxpayers triggered in sunny economic times by the state’s notorious Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights by majority Democrats this year, the JBC’s good news is about to directly impact your bottom line. The Colorado Sun’s Jesse Paul reports:

The big takeaway: State lawmakers are expected to have more money to fund government services in the coming years as revenue continues to exceed the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights cap on government growth and spending, which is calculated through population growth and inflation. When the TABOR cap is exceeded, Coloradans get tax breaks and, if the excess is large enough, which it is expected to be for the foreseeable future, refund checks…

Colorado Legislative Council said the state’s economy also has fared better than expected in the final months of the 2021-22 fiscal year, which ends June 30. As a result, the nonpartisan office expects Colorado taxpayers will get TABOR refund checks of $750 per individual filer and $1,500 for joint filers starting in late August. [Pols emphasis] (People who file their returns after June 30 will have to wait several months longer to receive their refund checks.)

As readers know, TABOR requires the state to refund “excess” revenue over the law’s prescribed limits to taxpayers. In most years when economic conditions were good enough to trigger refunds, the average Colorado resident would receive a tiny sales tax refund check–in 2021 averaging $69 per taxpayer, along with other indirect refund mechanisms like reducing the income tax rate. Senate Bill 22-223, a single-year TABOR refund plan, made the checks equal for everyone, which had the effect of routing much more money to lower income levels. In addition, the law pays out the refund this summer instead of next spring, which is the pretext for Republicans calling the bill an “election season giveaway.”

We don’t know anybody who likes waiting for money. And if it was about the election, the checks would arrive in October.

Does this mean Democrats have suddenly become TABOR fans? Certainly not. But while TABOR remains on the books, redistributing the “excess” revenue the law forces the state to refund irrespective of need to better benefit working families is a far better outcome than giving rich people big checks and regular people checks so small they’re practically an insult. The latest economic forecast doesn’t predict a recession in the immediate future for Colorado, but the lean times will most certainly return–and when they do, TABOR will still be dictating fiscal policy to today’s lawmakers instead of allowing them to do their jobs.

In short, Democrats took one of Colorado’s most regressive constitutional provisions and redirected it to do something relatively progressive: helping many more people in a much bigger way. Republicans can’t really complain about what will prove to be a very popular plan when the checks arrive, even though the formula that made this a much more lucrative stimulus for regular taxpayers wasn’t their idea.

2022 will be remembered as the year TABOR finally did some good despite itself.

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GSG/PNC Poll: Ain’t No “Red Wave” High Enough

8
  by: Colorado Pols June 17, 2022 at 1:20 PM MDT

Gov. Jared Polis (D) eating his opponents’ lunches.

As previewed earlier this week, the Democratic comms and polling outfit Global Strategy Group along with liberal activist group ProgressNow Colorado released their latest Mountaineer quarterly poll–and as long as you’re a Democrat living in Colorado not named Joe Biden, it’s encouraging news:

Democrats still lead Republicans on all partisan metrics, which have stayed remarkably consistent since we last polled in February. Governor Jared Polis and Senator Michael Bennet, who are both well above water in favorability ratings, lead in their respective races for re-election. The Democrats’ lead on the generic legislative ballot has also held steady, even as President Biden’s standing in Colorado has declined further.

While both Colorado Democrats and Colorado Republicans are much better liked than their DC counterparts, Democrats start from a significantly better position, and Polis gives Democrats a popular standard-bearer. While unaffiliated voters don’t have much love for DC Democrats, they loathe DC Republicans, MAGA Republicans, and Trump. Lauren Boebert is only saved from having similar ratings by the fact that two-thirds of unaffiliateds are unfamiliar with her. The situation is much the same in the blue-collar swing suburb of Adams County (which we oversampled).

The continuing drop in approval for President Joe Biden, which the Mountaineer polls have tracked to some dismay among local Democrats, stands in contrast to the resilient popularity of Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado Democrats, whose numbers have held steady throughout Biden’s precipitous decline:

In terms of favorability, Democrats enjoy a healthy presumption of good faith compared to Republicans near and far:

On Monday, GSG Vice President Andrew Baumann leaked the big headline from this poll, double-digit leads held by Polis and Sen. Michael Bennet over their prospective Republican challengers. Those numbers are particularly tough news for Republicans supporting Joe O’Dea and Heidi Ganahl, since grassroots challengers Ron Hanks and Greg Lopez either perform as well or slightly better against the incumbents–shattering the arguments about “electability” O’Dea and Ganahl are making to the GOP base to shake off their hard-right opponents.

With all of this in mind, this poll is not all good news for local Democrats: although they enjoy healthy overall leads and some Democratic base voters are highly motivated to turn out, key traditional Democratic demographics like young and Latino voters are less enthusiastic. That identifies a clear priority for Dems going forward, especially in the state’s new heavily Latino CD-8 where (fortunately for Democrats) Republicans are making little attempt to court this crucial bloc of voters.

Here’s the full memo. If there is a “red wave” coming in November, Colorado looks above the water line.

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The GMS Podcast: Heidi Ganahl Won’t Let Greg Lopez Lose

0
  by: Colorado Pols June 15, 2022 at 11:27 AM MDT

This week in episode 111 of the Get More Smarter Podcast, your hosts Jason Bane and Ian Silverii catch up on a whole bunch of political news.

We’ll go through the latest updates on the big political races in Colorado as the Primary Election draws near and explain why Republicans are flipping out over television ads that are filling the airwaves their candidates left open. We also take a look at the Jan. 6 insurrection investigation; Rep. Lauren Boebert’s latest scandals; Tina Peters’s non-sequiturs; and Rep. Ken Buck’s commitment to absurdity.

Listen to previous episodes of The Get More Smarter Podcast at GetMoreSmarter.com.

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Let us have it at AngryRants@getmoresmarter.com. Or send emails to jason@getmoresmarter.com or ian@getmoresmarter.com.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher |

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GSG Sneak Peek: Who’s “Unelectable” Again?

9
  by: Colorado Pols June 13, 2022 at 1:21 PM MDT

Heidi Ganahl.

One of the principal arguments from Republican talking heads furiously sounding the alarm over ads paid for by liberal groups targeting Republican primaries is that the candidates being promoted by these efforts are “unelectable” compared to the brass-backed candidates. In what seems like a frank acknowledgment that the issues nearest and dearest to Republican voters like abortion and re-litigating the 2020 presidential election are toxic in the general election, Republican opinionmakers and consultants are asking their voters to set aside their agenda in favor of “candidates who can win.”

Well, new polling–so new the full details haven’t been released–from Global Strategy Group of Colorado voters may be about to put a big dent in that conventional wisdom:

Joe O’Dea.

These poll numbers show Greg Lopez outperforming Heidi Ganahl in a head-to-head matchup against incumbent Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, much the same as Danielle Neuschwanger outpolled Ganahl in a head-to-head from the last GSG poll. In the Senate race, both Joe O’Dea and Ron Hanks perform equivalently against incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet–which perhaps doesn’t give Hanks quite as much to celebrate as Lopez, but still a result that effectively refutes the arrogant presumption from O’Dea’s supporters about their relative electability.

Assuming these numbers are accurate, it’s a huge credibility blow to the recent pushback against Democratic-aligned ads boosting so-called “unelectable” candidates. Ganahl being outperformed by Lopez against Polis, confirming the weakness shown in previous polling, is another sign that outside a few consultants being paid to promote Ganahl, she is totally failing to resonate with voters.

As for O’Dea, he’s got more money to control his fate–but what O’Dea doesn’t have is a message for Republican voters that beats Ron Hanks’ message. If anything, O’Dea is even more vulnerable than Ganahl to being upstaged on his right due to his issue stands authentically repellent to Republican voters.

Again, it doesn’t matter whether the reason is one candidate’s strength or the other’s weakness. In 2022, Republicans don’t have frontrunners in their two top statewide primaries. They have what could be the weakest “establishment” picks in years, up against grassroots opponents with a better chance than anyone gave them credit for.

And that is why Bill Owens is so unhappy.

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How Not to Campaign: Another Lesson from Heidi Ganahl

4
  by: Colorado Pols June 8, 2022 at 12:02 PM MDT

Ganahl is happy to talk to reporters so long as the microphone is unplugged.

Republican Hiedi Heidi Ganahl officially kicked off her campaign for Governor on September 14, 2021. On the day of her campaign launch, Ganahl took questions from reporters representing multiple news outlets — The Denver Post, 9News, The Associated Press, The Colorado Sun, etc. — because getting free earned media coverage is always a smart idea for a campaign.

Most of Ganahl’s interviews that day did not go particularly well for the candidate, but she really can’t blame the media. Ganahl was inexplicably unprepared to answer basic queries such as, “Do you think the 2020 election was legitimate?” She sounded completely ridiculous in one particular interview with 9News reporter Marshall Zelinger, in which Ganahl repeatedly whined, “Why all the divisive questions?”

Ganahl has not agreed to an interview with a mainstream news outlet ever since.

As Jesse Paul of The Colorado Sun wrote in its “Unaffiliated” newsletter on May 31:

Will Heidi Ganahl keep lying low? The Republican gubernatorial candidate turned down our request to debate her primary rival, former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez. She hasn’t done an in-depth interview with a nonpartisan news outlet. [Pols emphasis]

Ganahl hasn’t been completely silent during her campaign, but she’s been very selective. She talks to every right-wing radio show she can find and pretends that writing a column for a new conservative website qualifies as “press” coverage:

From a Ganahl campaign newsletter in March.

 

We’ve never agreed with the strategic rationale behind NOT TALKING TO REPORTERS, particularly when you are running for statewide office and your name ID is in the toilet. What’s even more ham-handed is ignoring media outlets and then trying to blame the media for not paying attention to whatever it is you refuse to say. Eventually this catches up with you. Here’s Kyle Clark of 9News on Tuesday:

 

 

CLARK: The Ganahl campaign has denied or ignored every one of our interview requests since September of last year. Ganahl recently complained to conservative talk radio that her priorities are not being discussed.

She said, quote, ‘I’m talking about all of these issues nonstop, but the mainstream media will not cover it correctly.’

We’d encourage you to watch the entire 90 second segment from “Next with Kyle Clark.” It’s a great lesson for other candidates on what NOT to do when you’re running for a major political office.

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Get More Smarter on Tuesday (June 7)

4
  by: Colorado Pols June 7, 2022 at 10:53 AM MDT

Technically this is a hockey mask. Congratulations to the Colorado Avalanche for making the Stanley Cup Finals! Let’s Get More Smarter. 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 an audio learner, check out The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to find us on Facebook and Twitter. 

 

CORONAVIRUS INFO…

*Colorado Coronavirus info:
CDPHE Coronavirus website 

*Daily Coronavirus numbers in Colorado:
 http://covid19.colorado.gov

*How you can help in Colorado:
COVRN.com

*Locate a COVID-19 testing site in Colorado:
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment 

 

► The Congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection will hold publicly-televised hearings on Thursday evening. In the meantime, more damning details continue to leak out about former President Donald Trump’s role in the attempted coup. From The Washington Post:

Shortly before pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Secret Service agents scrambled to try to secure a motorcade route so then-President Donald Trump could accompany his supporters as they marched on Congress to demand he stay in power, according to two people briefed on witnesses’ accounts to congressional investigators.

The hectic events that day followed nearly two weeks of persistent pressure from Trump on the Secret Service to devise a plan for him to join his supporters on a march to the Capitol from the park near the White House where he was leading a massive rally that he predicted would be “wild.”

The agency had rebuffed Trump’s early entreaties, but the rushed effort on Jan. 6 to accommodate the president came as Secret Service personnel heard Trump urge his rally audience of nearly 30,000 people to march to the Capitol while suggesting he would join them. Their mission was clear, he said: pressure “weak” Republicans to refuse to accept the election results that made Joe Biden the next president.

Witnesses have told the House Jan. 6 committee that, immediately after Trump made that remark, Secret Service agents contacted D.C. police about blocking intersections, according to the people briefed on the testimony. Police officials declined, as they were stretched thin due to their role monitoring numerous protests and later assisting with a growing mob at the Capitol, the people said. A senior law enforcement official told The Washington Post that the president’s detail leader scuttled the idea as untenable and unsafe.

 

► Seven states are holding Primary Elections today. NPR reports on where to look for the more interesting angles. Among them are a ballot measure in South Dakota that could make it harder for the state to approve Medicaid expansion in November. 

 

► CBS News reports on some head-scratching poll numbers regarding mass shootings. Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post picks out the strangest figures:

Only 3 percent of Republicans say America would be safer if guns were banned; only 13 percent say it would be safer with fewer guns. A plurality of Republicans are convinced the number of guns has no effect on gun violence.

The kicker is that while only 28 percent of the general population thinks we have to accept mass gun murder as part of living in a free society, 44 percent of Republicans do. It’s an open question as to whether Republicans truly believe that claim or simply deny that there are solutions to maintain their belief in unlimited access to guns. But their willingness to accept tens of thousands of deaths each year from gun-related injuries, including small children, should stun and depress the rational Americans who do not think mass murders of schoolchildren are just a part of life.

 

► There has been a lot of talk lately about the role Unaffiliated voters might play in the June 28th Primary Election. Meghan Lopez of Denver7 has more on the topic, including some comments from a familiar name for readers of Colorado Pols.

Meanwhile, thousands of Democrats are reportedly changing their party affiliation in order to vote out Republican Rep. Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert in CO-03. If these numbers are accurate, Boebert could be in real trouble.

 

► The Denver Post looks at eight of the most interesting Primary races to watch in the next few weeks. The Colorado Sun outlines where the four Republican candidates in CO-08 stand on important issues.

 

Click below to keep learning things…

 

(more…)

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With Ballots on the Way, Republicans Ramp Up the Crazy Talk

14
  by: Colorado Pols June 6, 2022 at 2:23 PM MDT

Ridiculous rhetoric. This is the best way to win a Republican Primary in Colorado these days, so with mail ballots on the way to voters, candidates are turning up the crazy to maximum volume.

As Colorado Newsline reports from last weekend’s Western Conservative Summit, the Republican candidates for Governor are sounding increasingly unhinged. Here’s topline candidate Greg Lopez talking about the evil incumbent Democrat Jared Polis:

“Colorado has seen some of the most extreme, most harmful and most oppressive legislation and executive orders in recent history. A dark agenda of government overreach and elitist control is destroying our Colorado way of life.”

Say what?

While Lopez may be trying to turn the Governor’s race into a Star Wars plot, fellow Republican Hiedi Heidi Ganahl is making promises that are patently absurd. From Colorado Newsline:

Ganahl said her plans as governor include reducing the state income tax to zero, cutting the gas tax in half and an effort to “reduce bureaucracy” by 40% in her first term. But as she invoked grim visions of Colorado’s rural areas “decimated” and of a Denver “filthy and filled with needles and crime,” Ganahl distilled much of her agenda into a reversal of many of the policies pursued by Polis and Democrats in the General Assembly over the last four years.

“As your governor, the most important thing I can do is undo as much of the damage as possible,” she said. “On day one, I will undo as much I can.”

Anyone who spends even a few moments considering what Ganahl is proposing would understand the sheer impossibility of her ideas. Repealing the income tax and halving the gas tax would likely cost the State of Colorado BILLIONS of dollars. Ganahl would save some money in the budget by completely gutting the state workforce; perhaps that is part of her plan to cut the income tax, since depriving thousands of people of an income altogether would definitely reduce the amount of income tax they are paying.

Ganahl’s not-so-inspiring message appears to be all about the things she won’t do if elected Governor, but maybe she’s reading the room correctly; Ganahl did win a straw poll victory over Lopez.

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Who Will Be the Republican Nominee for Governor in 2022?

9
  by: Colorado Pols May 31, 2022 at 11:12 AM MDT

It’s been a few weeks since we last asked this question, so it’s time to do it again. Who do you think will end up being the Republican nominee for Governor against incumbent Democratic Gov. Jared Polis? Will it be Greg Lopez or Hiedi Heidi Ganahl?

As The Colorado Sun reported today in its “Unaffiliated” newsletter, the GOP gubernatorial race has been surprisingly quiet as we prepare to enter the final month of the Primary campaign:

Will Heidi Ganahl keep lying low? The Republican gubernatorial candidate turned down our request to debate her primary rival, former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez. She hasn’t done an in-depth interview with a nonpartisan news outlet. Both are indications that she thinks she will cruise to the nomination, but she probably can’t stay on this path in the general election if she wants to have any shot at unseating Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.

It certainly seems like Ganahl is trying to stay quiet, probably in an effort to avoid making more gaffes, but does that necessarily indicate that she is in good shape with Republican voters? You tell us…

 

*Remember, as always with our totally non-scientific polls, we want to know what you legitimately THINK will happen — not what you hope will happen or which candidate you support personally. If you had to bet the deed to your house that your prediction would be correct, how would you vote?

 

Who Will Be the Republican Nominee for Governor in 2022?

View Results

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The GMS Podcast: Does This Look Like it Could be Weird? (feat. Alec Garnett)

0
  by: Colorado Pols May 24, 2022 at 8:18 AM MDT

House Speaker Alec Garnett (D-Denver)

This week in episode 109 of the Get More Smarter Podcast, your hosts Jason Bane and Ian Silverii recap the 2022 legislative session with House Speaker Alec Garnett. The outgoing Speaker talks about some confusing last-minute negotiations and the ability of Democrats to pass meaningful legislation despite Republican obstruction. Garnett also has some advice for the next person to take hold of the Speaker’s gavel.

Later, Jason and Ian examine the first candidate forum between the Republicans running for Secretary of State: Tina Peters, Mike O’Donnell, and Pam Anderson. You’ll want to hear the clips that made Jason think this might be the single most incomprehensible candidate forum he’s ever witnessed.

Listen to previous episodes of The Get More Smarter Podcast at GetMoreSmarter.com.

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Let us have it at AngryRants@ .com. Or send emails to jason@getmoresmarter.com or ian@getmoresmarter.com.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher |

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Gazette Backs Its Own Columnist for Governor

5
  by: Colorado Pols May 23, 2022 at 10:32 AM MDT

Colorado Springs Gazette columnist Heidi Ganahl

The Colorado Springs Gazette has endorsed Hiedi Heidi Ganahl over Greg Lopez for Governor in the June 28th Republican Primary.

How very (in) kind of them.

It is not unexpected that the overtly Republican Gazette would back the establishment choice for Governor ahead of the June Primary; just last week the Gazette made a similar calculation in backing Denver businessman Joe O’Dea for U.S. Senate instead of State Rep. Ron Hanks. What is unusual in Ganahl’s case is that the Gazette is endorsing someone who has been a weekly columnist for the newspaper for more than a year.

You might be asking yourself, Why is this legal?

Well, we’d love to answer that question…but we can’t. You could probably argue that all of Ganahl’s columns in the Gazette since she formally became a candidate for Governor should be listed in her campaign finance reports as in-kind contributions. This is one of the many reasons that most respected news outlets in the United States would not give a candidate free press every week and subsequently endorse that same person for elected office.

Notably, the Gazette endorsement NEVER MENTIONS its affiliation with Ganahl, which is quite the glaring omission. And it’s not like they didn’t have enough space to note the potential conflict of interest; the editorial has a hard enough time as it is trying to explain why Ganahl is the best option for Colorado Republicans:

Prominent and respected Republicans — including party patriarch and former CU President and former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown — have lined up in support of Ganahl. But the most important reason for Republicans to stand her up against Democratic Gov. Jared Polis this fall is that she has her feet firmly planted on the ground and understands the meat-and-potatoes issues discussed at the kitchen table in Colorado households. [Pols emphasis]

Ganahl’s lone opponent in the primary, veteran political contender and former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez, just doesn’t offer the lift Ganahl will bring to Republican prospects for the general election ballot. It is lift the party will need to take the battle to Polis.

Support Heidi Ganahl in the June Primary!

Why?

Kitchen table, something, something.

Even a vapid endorsement deserves some sort of acknowledgment of the prior relationship between candidate and news outlet; otherwise it’s difficult to take this endorsement at all seriously. Come to think of it, taking Ganahl seriously as a candidate is also a stretch.

Maybe this is what marketing and business executives mean when they talk about “synergy.”

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Big Line Update: Governor

5
  by: Colorado Pols May 19, 2022 at 12:02 PM MDT

Small hat, big dreams.

We made a slight, but significant, adjustment to “The Big Line” today.

For the first time, we have Republican Greg Lopez as a slight favorite over Hiedi Heidi Ganahl in the Republican Primary for Governor.

A lot of things can, and probably will, change in the coming weeks as June 28 draws nearer, but the buzz right now is that Lopez seems to be doing better than Ganahl in attracting GOP support. Ganahl, meanwhile, is trying to dispute reports that she has been largely absent on the campaign trail lately.

There is even a persistent rumor going around that Lopez is currently polling better than Ganahl; we can’t confirm or deny this rumor, but we’ve heard it enough times — from enough different people — that there may be some truth to the idea.

Whatever happens in the GOP Primary won’t change much for the General Election. Both Lopez and Ganahl would be HEAVY underdogs against incumbent Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in November.

Lopez and Ganahl might flip back and forth in the coming weeks, but for today, this is how we see the Primary shaking out.

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