March 10, 2016 01:35 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (March 10)

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• by: Colorado Pols

You’ve only got one week left to finish Leprechaun-proofing your house. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump continues to hold a slight lead over Sen. Marco Rubio in recent polling conducted in Florida. Voters in Rubio’s home state apparently don’t have a lot of excitement left in the tank, as the Washington Post reports:

A majority of Florida Republicans, 59 percent, think Rubio should bow out of the presidential campaign if he does not win the state’s primary; 33 percent say he should keep running.

► Republicans in the state legislature have been making all sorts of questionable maneuvers this session, as they continue to struggle to find a balance between their far-right base and the business and economic interests that they always pretend to represent. For example, here’s Rep. Polly Lawrence (R-Douglas County) with a passionate argument in favor of offshore tax loopholes used by Colorado companies to avoid paying state taxes.

And then there’s the Republican-controlled state Senate. After the House passed legislation to re-authorize parental leave in the workplace — the same bill that made a fool of Rep. Kevin Priola last month — HB16-1002 was promptly assigned to a Senate “kill committee” and made to go away.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► There are conflicting reports about the near-term political future of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who has spent the past couple of weeks repeatedly driving his Presidential campaign into a brick wall. It no longer seems a viable question to ask “if” Rubio will drop out of the GOP Presidential race, but rather “when.” As conservative reports Byron York noted on Twitter yesterday, the rest of America seems to have gotten the hint that Rubio has cratered:

Rubio stadium event in Hialeah. Stands empty; crowd in one end zone. pic.twitter.com/9zj0xslwSA

— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 9, 2016

► Another poll is out showing that Americans want the U.S. Senate to confirm a new appointee to the Supreme Court — you know, since that’s their job and everything — but voters are getting a bit surly with their responses:

A new poll finds that Americans want a replacement for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and would rather have actor Tom Hanks and Super Bowl winning quarterback Peyton Manning over Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump to make the pick.

The new PPP poll done for Americans United For Change and provided to Secrets, also found that voters are evenly split between pop singer Taylor Swift and Trump over who should make the pick. However, they chose Trump over Mickey Mouse to select the next justice…

…The poll from Public Policy Polling said that 56 percent want the vacant seat filled by Obama. Only 40 percent agree with Senate Republican leaders.

AUC has released other polls showing that the Senate Republican deadlock over filling the court vacancy hurts some GOP Senate candidates and the new poll conducted this week bolsters that.

► Democratic Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders faced off in another debate last night. The Washington Post lists four reasons why Sanders won the Miami debate.

► Yes, Congress has seemingly perfected the art of partisan bickering, but as the Colorado Springs Independent reports, Colorado’s U.S. Senators aren’t as bad as you might have thought:

According to the study, Sen. Michael Bennet, who is facing more than a dozen Republican challengers in the 2016 election, isn’t the unyielding liberal that Republicans make him out to be. Nor is Colorado’s other senator, Cory Gardner, unwilling to compromise.

The study found Bennet to be the 23rd most bipartisan Senator.  Gardner was rated slightly below Bennett, as the 27th most bipartisan. Remember, since there are 100 members of the Senate, that means that both Colorado’s senators rate as pretty cooperative — at least compared to their peers.

► Congressman Jared Polis (D-Boulderish) continues to push legislation to modernize procedures for applying for FEMA relief funds. Experts in Colorado believe the bill will be a big help in dealing with wildfires.

► As the Associated Press reports, Colorado Democrats are facing an uphill battle in the State Senate as they try to ban so-called “gay-conversion therapy.”

Supporters say that because conversion therapy has been denounced by psychology’s governing bodies, the state shouldn’t license therapists who do it.

But Republican opponents have said the ban could limit speech rights. Some challenged psychologists who testified about conversion therapy by comparing being gay to being alcoholic.

Yep, we’re still listening to that sort of argument from Colorado Republicans.

► Students in Douglas County are taking action in voicing their opposition to the high teacher turnover rate in this conservative school district. Turnover at Ponderosa High School in Douglas County reached a staggering 21% last year.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► There will be just four Republican candidates on stage in Miami tonight for the latest GOP Presidential debate…and it may be the last time in 2016 that we see a field with more than 2 Republicans  on stage. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich may both be out of the race for the Republican nomination once Florida and Ohio, respectively, cast their ballots on Tuesday.

► February 26, 2016. You should mark that day on your calendars, because it may symbolize the exact moment when Marco Rubio’s Presidential campaign drove off a cliff.

ICYMI

► All three County Commissioners in Chaffee County (Southern Colorado) have decided to renounce the Republican Party and change their voter registrations to read “Unaffiliated.”

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