March 14, 2016 11:05 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Monday (March 14)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Need some advice on your NCAA Tournament Bracket? Don’t pick Kansas. 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…

► The Republican field for President could get 50% smaller after big votes in Florida and Ohio on Tuesday. As Politico reports, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is trending in the wrong direction in his home state:

Donald Trump has expanded his lead over Marco Rubio in the Florida senator’s home state, a Monmouth University poll out Monday shows.

Trump’s support has surged to 44 percent among likely Republican voters, a 6-point leap from last week. Meanwhile, Rubio’s support has slightly fallen to 27 percent. Ted Cruz and John Kasich round out the poll at 17 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

More than one-in-three voters said they have already cast votes in the state’s winner-take-all primary. Another third said they have already decided who they will vote for, while 20 percent have a strong preference toward a candidate.

If Donald Trump is able to win in Florida and Ohio on Tuesday, he will no longer be the favorite to capture the GOP nomination for President — he will be inevitable.

► Vermont could soon become the first in the country to legalize recreational marijuana through the legislative process, rather than a citizen initiative (which is how Colorado and Oregon ended up with legal marijuana).

► Republican Senate candidate Jon Keyser has picked up the support of former Congressman (and former Republican) Tom Tancredo. We’ll let you know if this is a good or a bad thing as soon as we figure it out ourselves.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► The man who is responsible for creating the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) that has so crippled Colorado’s economy is heading back to prison for another two years. Doug Bruce is going back to the clink after violating his probation stemming from a 2012 conviction on tax evasion and trying to influence a public servant.

► Governor John Hickenlooper is raising eyebrows over comments he made at a conference in Dallas last week in which he essentially warned the audience about the economic dangers of legalizing marijuana. Hick’s statements in Dallas were significantly different than what he has said recently about marijuana legalization in Colorado.

► Colorado Senate Republicans continue to trip over their own feet in the legislature. During discussion of a resolution about prohibiting the transfer of Gitmo detainees to Colorado, Senate Republicans inexplicably voted in favor of advanced interrogation and torture tactics. The Colorado State Senate, of course, doesn’t have any actual influence in the use of torture on suspected terrorists, but screwing up this vote is still inexcusably sloppy.

► Dear Nebraska and Oklahoma: Get bent. As the Colorado Springs Independent reports:

On Friday, legal cannabis country watched the nation’s highest court with bated breath. And … nothing happened.

The U.S. Supreme Court was scheduled to discuss a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s pot laws brought by Nebraska and Oklahoma as the specter of late Justice Antonin Scalia loomed large. His recent death muddied the waters for this and many other cases, but because documents from the conference contain no mention of the case, we can assume the justices skipped right over it — a reprieve for Colorado (for now at least.)

► The Colorado Libertarian Party has found itself a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2016.

► Boulder County prosecutor Caryn Datz pulled off a huge upset in Adams County on Saturday. Datz won the support of 74% of Democrats at the JD-17 assembly, giving her topline on the June Primary ballot and likely ending the career of incumbent Democrat Dave Young.

► Joey Bunch of the Denver Post dives into the issue of legalizing rain barrels in Colorado:

Legalizing household rain barrels in Colorado is pitting conservation-minded Democrats against Republicans determined to defend water rights. The two-session standoff, however, has a handful of legal experts wondering why there’s a fight.

None of them could point to a statute that specifically says rain barrels are illegal. Arguments on both sides depend on a broad legal interpretation that says you  can’t store a drop without a water right, even if you put it back in the ground to water a garden a few feet away.

Republicans want to make sure rain barrels don’t put a crack in state water law and ensure that those with the oldest and most expensive water rights get their fair share before those with no rights get a drop.

► Legislation involving economic development opportunities in Pueblo is on its way to the desk of Gov. John Hickenlooper.

► Colorado Springs Rep. Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt continues to face uncomfortable questions about the finances of his non-profit “Pray in Jesus’ Name” organization.

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.

► The Republican field for U.S. Senate will thin out from its absurdly-long list of 13 candidates. There’s no need to try to pressure some of these candidates out of the race with petition and assembly deadlines coming up in just a few weeks.

ICYMI

► At Least We’re Not in Kansas.

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