September 15, 2017 11:55 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (September 15)

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• by: Colorado Pols

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TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► We’re going back…to the legislature. As Brian Eason reports for the Denver Post:

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Thursday called lawmakers back to the state Capitol to fix a bill-drafting error that has been costing a number of Denver-based institutions hundreds of thousands of dollars a month in marijuana revenue.

The special session set to start Oct. 2 will be the first in five years for Hickenlooper and the Colorado General Assembly, an extraordinary step for a governor who has typically deferred to lawmakers on legislative matters during his two terms in office.

“After hearing about the potential impact on citizens around the state, it is clear that this problem is best solved as soon as possible,” Hickenlooper said in a statement announcing his executive order, capping a day of speculation about his plans.

The October 2 special session is expected to be a fairly quick affair to address a drafting error related to SB-267 (Hospital Provider Fee). As part of SB-267, legislators approved a change to the collection of recreational pot taxes that is inadvertently costing organizations such as RTD and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (i.e., the Denver Zoo and Museum of Natural History) millions of dollars in tax revenue.

Colorado Republicans, including the Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity, are having trouble getting their message straight on the special session announcement.

► Congressional Democratic leaders seem to have figured out how to work with President Trump, crafting another big deal on DACA just a week or so after working with Trump on a debt ceiling/disaster relief proposal. The New York Times examines what happened during that White House dinner on Wednesday night:

Senator Chuck Schumer had just finished outlining a new Democratic immigration proposal over a working dinner at the White House on Wednesday night when President Trump stopped him with a simple question: What is in it for me?

Mr. Schumer, the schmoozy Senate minority leader, responded with a litany of what he saw as Mr. Trump’s presidential sins, according to two people with direct knowledge of the interaction. Those included pulling out of the Paris climate accord and failing to unequivocally denounce anti-Semitism and racism in the wake of the Charlottesville violence.

The time had come, Mr. Schumer declared as Nancy Pelosi, the top House Democrat, nodded in agreement, for the president to prove himself to Democrats if he wanted to do any big deals.

Mr. Trump has been known to freeze out or tongue-lash critics for far less. Instead, to the surprise of people in the room, he responded positively, if vaguely, and laughed.

Congressman Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) sounds pretty optimistic about the deal Trump reached with Democrats. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, meanwhile, is no doubt much less enthusiastic.

► Summer isn’t officially over until next week, but it snowed in the mountains.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► We’ve said it in this space over and over and over again. Colorado’s various county clerks have said it. Secretary of State Wayne Williams has said it.

We do not have a voter fraud problem in Colorado. As the Denver Post reports:

Ten of Colorado’s nearly 3 million voters in the 2016 presidential election may have cast two ballots, while 38 of them might have voted in another state.

Those are among the findings of a study released Friday and conducted by the Colorado secretary of state’s office and four other states that uncovered 112 total instances of possible improper voting during last year’s contest.

The office said in a news release said that the states involved — including Oregon, Washington, Delaware and Maryland — stopped short of saying fraud was committed in all of the cases because further investigation could reveal administrative explanations for the questionable votes.

These are truly remarkable numbers. Out of 3 million votes cast in Colorado, less than 50 might have been fraudulent in some manner.

► Governor John Hickenlooper declined to offer a pardon for a Peruvian woman facing deportation after allegedly using a stolen ID for employment verification.

► State Treasurer Walker Stapleton is expected to announce his campaign for Governor in early October…as soon as he’s done working campaign finance loopholes to raise money for an Independent Expenditure Committee that will be helpful to his candidacy.

► Republican state Rep. Dan Thurlow tells a town-hall audience that TABOR needs to be fixed, and soon.

► Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison Eid will be the topic of discussion in the Senate Judiciary Committee next week as her nomination for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considered. Eid would replace Neil Gorsuch, who is now a United States Supreme Court Justice.

► Denver Mayor Michael Hancock is in London to promote investments in the Denver area. The delegation from Denver was not harmed in Friday morning’s subway bombing.

► Congressman Ken Buck says he is now “unlikely” to run for Colorado Attorney General in 2018 after months of speculation — which Buck confirmed — that he would forego a re-election bid in CD-4:

Asked by KHOW 630-AM’s Ross Kaminsky whether he’d run for the office if Coffman ran for governor, Buck said, “Probably a month ago I would have said yes. [Pols emphasis] Right now, I think it’s very unlikely that I do anything other than stay focused on running for the 4th Congressional and doing the job that I enjoy doing here in DC.”

► Republican gubernatorial hopeful Victor Mitchell is throwing haymakers at his opponents in a crowded field of candidates for the GOP.

► Democrat Rochelle Galindo kicked off her campaign for HD-50 in the Greeley area. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Dave Young is term-limited in 2018.

Your Daily¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► Officials from the United Kingdom would really appreciate it if President Trump would just be quiet for awhile.

► Treasury Secretary Steve Mnunchin is incredibly gifted at saying the wrong thing.

► High-speed travel in a tube? Yes, high-speed travel in a tube.

ICYMI

► More than 6,000 troops from Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs will deploy to Afghanistan in the coming months.

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