President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Biden*

(R) Donald Trump

80%

20%↓

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

90%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

90%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(D) Adam Frisch

(R) Jeff Hurd

(R) Ron Hanks

40%

30%

20%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(R) J. Sonnenberg

(R) Ted Harvey

20%↑

15%↑

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Dave Williams

(R) Jeff Crank

(R) Doug Bruce

20%

20%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

90%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) Brittany Pettersen

85%↑

 

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

(R) Janak Joshi

60%↑

40%↑

20%↑

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
December 06, 2019 11:44 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (December 6)

  • 1 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Saturday is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day; Gov. Jared Polis has ordered flags to be lowered to half staff from sunrise to sunset tomorrow. It’s time to 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/visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show or The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to find us on Facebook and Twitter.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Will President Trump and/or his attorneys participate in impeachment hearings in front of the House Judiciary Committee? As The Washington Post reports, Trump has until 5:00 today to make that decision…but might choose to wait until the issue reaches the U.S. Senate:

A White House spokesman said Friday that Trump “welcomes” a trial in the Republican-led Senate and plans to bring forward “serious witnesses,” including the anonymous whistleblower who sparked the impeachment inquiry, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), and Joe and Hunter Biden.

“If it goes there, he wants a trial,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said during an appearance on Fox News. “He welcomes it. He wants the American people to see the truth. . . . He absolutely wants to bring forward serious witnesses, like the whistleblower, like Adam Schiff, like Hunter and Joe Biden. It they’re going to do this, if the Democrats want this fight, it’s something the president is willing to have.”

“He welcomes it.” That seems like a bit of a stretch.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday that she had instructed her Democratic colleagues to begin preparing articles of impeachment. Justin Wingerter of The Denver Post wrote up one of those “here’s what officials on each side have to say” stories that doesn’t tell you anything you didn’t already know.

 

 Former New York City Mayor and newly-minted Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg was in Aurora on Thursday to discuss his plans for addressing gun violence in the United States. As the Associated Press reports, Bloomberg is “calling for a ban on all assault weapons, mandatory permits for gun purchasers and a new position in the White House to coordinate gun violence prevention.”

 

► At least four people are dead after a shooting at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

 

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

 

An ethics complaint filed against former Gov. John Hickenlooper more than a year ago can’t be all that serious if the Independent Ethics Commission can’t find a conference room in which to discuss the matter before March 2020.

 

► Local right-wing radio station KNUS appears to have a Nazi problem.

 

 Democratic Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is building out her campaign team in Colorado, as is fellow Senator Bernie Sanders.

Meanwhile, Warren is getting scrappy with South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg as the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination enters the home stretch before Iowa. From Politico:

Warren and Buttigieg’s campaigns each called the other out in a flurry of back-and-forths on the candidates’ tax returns, past corporate clients, campaign bundlers and opening fundraisers to the news media.

The volleys began in Boston on Thursday night, when Warren criticized Buttigieg for not disclosing the names of his campaign’s top fundraisers since April, or opening his fundraisers to the media, which former Vice President Joe Biden has done…

…Buttigieg senior adviser Lis Smith fired back on Twitter, calling Warren a “corporate lawyer” and saying she should open “up the doors to the decades of tax returns she’s hiding.”

 

 Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) looks like he might be a dead man walking (politically-speaking) in 2020. Gardner’s approval rating in a new poll is all of 33%.

 

As The Hill reports, Sen. Gardner has reason to worry that his poll numbers could get even worse:

Planned Parenthood is targeting Republican senators in a seven-figure ad campaign over the Trump administration’s changes to a federally funded birth control program.

The campaign, which will include ads on television, radio and digital platforms, as well as mailers, will target three Republican incumbents who Democrats hope to defeat in 2020: Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.), Martha McSally (Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (N.C.).

Planned Parenthood and other groups left the Title X family planning program earlier this year arguing they could not ethically follow the Trump administration’s new rules blocking providers from referring people for abortions.

Planned Parenthood predicts outrage over the change will lead to a backlash against Trump and Republicans in 2020.

 

► Senator Gardner was in Centennial, Colorado today with Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe for another one of those Gardner events that the public only finds out about after the fact. Inhofe is considered perhaps the most fervent Climate Change denier in the U.S. Senate. Colorado Democratic Party spokesperson Alyssa Roberts has some questions that would be fun to ask of Gardner if anyone was able to find him:

 The Colorado Sun breaks down the ongoing impasse between Altitude Sports and cable providers that has kept fans of the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets from being able to watch their teams on television. The end result could have a significant impact on the regional sports broadcasting landscape:

Altitude claims that Comcast is a monopsony, essentially a customer whose dominance of the market exerts a sort of reverse monopoly power over its suppliers. In this case, Comcast buys content — regional sports programming — from Altitude in exchange for what’s called a carriage fee.

Altitude contends that Comcast refuses to agree to a carriage fee adequate to sustain the network, or even in line with what it pays its own regional sports networks, in the hope that Altitude will go under — leaving Comcast to scoop it into its collection.

See, you just got More Smarter there — enjoy adding the word “monopsony” to your regular vocabulary.

 

 Two more Republican Members of Congress announced that they will not seek re-election in 2020; at least 18 incumbent Republicans are walking away from their House seats without a fight.

 

President Trump’s decision to remove the United States from the Paris Climate Pact may cost American businesses billions of dollars:

“To the extent that we’re not in the Paris agreement, that creates a competitive advantage for other countries,” said Jon Sohn, the director of U.S. government relations at Capital Power, in an interview with Politico. “The U.S. should be in those markets.”

► Congressman Jason Crow (D-Aurora) was joined by local officials this morning in calling for Congress to take action on reducing the cost of prescription drugs. From a press release:

Today, Rep. Jason Crow (CO-06) and State Rep. Janet Buckner (HD 40) joined Coloradans to talk about the newly-introduced bill, the Lower Drug Prices Now Act (H.R. 3), and its benefits for Coloradans struggling under the weight of increasingly high prescription drug costs. The bill, which would give Medicare the power to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices for people on Medicare and people on private insurance, is slated for a vote in the House before the end of the year.

Millions of Coloradans struggle every day to afford their life-saving prescription drugs. Real people are struggling to afford the price of the medicine they need, on top of every day expenses like rent, child care, and groceries.

“There’s not a week that goes by when I don’t hear from Coloradans about the prescription drug issue in our country,” said Representative Jason Crow. “When one in five Americans report skipping a dose of medication because of its high cost and one in four Americans didn’t fill a prescription because of high costs, it requires immediate action. Big pharma has for far too long fought any reforms or reasonable regulation and out of control costs, while spending $4 billion in lobbying Congress in the last 20 years. I’m proud to have signed on as a co-sponsor of HR 3 and helped introduce the Freedom From Price Gouging Act, a component of HR 3, to provide immediate relief to these higher costs. I support and will be enthusiastically voting for HR 3 next week.”

H.R. 3 would also strengthen Medicare for seniors and people with disabilities by creating a $2,000 out-of-pocket limit for prescription drugs, similar to the bill passed in Colorado that caps out-of-pocket insulin costs.

 

► As Dana Milbank writes for The Washington Post, both Democrats and Republicans are pretty sure they know what America’s “Founding Fathers” would have wanted.

 

► Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Denver) is touting a sorta-endorsement from former Bill Clinton adviser James Carville in the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination. 

 

The Colorado Independent looks at the significant harm that Colorado families could face as a result of the Trump administration’s proposed cutbacks to food assistance programs.

 

► The great green chile battle enters a holiday phase.

 

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

► Earlier this week, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of President Trump’s staunchest supporters, claimed that former Presidents can also be impeached by Congress. The Washington Post looked into the issue and found that there is no legal consensus…probably because it would be a complete waste of time to hold impeachment hearings for someone who is no longer in office.

 

► Senator Cory Gardner voted this week to confirm Sarah Pitlyk to a federal judgeship despite the fact that she received a unanimous “not qualified” rating from the American Bar Association.

 

ICYMI

 

► Congressman Ken Buck (R-Greeley), who moonlights as the Colorado Republican Party Chairman (or vice-versa), absolutely made America dumber this week with his impeachment questioning.

 

► Don’t let the week come to an end without listening to The Get More Smarter Podcast.

 

For more political learnings, check out The Get More Smarter Show or The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to give Colorado Pols a thumbs up on Facebook and Twitter

 

Comments

One thought on “Get More Smarter on Friday (December 6)

  1. Once articles of impeachment pass the House, Pelosi can delay forwarding them to the Senate until there is agreement about the Senate trial rules possibly leading to testimony from Bolton, Mulvaney, et al.

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

156 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!