July 11, 2022 10:50 AM UTC
Get More Smarter on Monday (July 11)
3 Comments- by: Colorado Pols
In celebration of the 95th birthday of popular convenience store 7-11, you can get yourself a free Slurpee today. 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.
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Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
► In case you missed it late last week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl and her campaign continue their march toward oblivion. Ganahl spent the first week after the June 28th Primary Election talking about how she was going to announce her pick for Lieutenant Governor last Thursday. That big reveal never happened, likely because her apparent choice — Las Animas County Commissioner Felix Lopez — either turned her down or backed out before the announcement could take place.
This three-minute story from 9News is a great way to catch up on Ganahl’s latest #FAIL:
► Republicans in Colorado are clinging on to hope that low approval ratings for President Biden will give them a boost in November. As The New York Times reports, Biden’s numbers are pretty, pretty bad at the moment:
President Biden is facing an alarming level of doubt from inside his own party, with 64 percent of Democratic voters saying they would prefer a new standard-bearer in the 2024 presidential campaign, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll, as voters nationwide have soured on his leadership, giving him a meager 33 percent job-approval rating…
…For Mr. Biden, that bleak national outlook has pushed his job approval rating to a perilously low point. Republican opposition is predictably overwhelming, but more than two-thirds of independents also now disapprove of the president’s performance, and nearly half disapprove strongly. Among fellow Democrats his approval rating stands at 70 percent, a relatively low figure for a president, especially heading into the 2022 midterms when Mr. Biden needs to rally Democrats to the polls to maintain control of Congress.
In a sign of deep vulnerability and of unease among what is supposed to be his political base, only 26 percent of Democratic voters said the party should renominate him in 2024.
Biden’s numbers are no doubt getting pulled down in part by bigger global problems such as inflation, the coronavirus, and the war in Ukraine, but that doesn’t make his precipitous polling dip any less jarring.
► Meanwhile, as The Washington Post reports, Republicans are dealing with their own problems in trying to take control of the Senate majority with a bunch of godawful candidates (headlined by Georgia Senate candidate Herschel “52 States” Walker):
Not for decades has the midterm environment appeared as favorable to Republicans, with President Biden’s approval rating at 39 percent, according to a Washington Post polling average in June and the share of voters approving of the country’s direction dropping to 10 percent in a Monmouth poll late last month. But four months from Election Day, Republicans are struggling in several of the marquee Senate races because of candidate challenges and campaigns still recovering from brutal Republican primaries, putting control of the upper chamber of Congress in 2023 up for grabs…
…It’s not just political novices who are struggling. In Wisconsin, GOP Sen. Ron Johnson is roughly even with three of his four potential Democratic rivals in a Marquette University poll last month, taken before new disclosures that his office had attempted to play a role in pushing an alternate slate of electors for the 2020 election. Johnson was viewed favorably by 37 percent of the state’s registered voters in that poll and unfavorably by 46 percent.
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Check Out All This Other Stuff To Know…
► The Denver Post looks at potential candidates for Mayor of Denver in 2023, including a few names that are probably not worth mentioning seriously.
► Where is “Secession Barb”? We haven’t heard much from Barb Kirkmeyer, the Republican nominee in CO-08, since winning her Primary race on June 28.
► The battle for control of the State Senate in Colorado will likely come down to these six critical districts.
► Republican gubernatorial candidate Hiedi Heidi Ganahl is “challenging” incumbent Gov. Jared Polis to three General Election debates. What could go wrong?
We’ll be looking forward to Ganahl explaining why she thinks the U.S. Supreme Court should outlaw contraception and gay marriage.
► As Dana Milbank writes for The Washington Post, there is a good reason why so many Americans are losing faith in traditional government institutions:
On Tuesday, the venerable Gallup organization reported that just 27 percent of Americans expressed confidence in their institutions — the lowest level of trust since the questions were first asked half a century ago.On Wednesday, Mitch McConnell showed us why Americans feel this way.
Republican senators announced that, under orders from the Senate Republican leader, they were pulling out of House-Senate talks finalizing details on bipartisan legislation to help the United States compete with China on semiconductor chips.
It wasn’t because McConnell objected to the China bill; he was one of 19 Republican senators who voted for the Senate’s version. It’s because he objects to a second, unrelated bill Democrats are working on to lower prescription drug prices.
McConnell wants to stop Democrats, including Sen. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), from using a process known as “reconciliation” to pass that prescription-drug bill by a simple majority vote, immune from any GOP filibuster. And to stop Americans from getting cheaper prescriptions, he is willing to sabotage American manufacturers (and therefore assist China) by denying them $52 billion in support under the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act.
► The Denver Post looks at how much the issue of abortion rights will play a role in November’s elections in Colorado. 9News has more on how recent executive orders from President Biden will affect abortion rights in Colorado.
► Another Coloradan has been charged with crimes because of his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. From Colorado Public Radio:
A Colorado Springs man who worked as a pastor is facing felony and misdemeanor charges for his role in the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol last year.
Tyler Ethridge’s charges include one count of felony civil disorder and five misdemeanor-related offenses. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said Ethridge helped remove a fence and illegally entered the U.S. Capitol building with rioters. Ethridge climbed a media scaffolding and encouraged the crowd to keep moving, according to prosecutors. He filmed videos and posted them on social media during the riot.
Authorities say Ethridge remained active on social media after January 6th. He wrote in a post dated September 24, 2021, “Don’t be afraid of what they sentence you with. I’m not. I’m ready for whatever I’ll be charged with. America is still primed and ready.”
Ethridge was a pastor at Christ-Centered Church of Tampa. Following the attack, the church announced on Facebook that Ethridge no longer worked there.
Ethridge was arrested in Denver Thursday and appeared in court on Friday.
In other Colorado-related insurrection news, former CU visiting scholar John Eastman and Colorado-based pretend lawyer Jena Ellis have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in Georgia regarding efforts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election.
► Famous boxing announcer Michael Buffer (the “let’s get ready to rumblleeee…” guy) took a turn dunking on Republican Congressperson Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert:
► The race for the Democratic nomination in CO-03 might finally be over. As Ernest Luning reports for the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman:
Although his advantage narrowed to only a few hundred votes by the time all the ballots were counted, former Aspen City Councilman Adam Frisch maintained the lead he had over Pueblo activist Sol Sandoval on primary night, winning the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, according to final, unofficial vote totals posted late Friday by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.
With just over 42.4% of the vote to Sandoval’s 41.9%, Frisch finished 290 votes ahead out of more than 60,000 votes cast in the primary, though the slim margin isn’t tight enough to trigger an automatic recount under Colorado statute.
Just 290 votes. Damn.
► Former White House adviser Steve Bannon has finally agreed to speak with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
► A man was arrested in Denver for allegedly threatening Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold.
► Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser vows to protect abortion rights and Colorado gun safety laws in a new interview with Colorado Public Radio.
► Colorado regulators are taking over 106 oil and gas wells in the state because of repeated safety violations.
Say What, Now?
This is pretty dumb even for Rep. Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert:
Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
► Well, shit.
► The Pro Life Party strikes again. Here’s a press release from Arizona Republican Congressman Paul Gosar with a totally-reasonable 🙄 policy suggestion:
ICYMI
► Republican Senate candidate Joe O’Dea is accusing Democrats of lying when they say he is “pro-life.” That’s odd, because O’Dea himself has said that he is “very pro-life.”
► POLITICO previews this week’s hearings for the House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.
► Check out the latest episode of the Get More Smarter Podcast, featuring an interview with Seth Masket of the Center for American Politics at the University of Denver. Hosts Jason Bane and Ian Silverii also explain how and why they were so wrong about last week’s Primary Election:
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Biden's polling is about the same level as Donald Trump's at this time in his single term.
The 2018 Generic Ballot had Democrats up +7.6% by the 538.com aggregation. Dem's picked up seats, going from 194 to 235 – 41 seats.
The 2022 Generic Ballot has Republicans up +2.0 (and fading).
History and the current snapshot say Republicans ought to pick up some seats. Record turnouts to vote against Trump & his minions in 2018 and 2020 suggest history may not have the last word.
Yes, and we saw how well Trump's party did that November. (Hint: Nancy Pelosi became speaker.)
Leslie Herod has to be considered the early front runner for Denver Mayor next year.