March 27, 2024 11:54 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (March 27)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Happy Day of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania. 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.

FIRST UP…

► A Democrat in Alabama who focused her campaign on abortion access flipped a state legislative seat with a 25-point victory on Tuesday. As The Alabama Reflector reports:

Democratic candidate Marilyn Lands, who campaigned on ending Alabama’s near-total abortion ban and protecting access to contraception and in vitro fertilization, won a special election Tuesday for a Huntsville-area state House seat…

…Lands, like Democrats in the state and nationwide, ran on protecting reproductive rights. In a previous interview, she discussed having an abortion in the past, and said she wanted to protect medical treatment that was available 20 years ago.

Lands said reproductive rights became a priority in her campaign after the Alabama Supreme Court’s Feb. 16 ruling on in vitro fertilization, which declared frozen embryos are children and led to at least three clinics halting IVF treatment.

This is a YUGE deal that is generating national news for obvious reasons (see HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE, for just a few examples). For the first time since 2002, a Democrat flipped a Republican legislative seat in Alabama — and did it by campaigning hard on protecting abortion rights. We noted last month that a State Supreme Court ruling in Alabama that essentially cut off in-vitro fertilization (IVF) methods was a serious problem for Republicans across the country, but it’s still incredible to see the impact it is having IN ALABAMA.

Also worth mentioning: Lands will succeed former Rep. David Cole, who resigned in August after pleading guilty to voter fraud charges by casting a ballot as a candidate in a district in which he was not a resident. We’ll say it again: Whenever there are actual incidences of voter fraud in America, it’s virtually ALWAYS a Republican committing the crime.

► A Republican vacancy committee will select a nominee tomorrow for the Special Congressional Election in CO-04. As we discussed earlier this week, the Special Election to fill the remainder of former Rep. Ken Buck’s term will appear on the same ballot as the Primary Election in CO-04. The winner of tomorrow’s vacancy committee will likely need to spend a lot of time reminding CO-04 Republicans to vote for them TWICE in June.

Meanwhile, the Primary Election ballot is filling up. Both Lauren Boebert and now Deborah Flora have qualified for the June 25th Primary ballot via the petition process. Neither Boebert nor Flora are seeking the vacancy appointment on Thursday.

► The Denver Post digs into budget discussions at the state legislature, which is in the midst of the annual “long bill” battle.

► Don’t miss the latest episode of the Get More Smarter Podcast, featuring an interview with Congressman Jason Crow (D-Aurora). Later in this episode, hosts Jason Bane and Ian Silverii make a similar argument that Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post produced on Tuesday about Republican efforts to take control of the U.S. Senate in November:

Certainly, Democrats have a tough job to hold on to the Senate majority. Moreover, without a Biden-Harris victory, Democrats will not have the vice president’s tiebreaking vote. That said, Democrats remain competitive in large part because Republicans have gone off the deep end, tying themselves to Trump, espousing radical views that don’t even sell in red states and scaring off a segment of donors.

There is a price to be paid for jettisoning democracy and aligning with a cult of personality. That price just might include blowing yet another chance to take over the Senate majority.

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► “Independent” Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy has selected a running mate — Silicon Valley attorney Nicole Shanahan — whose main qualification appears to be a sizable bank account. From The Washington Post:

“What it means for Kennedy’s campaign is one thing and one thing only — and it’s money,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the center-left think tank Third Way, which has warned that third-party candidates could hurt Biden in November.

It won’t be clear exactly how much money Shanahan, 38, might be able to devote to the campaign until she files her personal financial disclosure with the Office of Government Ethics — which is due May 15, though she could seek an extension — but there are some clues.

She told the New York Times last month that she gave $4 million to American Values 2024, a super PAC backing Kennedy, to pay for a Super Bowl ad, as our colleague Mariana Alfaro points out. And she was married until last year to Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder whose fortune Bloomberg News estimates at $129 billion.

Shanahan gave $6,600 — the maximum contribution by law — to Kennedy’s campaign last year, but her selection as Kennedy’s running mate will allow her to give as much as she wants. That’s crucial because campaigns benefit from lower advertising rates than super PACs, allowing any money she gives to go much further. [Pols emphasis]

 

► Republican Jeff “Bread Sandwich” Hurd has picked up a new endorsement in his campaign for Congress in CO-03:

Um…yay?

► As The Colorado Sun reported earlier this week via its “Unaffiliated” newsletter, there’s some serious circular firing squad action in Weld County:

Two Republicans who served together in the Colorado House of Representatives and are now Weld County commissioners will face each other in the June 25 primary. Commissioner Lori Saine switched from running for reelection to her District 3 seat at the Weld County GOP assembly Saturday to challenge at-large Commissioner Perry Buck, who is also running for reelection. Saine won the most votes at the assembly — 116 to Buck’s 99 —meaning her name will be first on the ballot.

What’s going on here? Apparently Weld County’s commissioner structure is set up so that each commissioner has varying degrees of political power — with the at-large commissioner being the king of this particular hill. Lori Saine thinks she should be that “king.”

► If you want a job working for the Republican National Committee, which is now co-chaired by Lara Trump (Eric’s wife), you apparently need to be willing to say that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. As The Washington Post explains:

In recent days, Trump advisers have quizzed multiple employees who had worked in key 2024 states about their views on the last presidential election, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private interviews and discussions. The interviews have been conducted mostly virtually, as the prospective future employees are based in key swing states.

“Was the 2020 election stolen?” one prospective employee recalled being asked in a room with two top Trump advisers.

The question about the 2020 election has startled some of the potential employees, who viewed it as questioning their loyalty to Trump and as an unusual job interview question, according to the people familiar with the interviews. A group of senior Trump advisers have been in the RNC building in recent days conducting the interviews.

The questions about the 2020 election were open-ended, two people familiar with the questioning said.

“But if you say the election wasn’t stolen, do you really think you’re going to get hired?” one former RNC employee asked. [Pols emphasis]

Yikes! This is NOT good news for Republicans in general.

► Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin once tried to force a sale of TikTok, the Chinese social media giant that Congress is considering banning in the United States. Guess who is among the potential buyers of TikTok today? That’s right: Donald Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. 

► Governor Jared Polis is in Eagle County today to highlight the success of his signature Universal Pre-K program. From a press release:

The initiative has served nearly 40,000 students across Colorado in its first year, propelling Colorado from 26th in preschool access to 8th. Applications for the 2024-2025 enrollment period are open and over 23,000 Colorado families have already submitted applications. Coloradans can visit upk.colorado.gov to learn more or fill out an application.

► This is just one of many reasons to vote for Democrats in Colorado: They’re the reason that federal money is being appropriated for local projects throughout the state.

► Republican Gabe-ish Evans, who is seeking the GOP nomination for Congress in CO-08, finally made it clear that he fully supports Donald Trump. This is probably helpful in a Republican Primary, but it will come back to bite him in a General Election. 

► Campaign finance laws do still work in Colorado…sort of. As Michael Karlik reports for the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman:

Colorado’s second-highest court last week agreed a former state Senate candidate misinterpreted campaign finance law and failed to file the proper paperwork upon declaring her candidacy.

Suzanne Taheri was the unsuccessful Republican nominee in 2020 for the seat now held by Sen. Chris Kolker, D-Littleton. Although Taheri believed she had satisfied Colorado’s campaign finance requirements by submitting a copy of her federal tax return shortly after she became a candidate, an administrative law judge concluded that was not the correct form of disclosure.

Taheri, who formerly was the No. 2 official in the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office and the Arapahoe County GOP chair, appealed the finding of a violation and the fine associated with it. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals upheld the administrative judge’s interpretation of the law and also found the complaint against Taheri was timely.

This is a pretty friendly interpretation for Suzanne Taheri, who will have to pay a fine of $850.

► The re-election campaign of President Joe Biden is starting to take off the metaphorical gloves.

Meanwhile, Republicans are growing nervous about Donald Trump’s relatively-meager campaign for President. As The Associated Press reports:

In his bid to retake the White House, few states hold as much promise for Donald Trump as Michigan.

The former president has already won the state once and President Joe Biden, who reclaimed it for Democrats in 2020, is confronting vulnerabilities there as he seeks reelection. Trump’s campaign promises an aggressive play for Michigan as part of a robust swing-state strategy.

But, at least for now, those promises appear to be mostly talk. The Trump campaign and its partners at the Republican National Committee haven’t yet made significant general election investments in the state, according to Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra. The national committee, he said, hasn’t transferred any money to the state party to help bolster its operations heading into the general election. There are no specific programs in place to court voters of color. And there’s no general election field staff in place…

…It’s much the same in presidential battleground states across the country, according to Republican operatives and party officials involved in campaign planning elsewhere.

► Colorado Newsline reports on the progress of important legislation surrounding tenant rights:

A bill designed to give tenants more protections against evictions and lease non-renewals cleared the Colorado Senate on Tuesday, one of the last major hurdles before landing on the governor’s desk.

House Bill 24-1098 passed on a 19-15 vote, with four Democrats joining with Republicans in opposition. This comes a year after a similar proposal languished on the Senate calendar in the face of Democratic opposition and died in the final days of the legislative session.

The bill, in general, would mandate that landlords have a clear reason for evicting a tenant or choosing not to renew their lease, adding a layer of housing security for tenants in the midst of surging evictions in the state and a shortage of rental supply.

► Colorado Public Radio reports on a strange strategy that the oil and gas industry is pursuing in 2024.

Say What, Now?

 

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Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► In the 2022 Republican Primary election in CO-05, now-State Party Chair Dave Williams tried to get his name printed on the ballot as “Dave ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Williams.” A Texas man has done him one better. As WFAA reports, a 35-year-old middle school math teacher has legally changed his name to “Literally Anybody Else” and filed paperwork to run for President in 2024. 

This isn’t going to get him a new residence at The White House, but it could make for a fun conversation when he meets with a group of friends for lunch and tries to pick up the tab.

► For only $59.99, you can have your own copy of the Bible with “God Bless the USA” printed on the cover (presumably not upside-down). Proceeds from the Bible sales will go to Donald Trump in some capacity.

ICYMI

► As Ian Millhiser writes for Vox.com, the U.S. Supreme Court seems to be tiring of arguments against the abortion drug mifepristone. 

► Now former-Rep. Ken Buck still won’t say that his sudden retirement from Congress has anything to do with his longstanding beef with Rep. Lauren Boebert, who moved across the state in order to try to succeed him in 2024.

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