Today is the nicest day of the work week weatherwise, so play hooky if you can! For the rest of us, 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…
► Ted Cruz is running for President.
► Colorado had the third-highest voter turnout in America in 2014, which means we are doing something right–unless you don’t want everybody to vote.
► Republicans in Congress have a nightmare of a week ahead. From the FOX News report we cited over the weekend:
Next week could very well break the U.S. House of Representatives.
Or, if things go well, the House Republican majority could score two of its biggest legislative victories in quite a while, demonstrating it can govern.
The stakes are high as the GOP plans to debate and approve a budget. It’s a two-step in which Republicans slash spending but maneuver parliamentarily to bolster defense programs, satisfying both fiscal conservatives and budget hawks.
Or, the effort could blow up in the Republicans’ face.
Get even more smarter after the jump…
SHOULD YOU FIND YOURSELF STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…
► The GOP-controlled Colorado Senate is set to approve Sen. Laura Waters Woods’ legislation today repealing a key Colorado civil rights law protecting employees at small businesses from discrimination.
► The felony DUI bill is still rolling, but is subject to change.
► Bipartisan support for a full audit of Connect For Health Colorado–but not for gratuitously punishing Colorado’s overall successful health insurance exchange.
► Do you have a right to record police? Rep. Joe Salazar’s House Bill 15-1290 says you do.
► Construction defects–like it or not, you’re going to be talking about this at some point if you haven’t already. Lobbyists will make sure of that.
► BLM tightens disclosure rules on fracking on federal land.
OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK
► Pueblo Chemical Depot is finally destroying all those chemical weapons we don’t need.
► Lindsey Vonn is pretty awesome.
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Yeah, put me down for that one. Ignorant imbeciles, one and all.
Q: How many GOTPers does it take to make sure that a short fuse is lit?
A: Something along the lines of Boehner: “We have 47 new members of Congress on the Republican side who have never had the chance to cast their vote to repeal Obamacare”.
The bad news when it comes to high voter turnout is that even with very good voter turnout, the Dems did not do a great job of sweeping the ticket in 2014.
We are a purple state in which the GOP wins off year elections even when the Dems are running a good ground game in terms of voter turnout, and the Dems win in Presidential election years due to the inherently greater turnout in those elections.
The Dems need movement politics that change long term political identities (i.e. increase the percentage of the total population that thinks of themselves as Dems relative to the percentage o the total population that thinks of themselves as Republicans), and not just good tactics in a particular election cycle, if they are really gong to make progress in Colorado.
This may come in part from migration into the state and in part from major changes in the scope of the franchise itself such as getting citizen status for more potential democrats. Ideally, we could also change some hearts and minds ideologically in a long term way as well.
In 2014 the absolutely horrible campaigns run by both Udall and Romanoff were a very significant factor in failing to keep the Senate seat and gain a House seat. But I get what you’re saying and you make a good point. That’s part of why Colorado, in election after election, proves either to be an exception to the rule (like when Dems do well here while Republicans have great years nationwide) or to prove difficult for pundits to predict.