July 07, 2015 11:31 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (July 7)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Today is 7/7/15, which is not nearly as cool as 7/7/14. Let’s 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…

► Democrats have their “top-tier recruit” in the fold for CD-6 with today’s announcement that state Sen. Morgan Carroll will challenge incumbent Congressman Mike Coffman in 2016. Rachel Sapin of the Aurora Sentinel got the early scoop:

“The theme of the campaign is going to about real results,” Carroll told The Aurora Sentinel in an interview Monday. “Congress has been paralyzed. It’s a crisis of confidence to get anything done.”

► Carroll’s decision to run in CD-6 brings a renewed spotlight on the Coffmangate scandal. As The Hill reports today:

Republicans in the state have appeared in disarray in recent weeks amid allegations from the state party chairman Steve House that Cynthia Coffman blackmailed him in an attempt to get him to resign. 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Newly-elected Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers tells the Colorado Independent that he doesn’t plan to run for U.S. Senate in 2016…not that anyone thought he might. Colorado’s longest-serving Attorney General has flirted with running for Governor or Senate in the past but failed to get the insider Republican support needed to get a high-profile campaign off the ground.

► Lest there was any doubt, the legalization of marijuana figures to be a prime issue in the 2016 Presidential election. 

► Yes, we’re still talking about cakes for same-sex weddings, as Ivan Moreno reports for the Associated Press:

A suburban Denver baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple will argue in court Tuesday that his religious beliefs should protect him from sanctions against his business.

The case underscores how the already simmering tension between religious-freedom advocates and gay-rights supporters is likely to become more heated in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last month legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide…

…On the other side, Laura Reinsch, a spokeswoman for the gay rights group One Colorado, warned that a ruling favoring Phillips would mean “Coloradans would be encouraged to pick and choose which laws they want to follow, and taxpayers would have to foot the bill for endless lawsuits to sort out the problems it could create.”

Reinsch reiterates an argument that is gaining steam in discussions about LGBT rights and the law in general: It’s not an individual choice whether or not to obey the law.

► A Denver judge has delayed a hearing about a city preservation discussion over a building in Northwest Denver that was a significant issue in Denver’s municipal election last May. 

► Colorado is sliding off the list of top Senate targets for the 2016 election. As Politico explains in its latest rankings of the Top 10 Senate races to watch:

9. Colorado (7): A mirror image of North Carolina: Republicans can’t find anyone to take on Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. Both Rep. Mike Coffman and his wife, Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, declined — as did state Sen. Ellen Roberts and former state Sen. Mike Kopp. Adding to the GOP’s woes — and, potentially, its recruiting ability — is a messy, lurid scandal involving the state GOP chairman.

► Little-known Republican Greg Lopez, a onetime Democratic Mayor of Parker, says he will run for U.S. Senate in 2016. Nobody seems to care.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Greece doesn’t have a plan for how to save the country from financial ruin.

► Roger Clinton is back in the news — sort of — by way of the New York Times:

At the height of Roger Clinton’s fame, the struggling rock singer stood accused of taking cash and a gold Rolex to lobby for pardons as his half brother Bill Clinton’s presidency was ending.

Fifteen years later, with Hillary Rodham Clinton seeking to navigate a return to the White House, the self-described “first brother” is keeping a lower profile. He lives quietly in this seaside suburb of Los Angeles with his dog, Copper, spending time with his college-age son and pursuing an idea for a television music talent show.

Yet Roger Clinton remains largely dependent on his more famous family members — a relationship that poses the risk of new, if familiar, headaches. (Headache, in fact, was the code name given Roger by the Secret Service during President Clinton’s two terms.)

ICYMI

► Republicans can’t stop fighting with Republicans, and Republicans aren’t happy about it.

► If you are a Republican who wants to fight against the idea that the climate is changing, there’s a guy in Charlotte who wants to write you a check.

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