November 24, 2015 01:30 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (Nov. 24)

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’re planning out our tryptophan coma dreams early this year. 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…

► Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is in Colorado today, making stops in Denver and Boulder as part of a trip that involves both raising money and “mobilizing” Colorado Democrats.

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► There may be no solution in more need of an actual problem than Republican fears of “voter fraud” in Colorado. State Rep. Don “Quixote” Coram is pushing yet another plan to require voter ID at polling places in Colorado. As Colorado Pols wrote on Monday:

Ever since [Scott] Gessler first made his bold accusations in 2011, County Clerks from across Colorado have repeatedly denied that there were any known cases of voter fraud in their counties. Ever. At all. Undeterred, Gessler convinced his patsy, Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, to press forward with criminal charges that resulted in finding one person who was (knowingly) illegally registered to vote but likely never actually cast a ballot. Thank goodness we put a stop to that!

Colorado has spent an absurd amount of time and money over the last couple of years in an effort to discover this illegally-voting Bigfoot character, and at every turn Colorado has uncovered a whole bucket full of nothin’. Rep. Coram isn’t going to go out on another limb by throwing out new numbers attributed to illegal voters, so instead, he just says, “how much is enough?”

We were thinking the exact same thing, Rep. Coram. How much is enough indeed?

Great work, Rep. Coram. When you get bored of chasing your tail on this issue, maybe you could focus on curing Polio in Colorado!

► After a months-long campaign of Environmental Protection Agency demonization by Republicans and their energy industry allies over the accidental minewater pollution spill into the Animas River in August, San Juan County and Silverton have voted unanimously to accept the EPA’s once-dreaded “Superfund” status to deal with the longstanding problems with water quality caused by old mines in the area.

► State Sen. Larry Crowder (R-Alamosa) is leading with his conscience, rather than blindly following his fear-mongering Republican brethren, in discussing how Colorado and the United States should deal with Syrian refugees.

► An eighth congressional district for Colorado’s burgeoning population? Don’t rule it out says a new study.

► Denver City Council voted 12-1 to pass a construction defects ordinance that takes away some rights from condo owners to sue over shoddy workmanship. After being stopped cold in the legislature this year, lobbyists for builders are chipping away at the resolve to protect homeowners one city council at a time.

We’ll have more to say about this.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Democratic candidate recruitment group Emerge Colorado wants Gov. John Hickenlooper to appoint a woman to replace outgoing Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia.

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