December 23, 2015 12:01 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (Dec. 23)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Still not finished with your Christmas shopping? You can start panicking now. 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…

► Colorado Pols is 11 years old today. Our sincere thanks to the millions (yes millions) of readers who have helped make Colorado Pols the #1 destination on the Internet tubes for Colorado political news, information, insight and discussion.

► Dammit! Stop telling people about Colorado! As the Denver Post reports, no (real) state has added more residents than Colorado according to the latest U.S. Census figures:

Colorado’s population reached 5,456,574 as of July 1, up from 5,355,588 the same day a year earlier, according to updated estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday.

The 1.89 percent increase was more than double the 0.79 percent increase in the overall U.S. population and second only to North Dakota, which added 16,887 people for a 2.28 percent gain.

Colorado ranked seventh among all states for the total number of people added, sandwiched between North Carolina and Arizona.

With an aging population and young adults delaying marriage and child birth, natural gains — births minus deaths — aren’t driving the increase.

Net migration —more people moving to the state than leaving — accounts for about two-thirds of the population gain, said [state demographer Elizabeth Garner].

► If you want to participate in party caucuses coming to Colorado in March, you must declare your party affiliation by January 4th, 2016 (we’ll keep this reminder near the top of the list for the next two weeks).

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Remember the infamous “47 percenters” comments that nagged Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012? As Politico reports, another secret recording might have caught up to a different Republican Presidential candidate: Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

In June, Ted Cruz promised on NPR that opposition to gay marriage would be “front and center” in his 2016 campaign.

In July, he said the Supreme Court’s decision allowing same-sex marriage was the “very definition of tyranny” and urged states to ignore the ruling.

But in December, behind closed doors at a big-dollar Manhattan fundraiser, the quickly ascending presidential candidate assured a Republican gay-rights supporter that a Cruz administration would not make fighting same-sex marriage a top priority. [Pols emphasis]

In a recording provided to POLITICO, Cruz answers a flat “No” when asked whether fighting gay marriage is a “top-three priority,” an answer that pleased his socially moderate hosts but could surprise some of his evangelical backers.

Is it possible that Ted Cruz will say anything in order to get elected President? You already know the answer to that question. Unfortunately for Cruz, his far-right base isn’t going to be pleased to hear about this. Fellow Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is already frothing at the mouth over the Cruz tape.

► And now, some sanctimonious holiday wishes from the Vice Chair of the Colorado Republican Party!

► Adams County Republicans are standing firm behind freshman Rep. JoAnn Windholz (R-Commerce City), even if she does think that Planned Parenthood should blame itself when a terrorist kills three people and injures nine others in a clinic shooting in Colorado Springs.

► New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez was once considered a rising star in the Republican Party and a potential Vice Presidential running mate in 2016. That was before you needed more than one hand to count the number of transgressions for which Martinez and her advisors are being investigated by local and/or federal law enforcement officials. There isn’t enough spin in the world to overcome a recording of your own voice from a police officer.

Good thing Republicans just recently selected Martinez as the Chair of the Republican Governor’s Association!

► Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump is arguing with the media over the definition of the word “schlonged.” From the Associated Press:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed reports that he used vulgarity in describing Democrat Hillary Clinton’s primary loss to now-President Barack Obama in 2008.

Trump said Monday night, “She was favored to win and she got schlonged, she lost,” using a slang word for male genitalia.

On Tuesday, the GOP front-runner argued with that definition on Twitter. “‘Schlonged’ is not vulgar,” he wrote. “When I said Hillary got ‘schlonged’ that meant beaten badly.”

He said the “dishonest” mainstream media was giving the word “false meaning.”

Nice try, your Hairness, but “schlong” is actually a word in the dictionary (and we actually looked it up). It means exactly what you think it means.

► If Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is elected President in 2016, there’s a decent chance he might actually show up in Washington D.C. from time to time. According to The Hill, Rubio managed to make it over to the U.S. Capitol to cast a vote about 64% of the time in 2015.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Caption this photo! Poor Jeb!

► Kentucky Republican Matt Bevin has been in the Governor’s office for less than a month, but he’s already schlonged hundreds of thousands of people in the Bluegrass State. From Think Progress:

Less than a month after taking office, Kentucky’s newly elected Republican Gov. Matt Bevin reversed a move by his Democratic predecessor that had restored the voting rights of about 140,000 former felons…

…Bevin’s move Tuesday night goes against promises he made during the campaign to keep the restoration of voting rights in place…

…In another executive order this week, Bevin reversed former Gov. Beshear’s move to raise the state’s minimum wage for government workers and contractors to $10.10 an hour, bringing it back down to $7.25 an hour.

ICYMI

► The Brockweiler will get another start for the Denver Broncos on Monday.

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