January 21, 2016 12:33 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (Jan. 21)

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• by: Colorado Pols

As far as we can tell, no other Colorado Republican has announced plans to run for U.S. Senate today. So far, anyway. 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…

► There are at least 10 Republicans who have announced plans to run for U.S. Senate in 2016. One of them will make it through a June Republican Primary — theoretically, at least —  with a gigantic hole to fill before November, as John Frank reports for the Denver Post:

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s campaign will report a nearly $2 million cash haul for the final three months of the year, giving him $6.7 million to start the 2016 election year.

The Democrat boasts a substantial advantage over his potential Republican challengers — which now number 10 with Peg Littleton’s entry into the race Wednesday. The question of whether a GOP challenger can raise enough money to mount a significant contest depends on the candidate and the level of outside money in the race.

No other candidates have yet reported their Q4-2015 fundraising numbers, though Republican Ryan Frazier claims to have somehow raised more than $200k.

► State Rep. Jon Keyser will end his brief term in the state legislature this week in order to focus full-time on his campaign for U.S. Senate. You can expect to see “Liar Liar, Jon Keyser” quite a bit in the coming months, and not because it rhymes.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► The Women’s Media Center and the Colorado Independent have some interesting insight into how issues of contraception and abortion are covered by the media. As we wrote yesterday:

The study looked at the authorship and use of sources in articles about reproductive issues in American politics at a number of leading daily newspapers around the nation. Colorado’s newspaper of record The Denver Post scored very low among those examined for both. Only 38% of stories in the Post on reproductive issues were authored by women while 53% were authored by men (the remainder had no byline at all). In terms of at least quoting women in stories about women’s reproductive issues, which you would think would be a priority, the Post did even worse: only 28% of such stories uses women sources. The only paper surveyed that did worse in this regard was the arch-conservative Wall Street Journal.

This is really quite stunning. The Denver Post — on average — quotes a man 52% of the time when discussing reproductive rights issues. Women are only quoted at a 28% rate, with further attributions going to organizations or “unknown” sources.

► Congressman Ken Buck (R-Greeley) has formally endorsed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for the Republican Presidential nomination.

► Immigration groups in Denver are celebrating a Supreme Court decision from Wednesday. As the Denver Post reports:

Immigrant-rights groups took to the steps of Colorado’s Supreme Court building Wednesday to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear a case concerning President Obama’s executive action to protect some undocumented immigrant families from deportation…

…The Supreme Court’s decision came after a federal appeals court filed an injunction last year, suspending the implementation of DAPA — the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program.

The program would give “individuals who, as of November 20, 2014, have a son or daughter who is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident” the possibility to live and work legally in the U.S., according to court documents.

The appeals court ruled that the Obama administration overreached its authority when it made its executive decision to approve the program. The high court will hear the case in the spring, and a decision is likely by June.

 

► Durango officials have given the thumbs-up for a Superfund designation intended to help clean up scores of abandoned mines in Colorado. The town of Silverton is still trying to make up its mind.

► A Thornton Democrat is pushing legislation to change the name of the “Columbus Day” holiday in Colorado to “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” We don’t have a problem with this idea, though advertisers for auto dealerships and furniture manufacturers are going to need to work on a new script for their annual “sales.”

► The Colorado legislature will debate various matters surrounding the issue of fracking in Colorado, which seems destined for a ballot battle in November regardless of what happens under the State Capitol.

► Legislators are debating a bill that supporters claim would eliminate “unnecessary paperwork” currently required on certain issues by the Colorado Department of Revenue. Is it really necessary to spend legislative time discussing something unnecessary? Oh, sorry, we answered our own question there.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Republicans have yet to choose their Presidential nominee for 2016, but onetime supporters of Jeb! Bush are already trying to figure out who to blame for the inevitable failure of the Jeb! campaign. If we had a vote, we’d cast one for the person who had the idea to put a giant exclamation point after “Jeb” on early campaign materials.

► You’ve no doubt heard plenty of talk about how the Republican Party “establishment” is terrified that Ted Cruz or Donald Trump could end up as the GOP nominee for President. What you haven’t heard as much is that these establishment figures are not interested in pushing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as the alternative choice.

ICYMI

► Bob Dole thinks that Republicans are headed for “cataclysmic” losses in November if Ted Cruz is the GOP nominee for President. We’ll never be able to think about Bob Dole without first imagining Norm Macdonald’s Saturday Night Live parody of “The Real World.”

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