February 24, 2016 11:34 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (Feb. 24)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Take heart, Rockies fans; Donald Trump was once thought to be a longshot contender for President. 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…

► The Nevada caucuses are in the books. We learned two important lessons from last night: 1) Donald Trump is kicking ass everywhere he goes, and 2) Nevada Republicans run their caucus process much like your senile grandparents might organize things.

It’s looking like a good bet that Trump will be the GOP nominee for President, and his candidacy has splintered the Republican Party in yet another direction.

Trump is also picking up his first group of Congressional endorsements. California Rep. Duncan Hunter and New York Rep. Chris Collins are reading the writing on the wall and falling in behind His Hairness.

► The Iowa caucuses are just three weeks old, but if you’re Ted Cruz, it must seem like the they took place three years ago. Cruz will need his home state to come up big next week, or he could be facing the end of his Presidential candidacy. As “The Fix” explains:

The senator from Texas finished third — behind Trump and Rubio — for the second time in four days. He can spin that however he likes, but if you dig inside the Nevada entrance poll there are signs of real problems for Cruz. As in South Carolina, Trump beat Cruz among evangelical voters — this time by a wide 15-point margin. (Cruz and Rubio were essentially tied for second among evangelicals.) And, among those who don’t identify as born-again Christians — six in 10 Nevada Republican caucus-goers — Cruz got swamped by 32 points.

Cruz must now win his home state of Texas in six days’ time to stay in the race as a viable candidate; it’s a do-or-die moment for a candidate who came out of Iowa just 23 days ago looking like the best bet to be the party’s nominee. [Pols emphasis]

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► President Obama is pushing to close the camps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, though nobody seems to want to house the detainees in their state. As the Associated Press reports:

The long-awaited proposal, which was requested by Congress, is Obama’s last attempt to make good on an unfulfilled campaign promise by persuading Congress to change the law that prohibits moving detainees accused of violent terrorist acts to U.S. soil.

U.S. officials say the plan considers, but does not name, 13 locations in the U.S., including seven existing prison facilities in Colorado, South Carolina and Kansas, as well as six other locations on military bases. They say the plan doesn’t state a preferred site and the cost estimates are meant to provide a starting point for a conversation with Congress.

Colorado Republicans have long opposed any proposal to move some of the Gitmo detainees to a secure facility in Canon City, Colorado. Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) is also voicing his opposition to any plan that would move Guantanamo prisoners to our state.

► Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) plans to visit the Guantanamo Bay facility within the next couple of days, according to the Denver Post. Gardner and Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran will be making the trip together, but are not expected to stay as Gitmo guests.

Gardner’s office did not respond to media requests for comment on the trip, because, you know, questions are hard.

► Colorado Republicans continue to move forward with legislative attempts to get rid of concealed-carry permits for firearms, because the Wild West looks awesome in old movies. The adults in the room — House Democrats — will almost certainly stop this idiotic idea now that it has made it out of the State Senate on a party-line vote.

► Congressman Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) says that President Obama is a “recruiting tool” for terrorists because he is a weak Commander in Chief. Classy guy!

► Senate Republicans are (so far) refusing to even discuss a new Supreme Court nominee as long as Barack Obama is President. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell continues to point to that section of the Constitution that says the Senate can refuse to do its job for partisan political reasons.

► Senator John Kefalas is pushing for legislation to modernize the rules for Colorado Open Records Requests (or CORAs).

► Colorado anti-fracking groups have dropped seven potential proposals for ballot measures in 2016 as they attempt to narrow their focus for November. As Cathy Proctor reports for the Denver Business Journal:

In early February, Tricia Olson, a spokeswoman for Coloradans Resisting Extreme Energy Development (CREED), which filed the 11 proposals in late December, said the group was in the process of deciding which proposals to keep on the road to the 2016 ballot box.

“While we didn’t want to eliminate any proposals, we always knew that we could only run one to two. At this point, it’s a process of elimination to get down to one or two,” Olson said then.

Proctor writes that there are still three proposals being considered by CREED, including measures dealing with mandatory setbacks and local control.

► The Pueblo Chieftain publishes a story about an event involving Secretary of State Wayne Williams penned by his Communications Director, Lynn Bartels. Well now, there’s nothing weird about that.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► If at first (and second, and third) you don’t succeed…another Personhood ballot measure could materialize in 2016.

► Florida Sen. Marco Rubio continues to pick up high-profile endorsements in his campaign for President. Few of these surrogates can speak to anything that Rubio has actually accomplished, however.

ICYMI

► The Colorado Rockies will play their first Spring Training games next week, and everything should be uphill from there. The Rockies’ odds of winning the World Series are a depressing 200-1.

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