March 25, 2016 12:59 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Good Friday (March 25)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Happy Good Friday–which we’re pretty sure you’re not supposed to say since it’s the day Jesus died, but that requires a lot more explaining. 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…

► A new poll strongly suggests Republicans are losing the public as their stonewall against President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland continues:

President Barack Obama and not his successor elected in November should be the one who gets to nominate the next Supreme Court justice, according to the results of a national CNN/ORC poll released Friday.

Nearly six-in-10 — 57 percent — said Obama should be able to make the pick, which he did on March 16, sending the nomination of D.C. Circuit chief judge Merrick Garland to the Senate…

A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday found that 62 percent to 33 percent of registered voters said the Senate should consider Garland’s nomination, and a CBS News/New York Times poll suggested that 53 percent of Americans would like the Senate to vote on his nomination.

► Yesterday, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado again called for the Senate to take up Garland’s nomination in a speech at the University of Denver.

► In the Republican presidential primary, the long odds of stopping frontrunner Donald Trump look longer by the day–both in terms of the math and political reality:

To stop the billionaire from hitting, or coming very close to, the magic number of 1,237 delegates needed to seal the Republican nomination and to raise the prospect of a contested convention, they must do more than simply start snapping up victories in the remaining nominating contests: They must fundamentally reshape the political map.

Cruz, the Texas senator seen as extreme by many mainstream voters, would suddenly have to start appealing to moderates. And Kasich, the Ohio governor branded a RINO (Republican in Name Only) by many grass-roots activists must suddenly find an invisible connection to conservatives.

And even if that worked, both men would have to start winning big in precincts and entire states that look nothing like those where they have had success so far.

► Meanwhile, GOP insiders are telling Trump that if he doesn’t clinch the nomination outright with a majority of delegates, he can forget about the nomination. Sad!

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► In the Colorado General Assembly, the powerful Joint Budget Committee has hammered out a budget plan based on unexpectedly declining revenue that eliminates the small refunds that might have otherwise been issued under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. This development may have the effect of calming tensions over a major fiscal sticking point between Republicans and Democrats this year:

Without a rebate, the push to reclassify the hospital provider fee — a fight that dominated the session — is losing momentum because it would no longer affect the budget’s bottom line.

Hickenlooper, a lead supporter of the reclassification effort, acknowledged in an interview that the new budget picture has “diminished the urgency and critical nature of the hospital provider fee,” although he said the change is needed in future years.

► With tensions cooling over the hospital provider fee, controversy is shifting to Republican attempts to scuttle the state’s ongoing efforts to comply with the embattled federal Clean Power Plan–scorched-earth style if needed:

Colorado lawmakers opposed to the national Clean Power Plan moved Thursday to shut down the state’s division that enforces air quality standards and pollution controls.

The $27 billion state budget bill approved by the Joint Budget Committee did not give the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment the authority to spend $8.5 million on air pollution control after Republicans objected to the state’s work on the new regulations proposed by President Barack Obama.

The partisan stalemate between the three Republicans and three Democrats on the budget panel threatens the 95 employees who are charged with protecting Colorado residents from air pollution by issuing permits and inspecting sources of pollution.

► Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg may collect big subsidy checks from the federal government to keep his farm afloat, but he’ll be damned if you can have a rain barrel to water your garden.

► Rep. Joann Ginal of Fort Collins is trying to stop the unpleasant practice of “rolling coal”–diesel light trucks modified to spew huge amounts of soot black smoke at nearby unsuspecting Pruises.

► Sen. Randy “The Stache” Baumgardner helps kill this year’s I-70 snow tire bill, preserving your God-given right to endanger everyone else on Colorado’s icy roads.

► Sorry, Laura Woods–the state is doing what it can to tighten up the very lenient system by which Colorado parents can opt their children out of vaccination for basically any reason. There’s no new law, but they’ll at least have to opt-out each year in writing.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Colorado Democrats are trying once again in Congress to get legislation to clean up the West’s thousands of polluting mines moving.

► Colorado veterans sue for access to medical marijuana for PTSD.

ICYMI

► A controversial student art piece invoking the KKK and police brutality is, well, really controversial–even more so after police groups demanded it be removed.

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