April 14, 2016 11:35 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (April 14)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Stock up now, Coloradans; we could get “up to” 35 feet of snow this weekend. 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…

► Supporters of Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump are pretty angry about what took place in Colorado last weekend, when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz captured all 34 delegates at the GOP State Convention. We can understand their frustration to a degree, but death threats against State Party Chair Steve House are completely absurd. Besides, anybody who follows politics in Colorado should know that House is having a hard enough time just keeping the State Party functioning at all (just ask Cynthia Coffman.)

Meanwhile, as our friends at “The Fix” explain, His Hairness is actually making some pretty smart political moves lately.

► El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn has indeed taken control of the Republican race for U.S. Senate. Now, can he hold on through the June 28th Primary?

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► So much for that. Former lawmaker Al White has decided to end his short-lived campaign for State Senate in SD-8 after little more than a month as an official candidate.

► Perry Who? Democrat Morgan Carroll was unanimously nominated by Democrats to run against Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) in CD-6.

► Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been channelling his inner Rickey Henderson.

► Members of the Denver School Board have some serious explaining to do after appointing a new Board Member on Tuesday who is a convicted child abuser. MiDian Z. Holmes was apparently one of 20 candidates seeking to fill a vacancy created by the departure of Landri Taylor. No word on how bad the other 19 candidates must have been.

► Congressman Mike Coffman may need a lesson in irony. As the Denver Post reports:

Members of Colorado’s congressional delegation slammed U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald this week for touting his agency’s reform accomplishments during a Denver speech.

The VA has overhauled its construction practices, shortened patient-care waiting lists, become more efficient at meeting veterans’ needs and made other improvements,  McDonald said during a speech Monday. His comments about how the agency has responded in the wake of its  Aurora hospital construction debacle, struck a particular nerve with some in the Colorado delegation.

“I was deeply disappointed in McDonald’s speech … and it says everything about why he has not made a difference in cleaning up the VA,” U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, wrote in an e-mail to The Denver Post on Monday. “Pure spin. No substance. He is merely a place holder.” [Pols emphasis]

Remember, friends: Coffman is the Chairman of the Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee under the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. “Pure spin?” “No substance?” Yeah, Coffman is familiar with that.

► Western Colorado residents are not happy with a move from Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Cortez) that would open up new lands for oil and gas drilling operations. From the Glenwood Springs Post Independent:

Lands west of McClure Pass proposed to be leased over to SG Interests for oil and gas development in exchange for disputed leases in the neighboring Thompson Divide area to the north “is not just acreage to me,” says Paonia resident Phyllis Swackhamer.

“It’s my home,” she protested at a meeting before the Garfield County commissioners in Glenwood Springs Wednesday called to discuss a draft lease exchange bill released by U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton this week.

In fact, about half of the 16 or so citizens gathered to comment on the proposal came over from the North Fork Valley to speak out against the measure.

Most felt the lease exchange, particularly as it involves SG’s leases, would essentially transfer to their back yard the same impacts and concerns the proposal seeks to remove from the Thompson Divide.

“I don’t know where this draft bill came from, but it does not reflect the conversations we’ve had in our communities,” said Allison Elliott, referring to discussions between community groups and commissioners from Delta and Gunnison counties about public lands protections in the North Fork Valley.

► Legislators in Colorado are considering a bill that would expand whistleblower protections for government workers in cites, counties, and school districts.

► The Colorado legislature has agreed on the 2016 state budget after weeks of negotiations, as The Denver Post reports:

A pitched partisan battle in Colorado about the federal  Clean Power Plan that enveloped the $25.8 billion state budget bill ended Wednesday with a face-saving compromise.

Democratic and Republican budget writers agreed to cut $112,00 from the state’s air quality division, a move far less drastic than the original spending bill, which eliminated $8.5 million and jeopardized the equivalent of 95 employees in the division.

The final reduction is an estimate of the expenses associated with the Department of Public Health and Environment’s work on the tougher emissions regulations proposed by the Obama administration…

…Rep. Bob Rankin, a Republican budget writer from Carbondale, acknowledged the earlier cuts went too far. But he called the compromise “a small victory.”

Congratulations, Rep. Rankin, on holding Colorado’s budget hostage in order to make a lame political point.

► Today lawmakers will hear testimony about a new bill requiring “freestanding emergency clinics” to disclose up-front that they really can’t do much to help you in a serious medical emergency. 

► Republican advisor Karl Rove and his American Crossroads superPAC appears to be warming to the possibility that Donald Trump could become the Republican nominee for President.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Democratic Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton will square off in a debate in Brooklyn, New York tonight — just days ahead of the April 19th New York Primary.

► The State of Arizona is being sued by Democrats — and the Clinton Presidential campaign — over voter access to polling places after numerous reports last month that voters had to wait for up to five hours just to vote in the state’s Presidential Primary.

ICYMI

► Congratulations to the Golden State Warriors for setting the new single-season record for wins in an NBA season. The Warriors defeated the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday for their 73rd win of the year…which is only 40 more wins than the Denver Nuggets this season.

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