April 28, 2016 10:27 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (April 28)

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• by: Colorado Pols

All these April showers had better bring some serious May flowers. 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…

► Ted Cruz’s quixotic announcement of “running mate” Carly Fiorina yesterday, which has baffled the political world since, well, he’s probably going to lose outright at this point to Donald Trump, remains today’s big political story:

Ted Cruz on Thursday said his campaign for the Republican nomination would continue “as long as we have a path to victory,” expressing confidence that he would earn a majority of the delegates needed to clinch the nomination during the Republican National Convention…

“Well, we are fighting to the end, we are fighting to win, and we are going to do everything possible to win here in Indiana. We’re barnstorming right now,” Cruz said, ticking through his three campaign events scheduled across the state and encouraging Katz’s listeners to visit both his usual campaign website and the one launched yesterday to mark the choice of his vice presidential pick, Carly Fiorina, CruzCarly.com.

Katz attempted to clarify what Cruz meant later in the same interview, to which the Texas senator responded, “We are continuing as long as we have a path to victory, and I believe we are going to earn a majority of the delegates at the convention.”

Local Republicans appear a bit befuddled by the whole Fiorina thing too.

► Meanwhile, the long goodbye begins for Bernie Sanders as his campaign begins laying off staff en masse. The Sanders campaign and millions of supporters now face the challenge of putting a bruising primary campaign behind them and uniting against a common foe–and that foe is not Hillary Clinton.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► In an interesting twist, the lawyer handling Jon Keyser’s challenge to the Secretary of State’s decision throwing him off the 2016 U.S. Senate ballot is also the Colorado Republican Party’s attorney. If you’re one of Keyser’s opponents, you might have a word in mind besides “interesting.”

► Rep. Jared Polis got his colleagues in the GOP-dominated House to do something you’ll like for a change: pass enhanced privacy protections for your email.

► Gov. John Hickenlooper’s nominated new Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne passed her first confirmation hearing in the House yesterday, picking up the support of GOP Rep. Cole Wist along the way.

► Legislature: Sorry Republicans, but Colorado will continue to work toward the goals of the federal Clean Power Plan despite their repeated stabs at the funding to do so.

► WHY THE HELL DID THE “ROLLING COAL” BILL DIE? This is an affront to the dignity of every Prius owner in our state living in fear of passing trucks, and other fans of clean air too.

► The bill to “ban the box,” or disallow questions about criminal history from an initial application, clears the House but faces almost certain death in the “no second chances” GOP-controlled Senate.

► A bill from Sen. Morgan Carroll to stop the practice of jailing people who can’t pay fines for petty offenses appears headed toward passage.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► This weekend, the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs will fully reopen following the domestic terror attack on the facility last November. The clinic had been partially reopened while repairs continued.

► Boulder County DA Stan Garnett seeks the maximum penalty for Dynel Lane, the woman accused in the grisly attack on a pregnant Longmont woman–126 years. A long sentence for Lane should take the politics out of the debate over her crime, which was crassly appropriated by pro-life Republicans seeking backdoors to undermine abortion rights.

ICYMI

► Senate Democrats voted unanimously against legislation to jack up interest rates on subprime loans. Big win for the little guys and caucus discipline.

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