July 11, 2016 01:17 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Monday (July 11)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Hot enough for ya? 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). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump says he will make up his mind on choosing a running mate within the next couple of days. From “The Fix”:

“I have 5 people including the General [Michael T. Flynn],” Trump told me in a 25-minute phone conversation Mondaymorning. “I do like the military but I do very much like the political.” Trump added that “in my mind I have someone that would be really good.”

While Trump was careful not to eliminate Flynn, it was clear that he believed picking someone “political” was the right move, meaning, presumably, that former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin are in his final four.

Trump is working with a relatively small list of contenders in large part because most potential VP candidates on the Republican side want nothing to do with His Hairness. The Republican National Convention kicks off next week in Cleveland, OH.

► Colorado Republican candidates who were hoping for a strong “ground game” this fall — organized through the Presidential ticket — had better start looking at Plan B. The likes of Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) and 2016 GOP Senate nominee Darryl Glenn are traveling around Colorado on some sort of “unity tour,” but the mood among Colorado Republicans is far from festive.

The Associated Press has more on the GOP’s ground game troubles from a national perspective:

Presidential battleground states were supposed to be swarming with Republican Party workers by now.

“We’ve moved on to thousands and thousands of employees,” party chairman Reince Priebus declared in March, contrasting that with the GOP’s late-blooming staffing four years earlier. “We are covering districts across this country in ways that we’ve never had before.”

That hasn’t exactly happened, a state-by-state review conducted by The Associated Press has found.

With early voting beginning in less than three months in some states, the review reveals that the national GOP has delivered only a fraction of the ground forces detailed in discussions with state leaders earlier in the year. And that is leaving anxious local officials waiting for reinforcements to keep pace with Democrat Hillary Clinton in the states that matter most in 2016.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Republican Rep. Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt is apparently nearly broke (financially) after spending some $36,000 of his own money in a losing effort at winning a State Senate Primary last month. It’s a little more difficult to gauge the financial situation of Dr. Chaps’ “Pray in Jesus Name” nonprofit organization.

► Denver Mayor Michael Hancock delivered his annual “State of the City” speech today. As Jon Murray reports for the Denver Post:

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock on Tuesday is announcing a “call to action” on several fronts, with expanded initiatives aimed at helping those who have been left out of the city’s recent prosperity.

“Opportunity is the right of everyone,” Hancock says in prepared remarks that he was set to deliver at 11 a.m. in his annual State of the City address. This year’s event is on a plaza outside the new Westin hotel at Denver International Airport.

“Progress does not have to leave anyone behind — it should bring everyone along,” he says. “And this I commit to you: We will take action to make this vision a reality. Your city will be with you every step of the way. We will show up. We will lean in. We will never give up. And we will succeed. All of us, together.”

His speech outlines expanded city efforts to address lingering unemployment, affordable housing gaps, homelessness, economic development needs, transportation challenges and other issues.

► Former Indiana Governor and Senator Evan Bayh will indeed enter the U.S. Senate race in Indiana. This is big news, as Bayh gives Democrats a real shot at picking up a Senate seat that wasn’t previously thought to be winnable.

► You may not recognize the name Kendal Unruh, but the Colorado Republican is poised to play a significant role at the Republican National Convention next month.

► Another potential Colorado ballot measure bites the dust, as The Cannabist reports:

The activists aiming to implement strict THC limits on Colorado’s recreational marijuana industrywill withdraw the controversial Amendment 139 next week, their attorney told The Cannabist on Friday.

“139 is done,” said attorney Frank McNulty, Colorado’s former Speaker of the House and the lawyer representing the Healthy Colorado Coalition, made up of citizens pushing for tighter controls on the cannabis industry. “This is something I spent a great deal of time on in my last two years in the legislature, and my interest in protecting our state and our kids hasn’t waned since then…

…A representative with the Colorado Health Research Council — the well-funded coalition created by the marijuana industry and its partners to fight 139 and other attacks on the industry — responded to the withdrawal of the amendment by calling it a “poorly drafted initiative.”

Whoever keeps hiring former GOP Rep. Frank McNulty for these ballot measure campaigns might want to see if they can get their money back.

► Colorado Libertarian candidates think 2016 might just be their year to shine. If any year was going to be good for Libertarians, it would probably be this one; but it’s probably safer to go the route of the Colorado Rockies and perpetually announce “wait till’ next year!”

► Former Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Howard Gelt died on Friday at the age of 73. Gelt had been fighting esophageal cancer.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► At Least She’s Not Your Congresswoman.

► If you wanted to be an astronaut when you grew up but didn’t quite make the cut, this might make you feel better.

ICYMI

► If you picked Theresa May to become the next Prime Minister of Britain, you may collect your winnings.

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