Colorado Pols

Heidi the Hypocrite: What you can do to fight for progress this week (January 24)

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 01:32:50 +0200

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As you may have seen in the news this weekend, right-wing CU Regent Heidi Ganahl announced she’s running for governor of Colorado.

But wait, you ask. Didn’t that already happen?

And the answer is, yes it did! But Ganahl’s first launch of her campaign last September was such a dismal failure that she had to “re-launch” her campaign Saturday. Unfortunately for everyone, Ganahl’s “new” campaign is the same old hypocrisy:

Heidi Ganahl still won’t say whether she believes the …

Lamborn Ethics Investigation Moves Forward(er)

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 22:50:40 +0200

Things aren’t looking great for Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs), who is facing an ethics committee investigation and a separate lawsuit related to some pretty serious allegations of creating a toxic workplace environment.

That’s the word from Chris Marquette, Congressional ethics and accountability reporter for CQ Roll Call. We’re inclined to take Marquette’s word on this, since a press release issued by the committee today is fully ensconced inside a thick sheen of congressional-ese gibberish that is difficult for regular English-speaking people to understand.

Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., misused official resources for personal and non-official …

Defending The Indefensible (Again) With Wayne Laugesen

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 22:25:07 +0200

As longtime readers know, the editorial section of the arch-conservative Colorado Springs Gazette, which has extended its editorial footprint northward with the launch of the like-minded Denver Gazette, has a reputation for making laughably strained cases in defense of favored Republican politicians, ballot initiative campaigns, and luminaries near and far. During the 2018 governor’s race, the Gazette opined in defense of GOP nominee Walker Stapleton’s refusal to answer for his great-grandad’s KKK ties by suggesting that all Democrats starting with Jared Polis were tainted–even though condemning the KKK was not complicated for Polis since his great-grandad was not one.

…

Get More Smarter on Monday (Jan. 24)

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 20:07:42 +0200

Happy Day of the Unification of the Romanian Principalities. Please celebrate responsibly. Let’s Get More Smarter. 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 an audio learner, check out The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to find us on Facebook and Twitter.

CORONAVIRUS INFO…

*Colorado Coronavirus info:
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Don Coram Isn’t Taking Lauren Boebert’s Crap Lying Down

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 20:06:19 +0200

Ten days ago, freshman GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert’s campaign launched a wildly negative pre-emptive attack on her newly-filed primary opponent state Sen. Don Coram, broadcasting early her campaign’s well-grounded fear of a qualified Republican opponent. Much to the delight of Boebert’s detractors, Coram has demonstrated in this initial exchange of rhetorical fire that he has no intention of sitting passively while Boebert unleashes the trademark factually-challenged rageaholism against a fellow Republican that has typified her time in the public spotlight so far.

An examination by the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby today of Boebert’s allegations regarding Coram’s …
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Monday Open Thread

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 15:39:59 +0200

“What you guys want, I’m for.”

–Dan Quayle

Colorado Week in Review for January 23, 2022

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 19:34:45 +0200

awesome + uniting

Colorado unemployment rate lowest since pandemic began

Mikaela Shiffrin leads 17-member U.S. ski team nominated for Olympics

Thousands around Colorado march to remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision

awesome + controversy

Strike ends: King Soopers, UFCW Local 7 reach tentative agreement

Colorado to give out free KN95 masks at libraries, but program’s rollout leads to confusion

Grand Champion Steer Takes Center Stage At Brown Palace

awful + uniting

Lack Of Clean Water Forces Rapidly-Growing Town To Suddenly Stop Issuing Building …
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Hanks Blasts Dems and Geitner

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 17:33:59 +0200

In a Jan. 19 interview, state Rep. Ron Hanks (R-Cañon City) took aim at Democrats — as well as fellow state House Minority Leader Tim Geitner — for, respectively, their votes and failure to vote on a House resolution thanking Hanks for attending last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“We had a couple of Republican colleagues who mysteriously disappeared and were excused for some of these amendments including our illustrious assistant minority leader [state Rep. Tim Geitner (R-Colorado Springs],” Hanks on the Chuck and Julie podcast (at 29 minutes here).

Geitner managed “to make it back it time …
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Weekend Open Thread

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 06:30:28 +0200

“A mature society understands that at the heart of democracy is argument.”

–Salman Rushdie

Ron Hanks is a Monster of the GOP’s Own Creation

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 20:04:58 +0200

Colorado Republicans are nervous about Ron Hanks. They should be.

Hanks, the state representative from Penrose, has become the center of gravity in the race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. That’s not good for Colorado Republicans, and many in the State GOP are well aware of the problem.

Again, they should be aware…they created this monster.

Colorado Republicans are desperately trying to refute the notion that Hanks could be the frontrunner in a GOP Senate Primary for the right to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in November. As The Colorado Sun reports today in its “Unaffiliated” …
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Anyone Left To Offend? Lauren Boebert Just Can’t Help Herself

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 18:34:53 +0200

Media outlets in Israel overnight picked up on a Buzzfeed story yesterday, documenting an encounter in a U.S. Capitol elevator between freshman GOP controversy vortex Rep. Lauren Boebert and a group of Orthodox Jews on a tour of the building that…well, read it for yourself:

Members of the group, which was meeting with Rep. Tom Suozzi, were wearing yarmulkes, and the person coordinating the group is Orthodox, with a traditional beard.

One witness said the group, along with other members of Congress, was waiting for an elevator. When the doors opened, Boebert stepped out of the elevator and looked …
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Workers Claim Victory as King Soopers Strike Ends

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 17:14:09 +0200

9NEWS reports on an apparently victorious conclusion to the 9-day strike by King Soopers workers, with a new (but yet to be disclosed) tentative agreement that workers will vote to approve Monday:

The worker’s strike will end immediately and workers can return to work Friday, UFCW said in a release.

“After months of negotiations and after our members walked out on strike, we have reached a tentative agreement with King Soopers/City Market that addresses the Company’s unfair labor practices …
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Friday Open Thread

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 16:03:07 +0200

“Hypocrisy is the mother of all evil and racial prejudice is still her favourite child.”

–Don King

Cool Story, But YOU VOTED AGAINST THAT

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 21:35:56 +0200

Last summer we wrote about federal funding “earmarks,” also known as “Member Designated Projects” and “Community Project Funding Requests,” that included an oft-quoted graphic showing how Republicans in Colorado’s congressional delegation were responsible for all of $0 in federal funding returning to our state.

Despite the fact that most Republican Members of Congress — including everyone from Colorado — has been vocally opposed to supporting “earmarks” of any kind, that hasn’t stopped many of them from …
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Deadly Insurrection: It’s All One Big Joke To Jenna Ellis

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 21:12:30 +0200

As Colorado Newsline’s Julia Fennell reported yesterday, former Colorado Christian University “constitutional law professor” Jenna Ellis, who gained nationwide fame as one of the principal faces of ex-President Donald Trump’s legal team challenging the results in dozens of failed lawsuits across the country, has been subpoenaed by the Select Committee investigating the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol along with her boss Rudy Giuliani, crackpot attorney of record Sidney Powell, and Boris Epshteyn:

Ellis, 37, is accused of promoting claims that the 2020 election was stolen and participating in attempts to disrupt or delay the certification …
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Dahlkemper Won’t Run in CO-07; Path Clear for Pettersen

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 21:00:19 +0200

The dominoes continue to fall in the wake of Rep. Ed Perlmutter’s surprise retirement announcement earlier this month — and they keep falling in favor of State Sen. Brittany Pettersen (D-Lakewood).

As Ernest Luning reports for the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman:

Jefferson County Commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper has decided against running for the Colorado congressional seat held by retiring Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter. Instead, the Lakewood Democrat plans to stick with her bid for re-election, she told Colorado Politics.

Dahlkemper, a former member of the Jefferson County school board, said last week that she was …
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MAGA Candidates Drop Craziest Anti-Abortion Bill Yet

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 18:05:29 +0200

Against the backdrop of the 6-3 conservative U.S. Supreme Court hearing arguments in cases that could well mean the overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing abortion rights for all Americans, Republicans in the Colorado General Assembly are back in 2022 with an assortment of anti-abortion bills. Former House Minority Leader Patrick Neville has reintroduced his perennial bill making abortion a class 1 felony, and as we discussed yesterday, CD-8 candidate and Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer signed on as the Senate sponsor of a reprise “abortion surveillance” bill similar to one that died in the 2021 session.
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Thursday Open Thread

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 15:58:06 +0200

“If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.”

–Louis Brandeis

CD-8 Contender Kirkmeyer Jumps On Anti-Abortion Bill

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 22:15:37 +0200

For the second year in a row, GOP Rep. Stephanie Luck representing Otero along with portions of Fremont, and Pee-ebla Counties is the prime sponsor of legislation just introduced into the Colorado House that would require doctors to supply data on every abortion in Colorado to a new database set up by the state. Failure to make these reports would subject doctors and nurses to administrative sanction under the state’s malpractice statute. Rep. Luck is also the sponsor for a second straight year of a bill that would allow doctors to prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for COVID patients, …
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Get More Smarter on Wednesday (Jan. 19)

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 19:28:02 +0200

You’re gonna need a coat today. Let’s Get More Smarter. 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 an audio learner, check out The Get More Smarter Podcast. And don’t forget to find us on Facebook and Twitter.

CORONAVIRUS INFO…

*Colorado Coronavirus info:
CDPHE Coronavirus website

*Daily Coronavirus numbers in …
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