reflections : #Colorado News: this week from the @CoIndependent

Saturday, March 31, 2018

#Colorado News: this week from the @CoIndependent

…by way of an experiment to facilitate sharing this weekly Saturday morning update to my Manor Facebook page because this weekly update doesn't come with a permalink and I keep losing track of which day the link appears on the website -- intending to check then forgetting until the next one lands in my email inbox. For now, I'll send to drafts in case I need to edit layout or html code for formatting. If the newsletter displays well without reformatting tweaks, I'll change the setting to publish automatically.

This week's top stories

Consensus in Colorado's Trump Country: Candidate who? Gov race still anyone's game

If the Republicans who flooded a university campus in heavily conservative Colorado Springs last Saturday are any indication, political reporter Corey Hutchins writes in our most-read story this week, the governor's race is still very much up for grabs in the lead-up to the April 14 state assembly. "I'm not even sure how many candidates there are," one attendee told him.

At another assembly, this one in Jefferson County, one message came through loud and clear: If Republicans want to keep their hold on the state Senate, they need unaffiliated voters to join their ranks.

Drama between two Republican candidates over allegations of illegal ballot signatures. An official-unofficial ranking of all the top candidates. Where they stand on issues like transportation, immigration and TABOR. It's all there, right now, on our 2018 Governor's Race page. Don't miss it.

Colorado's grand bargain to create a national model for redistricting

Two groups readying for a major battle over how Colorado draws its political lines have now laid down their swords and joined forces in a bargain they say will end partisan gerrymandering.

GRIEGO: Washington policy could worsen Colorado's problem with hunger

"Are we being punished for being poor?" Managing editor and columnist Tina Griego this week gives a voice to the Coloradans who would hurt most from proposed cuts to the food stamp program.

Littwin: Stormy Daniels, Sen. Baumgardner and ranking the candidates for governor

Our veteran political columnist this week discusses why the Stormy Daniels saga is not about sex, whether a GOP state senator should resign and where the governor's race stands right now.

A federal judge lowered the bar for passing constitutional ballot measures in Colorado

The ruling came after a lawsuit filed by groups who opposed 2016's "Raise the Bar" initiative, an effort that sought to curb the number of constitutional amendments put to Colorado voters.

This week at the Statehouse: Prison beds, net neutrality and a same-sex wedding cakes

Legislative reporter John Herrick has you covered on a fight to save net neutrality in rural areas, an effort to rollback LGBTQ protections and the House's snub of more private prison beds.