Donald Trump’s close political and personal friend, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is determined to keep his notorious stranglehold on the Senate.
As part of his longtime desire to reshape the federal judiciary, especially our Supreme Court and the lower federal courts, into a firmly
hyper-conservative mold, McConnell refused to allow any consideration to be given to President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland, after ultra-conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died suddenly in early 2016. No hearings, no consideration, and the seat was not filled until after Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton in November 2016.
And McConnell succeeded, because he was able to ram through the Senate two of Trump’s nominees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanagh, both well-known judicial conservatives. And the conservatives on the Court are in the majority there.
Given that Trump is more than likely to be making a permanent move to Mar-a-Lago on January 20, he will, no doubt, pull down with him a lot of Republican senators who are up for re-election in November.
Cory Gardner is Colorado’s junior senator, and he is a Republican. He’s up for re-election, and no Republican is running against him in the GOP primary. Gardner receives millions of dollars in campaign contributions from Wayne LaPierre’s National Rifle Association.
When Trump came to Colorado for a big big fundraiser for Gardner, the two stood together and Trump crowed that Gardner had voted with him one hundred percent of the time.
Gardner is a chipmunk disguised as a poltician, and by smiling all the time and being upbeat, he was elected to the Senate in 2014, narrowly defeating pro-environment Senator Mark Udall.
When the Access Hollywood video came out in late October 2016, in which Trump bragged about his prowess as a male chauvinist pig, Gardner announced he would not be voting for the nominee of his party; but McConnell put him in charge of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, McConnell’s fund-raising arm for keeping the Senate, from 2017 to 2019.
Maine and Colorado are two of the many states that Hillary Clinton won in 2016, and Gardner and Maine’s Republican senator, Susan Collins (who voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court) are the most vulnerable Republicans in November.
And Moscow Mitch is bound to lose in November — we hope — though the Bluegrass State is solidly red.
Some ten good Democrats ran this year to get on the ballot in Colorado’s Democratic primary for the Senate, but only two Democrats were able to make it to the ballot: former State House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, and former Governor John Hickenlooper.
Romanoff, 53 and very energetic, is running in the progressive lane, while Hickenlooper, the former beer magnate and 68, is in the moderate lane. Hickenlooper lives in a large home in East Denver, while Romanoff lives in a humble abode in Aurora.
Earlier this year, a group of dark money Republicans filed charges against Hickenlooper for violations of the ethics provisions of the Colorado Constitution. A hearing was set on those charges by the Centennial State’s Independent Ethics Commission. Recently, a hearing was held on two of the charges, which involved Hickenlooper's having accepted, while Governor, free transportation on private planes, one of which belongs to bigtime Metro Denver Developer Larry Mizel.
“Hick" did not attend the first of two Commission hearings, and the Commission found him in contempt — thus handing a huge gift to Colorado’s Republicans that they will be able to use if Hickenlooper wins the nomination (final day to vote is June 30).
Hickenlooper ran for President this year, but he dropped out of the race when he received only a few votes in the infamous First in the Nation Primary in New Hampshire, the “Live Free or Die" State. Soon after that, he announced that he is running in the Democratic primary to defeat Gardner.
While he was running for President, and not gaining traction, Hickenlooper said he was "not cut out to be a Senator."
“Hick” was greatly encouraged to run for the Senate by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who heads the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC). By doing so, Schumer broke protocol by making an endorsement in the primary, only because he is himself a moderate Democrat and because it’s his job to help elect Democrats to take back the Senate. But an endorsement by the DSCC carries with it a promise to bring big bucks into one’s campaign.
As a member of the Central Committee of the Denver Democratic Party, your solitary reporter spoke at the most recent Central Committee meeting in support of a motion strongly criticizing the DSCC for making an endorsement in the contested primary. The motion passed nearly unanimously.
Romanoff accepts NO campaign contributions from PAC committees or other political action committees.
But Hickenlooper does.
All of which is why your solitary reporter, associate solitary reporter Lewis Thompson III, and associate solitary reporter Sylvia Kenwood voted for Romanoff, who faces an uphill battle against the far-better funded Hickenlooper, who avoided all 21 forums before the March 7 Democratic Caucus (which was poorly attended because of COVID-19). Hickenlooper and Romanoff have held two virtual debates this month. Hickenlooper’s campaign has been luckluster, in sharp contrast to Romanoff’s.