Speaking of land management

The Trump administration withdrew the controversial nomination of William “Perry” Pendley to head the Bureau of Land Management on Saturday amid signs that the choice would hurt the reelection prospects of Republican Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Steve Daines (Mont.).

[...]

Earlier this month, the Montana League of Conservation Voters put up an ad showing beautiful vistas behind signs saying “FOR SALE PUBLIC LAND.” The ad calls Pendley an “anti-public land zealot” and urges voters to “tell Steve Daines our public lands are not for sale.”

[...]

The nomination was controversial because Pendley, who previously was president of the right-wing Mountain States Legal Foundation, had once urged the sale of federal lands. And at the foundation, he had sued the Interior Department on behalf of an oil and gas prospector, sought to undermine protections of endangered species such as the grizzly bear, and pressed to radically reduce the size of federal lands to make way for development.

  WaPo

BTW, Pendley is still acting chief of the bureau.  If Trump doesn't nominate anyone else - and I don't see why he would - Pendley will be in charge.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

2020 campaign funding favoring Dems

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) outraised Sen. Cory Gardner (R) in the latest quarter in Colorado's high-profile Senate race.

Hickenlooper, who launched his senate campaign after dropping out of the White House race, raised more than $4 million in the first quarter of 2019, compared with about $2.4 million for Gardner, according to new filings with the Federal Election Commission. However, Hickenlooper has only about $4.9 million in the bank, while Gardner has $9.6 million cash on hand.

Hickenlooper announced his Senate campaign against Gardner in August after lackluster polling forced him out of the presidential race. He had previously ruled out a Senate run but was heavily courted by establishment Democrats who are eager to unseat Gardner.

The former governor will have to face off against a host of other Democrats in Colorado’s primary scheduled for June but has the backing of the party’s Senate campaign arm and is the favorite to win.

  The Hill

And, two big ones:

Democratic Senate candidate Jamie Harrison outpaced Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) in fundraising during the first three months of 2020, marking the first time the Democrat has done so this election cycle.

Harrison raised more than $7.3 million in the first quarter of the year, dwarfing the $3.5 million he raised in the fourth quarter of 2019 and setting a new South Carolina record for fundraising in a three-month period, his campaign said.

Graham's campaign also surpassed previous fundraising highs and raised $5.6 million, bringing the senator's total cash on hand to $12.8 million. The total represents the most a state or federal candidate has ever raised in South Carolina history, his campaign said. Harrison has a little more than $8 million on hand.

  The Hill

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Democratic opponent Amy McGrath outraised the longtime Republican senator in the first quarter of 2020 as Kentucky’s Senate race emerges as one of the most expensive battles of the election cycle.

McGrath, who has received a litany of endorsements from national Democratic figures, reported raising $12.8 million in the first three months of 2020 and ended the period with $14.7 million cash on hand. McConnell hauled in $7.5 million and finished the first quarter of the year with $14.9 million in the bank in his bid for a seventh Senate term.

[...]

McGrath’s haul is a gargantuan total for any Senate candidate, particularly a nonincumbent, and follows several other strong quarters. Though the Kentucky Democrat still has to win a primary race against state Rep. Charles Booker and Lincoln county farmer Mike Broihier, she is still the heavy favorite to win the Democratic nomination and face off against McConnell in November.

  The Hill

Trump admin FAIL and a Republican finds his spine

Officials in Montgomery County, Ala., say that thousands of medical masks the county received from the national stockpile last week were rotten and expired.

Local emergency management director Christi Thornton said the package of 5,880 procedure masks was ruined because they had dry rot, The Associated Press reported.

The face covers reportedly had a 2010 expiration date.

Thornton said a replacement shipment was received Wednesday.

[...]

In Los Angeles, 170 broken ventilators were received from the national stockpile, according to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

[...]

Due to the shortage of medical equipment in hospitals around the country responding to patients infected with the coronavirus, state governments have resorted to bidding and out-bidding other states for supplies.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said that competition is "creating a lot more problems for all of us."

“We the states are trying to actively get every piece of PPE that we can. We're bidding against one another, and in some cases, the federal government is taking priority,” she said, referring to personal protective equipment.

  The Hill

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) is requesting an investigation into reports of "mismanagement" of ventilators in the Strategic National Stockpile amid growing demand for the equipment as the coronavirus spreads across the country.

Gardner sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General, noting that the stockpile is, under federal law, supposed to allow the federal government to support states in a public health emergency.

"Troubling reports indicate that potential contracting delays and maintenance failures are contributing to a low supply of operational ventilators during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic at a time when our country desperately needs them," Gardner wrote.

Gardner is asking for the HHS watchdog to investigate if there was a "lapse in contracts that led to a lapse in maintaining" the ventilators in the national stockpile. If so, he wants to know how long the equipment went without maintenance and if regulatory or changes from Congress are needed.

[...]

Gardner, who faces a difficult reelection race this fall, also wants to know if there was "mismanagement that led to a shortage of working ventilators or other critical medical supplies or equipment."

[...]

The New York Times reported that thousands of ventilators in the country's stockpile are inoperable because a contract with a company tasked with maintaining the equipment lapsed last year. The contract was not given to another company until January.

  The Hill

I hope Senator Gardner is ready for nasty-tweet and McConnell revenge.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Cracks in the wall

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) will break with President Trump and vote to reopen the government without funding for a border wall, his spokesman told The Denver Post editorial board.

Gardner is one of three Republicans expected to vote to advance the "clean" funding bill.

Gardner’s spokesman told the Post that the senator planned to vote for a “clean funding bill … with no border-security funding attached.”

Gardner, who is up for reelection in 2020 in a state where Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton defeated Trump in 2016, also intends to vote for a measure backed by Trump that the Senate will consider on Thursday.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are also expected to vote for the clean funding bill.

[...]

The Senate will first take up Trump’s immigration-centric proposal, which asks for $5.7 billion in funding for the wall and would grant protections to some immigrants.

The second proposal involves a two-week stopgap funding bill to fund the government through Feb. 8 and allow time for lawmakers and Trump to reach a long-term deal.

[...]

Both of the measures the Senate is considering on Thursday are expected to fall short of the 60 votes needed to advance.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

States' rights may actually become stronger under Trump

Not because he promotes that, as he seemed to indicate he would, but because he's trying to trample on them.

The U.S. attorney for the District of Colorado said Thursday that his office would not change how it prosecutes marijuana-related offenses, despite changes to federal guidance.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday rescinded Obama-era guidance that deprioritized marijuana-related prosecutions in states that have legalized the substance.

In a pointed statement, U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer said Colorado is "already" guided by the principle of focusing prosecutions on "the greatest safety threats to our communities around the state," according to The Associated Press. Colorado legalized marijuana use and possession in 2012.

  The Hill

Two Florida lawmakers are teaming up to oppose the Trump administration's proposed plan to expand offshore drilling around the state, citing the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) announced Thursday evening on Twitter that she would join Sen. Bill Nelson's (D-Fla.) letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke opposing any expansion of offshore drilling in Florida after the administration said it would sharply expand offshore drilling.

[...]

"This plan is an assault on Florida’s economy, our national security, the will of the public, and the environment. This proposal defies all common sense and I will do everything I can to defeat it," Nelson tweeted.

Nelson has vowed to use the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to block the Trump administration from changing Obama-era guidelines on oil rig inspections put in place after the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010 that killed 11 people and sent at least 4.9 million barrels of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.

“The BP spill devastated my state's economy and 11 people lost their lives,” Nelson said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “That's why I plan to subject this misguided rule to the Congressional Review Act.”

  The Hill

Wait until November when the Republicans lose control over Congress. I hope.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

You've probably heard Jeff Sessions is trying to take Marijuana back to the bad old days

Colorado stands to lose a good income.

That about sums it up.

Who the Hell is this idiot?

If he ran as a Democrat, and won as a Democrat, the "right thing" to do is vote with the Democrats, nimrod.  What are you sniffing?

Good God.  The National Republican Senatorial Committee needs a new chairman.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.