•The independent Military Voter Protection Project has certified to Attorney General Eric Holder that Colorado has satisfactorily complied with Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, sending military ballots out by the September 18 deadline.
•More ramifications if the GOP candidate for governor, Dan Maes, fails to reach 10 percent on November 2: In addition to demotion to “minor party” status, the amount candidates will be able to raise will be halved.
•Karl Rove cites a new Pew poll stressing GOP enthusiasm and Republican-leaning independents as key components in the shift in the political landscape from the last two cycles, when Democrats dominated on the local and national levels.
•Not good for Democrats: “Young People And Minorities Are All The President Has Left.”
U.S. Senate
•Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight/New York Times forecasts the highest level of confidence to date of Buck’s chances of victory on November 2, up to 79.4 percent. The race continues to be a toss-up, according to Cook Political Report’s September 30 update.
•Buck thanked Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) after a meeting in D.C.
•Bennet and Buck trade truancy barbs.
•Buck’s BennetvsBennet YouTube channel delivers another video of constituents addressing Bennet in town halls and other meetings, concerned about debt, health care, and the economy:
•Friday video humor: “Rubberstamp Man” just wants to be heard.
House
•Endangered House Democrats like Rep. Betsy Markey (CO-4) and Rep. John Salazar (CO-3) are running away from their party ties.
CO-1
•Mike Fallon debuts a pair of new ads, with the first–”Name Tags”–asking voters to “forget DeGette”:
The second ad, “Pride of Colorado,” argues that the $43,000 in debt left to each child “jeopardizes” their future with “reckless spending band-aid programs”:
CO-2
•Shock poll: Rep. Jared Polis is still headed for victory (up 48 to 36 percent), but the numbers are still not that good in what should be an non-competitive, safe-Democrat seat:
Among all voters, 44% of respondents prefer the Democrat candidate and 42% the Republican candidate. These numbers are reflective of the poor mood nationally for the Democrat party, and taking into account the turnout demographics for this district are 40% Democrat, 29% Republican and 31% unaffiliated. Among unaffiliated voters 32% prefer the Democrat candidate and 45% prefer the Republican candidate. Clearly these are not good news for Democrat incumbent Jared Polis.
CO-4
•Rep. Betsy Markey and GOP challenger Cory Gardner part ways on social issues, though the prominence of these topics has been minimized this cycle.
•RNC chairman Michael Steele’s failure to recognize National Republican Congressional Committee “Young Gun” Gardner in a stop in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District was an “oversight.” Gardner had a prior commitment, which the campaign spokeswoman Rachel Boxer confirmed to Battle ‘10 days before the appearance by Steele.
Governor
•Colorado GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams says troubled gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is not hurting other Republican candidates.