(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Welcome Mesdames Monsoons, A Colorado State Open Thread, July 27, 2026 [1] ['News Corpse'] Date: 2026-07-27 After enduring drought and a winter with a critical lack of snow, followed by multiple large fires including one over 100,000 acres, we now have heat, roasting triple digit weather in many parts of our squarish state and thankfully, we now have monsoon rains that have brought us some moisture. Yes, we have had some flash flooding in burn scar areas but we also have moisture coming up from the south – from the Gulf of Mexico and the tropical storm, from southern California and Arizona and even perhaps from the west coast. We don’t much care where it comes from so long as it comes to Colorado, helps put out some of the fires, doesn’t start more and doesn’t cause too many mud slides or other problems. Sure, we would love to have a heavy snowpack over the winter for the water to build upon, but any water for our state is good water. There are predictions that this winter will have a good snowpack, but until we get it, I’ll take any water from any monsoon storms until we can get snow. Today I have visitors in from our neighboring state to the east, Kansas. Some might have guessed Nebraska or even Oklahoma, if you’re somewhat geographically challenged, but they come every year to help me celebrate my birthday. They’re good progressives and they help keep me informed about what’s happening in that rather red state. Kansas at least has a Democratic governor (Laura Kelly) and while they have a supermajority in their legislature of Republicans who love to overrule her, she did win a second term (with the largest budget surplus in state history – take that Republicants!) and she is now term limited and will have to step down next January. Kansas has a rather late primary – August 4th, and there are 7 Republicans and 3 Democrats competing to run in the November election for the Governor’s seat. For a rundown on the candidates, Yahoo News republished the Kansas City Star’s rundown. I will be travelling to Kansas next week to visit my sister and get an up-close and personal view of the campaigning in that state as well as Lauren Boebert’s district as I dare to drive through eastern side Colorado. I actually like the plains of Colorado and Kansas, though I hope the temperatures aren’t going to be in the triple digits and there aren’t going to be tornadoes and thunderstorms making travel risky. The plains can be beautiful and I’m going to be listening to books and/or podcasts. Maybe some radio plays. I will give you a report on Monday of what I’ve seen in the Open Thread, and if you have any suggestions for what I should look for on the way, please comment down below. I’ll be back later next week so I’ll have a return report in the following Open Thread. As for our state, in case you might have missed it, there has been an interesting development in the Colorado governor’s race on the Republican’s side. Per CBS Colorado, The Colorado Secretary of State’s office reports that Republican candidate for governor Victor Marx’s campaign broke the law by accepting excess contributions for the primary campaign for governor. The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office says the Republican gubernatorial nominee Victor Marx’s campaign received nearly 200 illegal campaign contributions during the primary election. Campaign finance law caps individual donations at $1,450 to reduce the outsized influence of wealthy donors and prevent quid pro quo corruption. The Election Division received complaints alleging the Marx Campaign had repeatedly violated the law. It launched an investigation and found the campaign accepted 197 illegal contributions totaling more than $78,000 over the limit. It says he also accepted another $1,000 in illegal cash donations. Darcy Schoening filed the complaints against the campaign. She says Marx may have won the primary, but he did so by cheating, stating, “His infractions are serious.” Marx beat State Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer by less than 2,500 votes. Schoening says $78,000 can make a difference in a close race: “That’s a mailer to several major cities. That’s a text message to over 100,000 people, and those things impact a campaign.” The Election Division says while the Marx Campaign said it would refund the donations, it hasn’t provided sufficient evidence it’s followed through. Former Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Taheri says the campaign could face steep fines, “He’s going back to the same people and continuing to collect more money over the limit, even after complaints were filed.” The Colorado Sun has more information on Darcy Schoening. The state’s investigation started on May 8, 2026, when Republican Darcy Schoening, a former GOP state party officer, filed 109 campaign finance complaints about Marx with the Division. Schoening filed additional complaints about the Marx campaign in the subsequent weeks and CBS Colorado reported on the allegations on June 16 during the height of the primary election. Schoening is now serving in the Trump administration in the Department of Health and Human Services and said she was prohibited from commenting on the state’s actions due to the Hatch Act. This could make a serious impact in this close race. What is the Election Division going to do? Is it going to disqualify Marx? The article says the fines could be more money than Marx’ campaign has in the bank. Of course, the outgoing Secretary of State was a Democrat, so her office is walking on thin ice here, but she can’t just ignore this, as Barb Kirkmeyer has a legitimate complaint against Marx cheating. The outgoing state AG is, of course, the Democratic opponent of the Republican candidate, whoever that might be, so AG Phil Weiser has to also walk very carefully, but he, too, has to support the law and he can’t just ignore a possible election theft. He will be accused of choosing his opponent, no matter what he does. Another Firefighter Has Died Another firefighter has died from that burnover that killed three firefighters that dreadful day back in June when five were caught in the Knowles fire in western Colorado. Three died immediately and two were severely injured. One has now died from the injuries he suffered that day. The Colorado Sun and several more media are reporting the death of Nathan Matthews of Lincoln, Nebraska. All of the firefighters who have died in Colorado fighting forest fires this year, five in all, were from other states. Thank you for making the ultimate sacrifice for our state. The condition of the last firefighter who was injured in that burnover has not been released. Trump will make Colorado’s consumers pay 87 million dollars for his outdated vanity Colorado Sun reports: Keeping coal plants open in Colorado could cost $87M, with consumers paying the tab Colorado’s efforts to shut down its coal-fired power plants are being delayed by a shortfall in generation and a move by the Trump administration to keep old plants online. The cost to Colorado customers to continue running those coal-fired plants will be somewhere north of $87 million, although analysts and utility officials say that the exact price is still difficult to determine. The bulk of the bill — almost $67 million — comes from the continued operation of Xcel Energy’s Comanche 2 plant in Pueblo, according to a company filing with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. Repairing the pollution control equipment in one unit at the coal-fired Hayden Station, in Routt County, will cost up to $10 million. Another tranche comes from the U.S. Department of Energy’s emergency order to keep open the Craig Unit 1 plant, which had been scheduled to close at the end of December. Just keeping the plant open has cost at least $6.5 million, according to an estimate by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, or IEEFA, a research group focused on clean energy. Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, the plant operator, is challenging the DOE order in court. The state also has a lawsuit opposing the emergency order. I learned something that the state is doing right by its citizens (so it’s probably pissing off Republicans) My driver’s license was expiring on my birthday so I had to look for a state DMV office to make an appointment to renew my license, or so I thought. The way they phrase it nearly every place, even when you walk up to the office, they will only take appointments. No walk-ups, even if the office is empty, because that just means that people will be coming in to the office at their appointed times. If someone is going to miss their appointment, I couldn’t take the now-vacated appointment. Well, phooey! I went online to see when the next available appointment might be – I had a week before my license expired so I thought I must have enough time. The next available appointment was in two weeks, at least if I didn’t want to drive 120 miles. Double phooey! The person shielding the door and making sure I couldn’t get in to see if there might be a chance at a missed appointment was no help. She had been programmed to say “No appointment, no entry, no how, go away.” Somewhere, I happened upon a mention (either online, verbal or other) about a way to renew my license online. What’s this? Something sensible? A way to renew a driver’s license without having to make an appointment? Without having to go through the rigamarole? Without having to provide fifteen forms of identification and my voter ID? How would the Republicans not have the vapors? Oh, right, this is a blue state! So I got out my smartphone, brought up the state DMV office, and in just a few minutes I was able to renew my driver’s license. Yes, this was the legitimate state office. Yes, this is for only those people who have clean records and don’t need to change their licenses in some way, like address, vision, type of license requested, photograph or other special thing that usually would require a visit to the DMV, but in 10-30 days, I should have my new license mailed to my house. Hooray! And within about five minutes, I had proof that I had renewed my license so I was legitimate in the eyes of the law for being able to drive. The only thing that might be better would be if I could go pick up the license at an office of my choice so I wouldn’t have to wait the 10-30 days. I’ll bet Republicans believe this will lead to tens of thousands of illegal voters in Colorado, what with our voting by mail and now driver’s licenses by mail. Oh, wait, they want to kill the USPS, so that will take care of all this mailing stuff. I may see you on the road I will see your comments here, since the floor is yours. I look forward to any suggestions you have on what I should see and do on the way from Estes Park out east on the plains to eastern Kansas. Take it easy, stay cool and I’ll check in with you from Kansas, if I don’t bake, broil or melt. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/27/800075464/community/w/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/