We were off the week of July 4th and are getting caught up on our substack. Thank you to our new readers for joining us, we are getting back on our regular schedule this week and will have a brand new pod for you with a terrific guest next Monday.
This week on the Get More Smarter Podcast, we had a great conversation with a reporter who hit our radar fairly recently due to his spectacular coverage of the Colorado Springs Mayoral Race and the stunning upset by newcomer and independent now-Mayor Yemi Mobolade over standard-bearing Republican who had been elected at nearly all levels of government, former Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams. Spencer talked about asking the “question everyone is thinking but nobody wants to ask,” in preparation for his political interviews.
Spencer told us, “from who I had spoken with, Wayne knew he was going to lose, and he knew he was going to lose by a large margin. Their internal polls showed that his favorability rating was just completely tanked.” This observation really demonstrated to us the value of local reporting. Up in the Denver Metro, we all thought we knew that Wayne Williams’s huge name ID and history of winning elections in Colorado Springs gave him a leg up over a Black immigrant non-Republican in a city that was a famous GOP (and, you know, not super racially progressive and not especially unxenophobic) stronghold. But between Yemi’s relentless positivity, Wayne’s error-prone campaign, and finally the surprise enthusiastic endorsement of Mobolade by third-place finisher and arch-Williams opponent, Sallie Clark, it didn’t surprise Spencer, or many other locals apparently, that this was the result on election night:
Spencer also discussed the Good ‘ol Boys Club in Colorado Springs, the surprising prevalence of Pride flags in Colorado Springs (including underneath the Welcome to Colorado Springs sign) especially after the Club Q mass murder last November, and the shifting of politics in Colorado over the past two decades.
Spencer also spilled some tea on the Get More Smarter Podcast’s #1 Approved Best Colorado Republican Party Chairman in History Ever, Dave “Let’s Go Bankrupt” Williams who spends all of his time going after Doug Lamborn (who he lost a primary to in a landslide in 2022) and other Republican apostates, teaming up with the Colorado Libertarian Party who is the one group of people more out of touch with Colorado voters than the GOP, and sending out ridiculous and bigoted horseshit like this instead of doing the fundamental job of a party chair, recruiting candidates, raising money, and trying to win general elections:
This was one of the most enjoyable interviews we’ve had on the podcast, so we strongly encourage you to give this episode a listen on your podcatcher of choice, and send us feedback! Email us tips, articles, suggestions, or summer salad recipes to ian@getmoresmarter.com and jason@getmoresmarter.com.
We also discussed how our 8th favorite member of Congress from Colorado is (still) more concerned with what Twitter thinks than doing anything constructive for her district; and the ethically compromised United States Supreme Court wraps up this term by doing some surprisingly good things on elections and gerrymandering...right before essentially ending Affirmative Action in colleges as we know it.
Thank you so much for reading and listening, and we’ll see you next time.
Episode 157: Republicans are Even Too Weird for Colorado Springs (feat. Spencer Soicher)