Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jon Keyser

Democrats are taking aim at Republican Jon Keyser in Colorado’s U.S. Senate race, filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission that claims he violated campaign finance rules — a charge the candidate rejects.

The American Democracy Legal Fund submitted the complaint Thursday based on a single anonymous quote in a Colorado Statesman article that reported he “received $3 million in commitments of soft money to back his campaign” while attending a Republican Jewish Coalition luncheon in December — weeks before he announced his campaign.

The Statesman — a publication run by a former Republican lawmaker and apparently backed by major GOP donors — cited “a source familiar with the matter” as the attribution for the $3 million claim. The flimsy nature of the sourcing may make the complaint little more than a partisan attack.

But the move from the Democratic group signals that the forces backing incumbent U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet are worried about Keyser’s challenge. The former state lawmaker is one of 13 Republicans candidates now vying to challenge the Democrat.

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Jack Graham is running for U.S. Senate. (Photo credit: Colorado State University)

WASHINGTON — The already-crowded Republican field for U.S. Senate in Colorado is getting another candidate — Jack Graham, a former businessman and ex-director of athletics at Colorado State University.

Speculation about the intent of the former Rams quarterback has been circulating for weeks, and Graham is making it official through a series of major moves.

He’s readying the petition process to get on the ballot while hiring Dick Wadhams — the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party — as his campaign manager.

Most significantly, Graham already has pumped $1 million of his own money into his campaign account, Wadhams said.

“He is a very formidable individual,” said Wadhams, who argued Graham’s background outside politics was an asset.

“He’s never run for political office before,” Wadhams said. “And I think that’s an attribute in this (anti-establishment) environment.”

House Democratic Reps. Brittany Pettersen, at left, and Faith Winter, holding her daughter, Sienna, announced a package of bills that makes Colorado part of the national Equal Pay Can’t Wait campaign. (Photo by Joey Bunch/The Denver Post.)

As press conferences go, this one was rock solid: A group of House Democrats were joined by women’s groups and small children Thursday to drive home the point that the equal pay issue isn’t going away as long as wages for women lag. The children wore red T-shirts that gave their ages in the 2057, the year advocates say pay for women, at the current rate of gains, will catch up to what men earn.

Colorado women make about 80 cents on the dollar to men’s pay, various government and private studies have indicated, That’s why Colorado lawmakers joined counterparts in more than 20 other states to advocate for legislative gains this year. The campaign is called Equal Pay Can’t Wait, led by the liberal State Innovation Exchange. The Democrats said they would try to pass a package of equal-pay bills this session.

The Equal Pay in State Contracts Act would require state contractors to comply with equal-pay laws. The bill is sponsored by Reps. Jessie Danielson of Wheat Ridge and Janet Buckner of Aurora.

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Sen. Cory Gardner is co-sponsoring new legislation targeting North Korea. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

WASHINGTON — A North Korean sanctions bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner unanimously passed the Senate Foreign Relations committee on Thursday — a move that increases the likelihood Congress will endorse a raft of new penalties for the longtime U.S. adversary.

Notably, the legislation includes mandatory punishments for North Korean cyber-criminals, as well as sanctions for business dealings that involve precious metals that could help Pyongyang and its effort to develop weapons of mass destruction.

“This is groundbreaking in terms of its sanctioning of cyber attacks,” said Gardner, R-Colo., in a phone interview. “And that’s important — critically important — because North Korea is improving its asymmetric cyber capabilities.”

He said he hoped to see a Senate floor vote by mid-February. Passage would mean the Senate would move into negotiations with the U.S. House, which earlier this month approved its own North Korean sanctions bill by a 418 to 2 vote.

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James Ray walks on the 16th Street Mall in Denver. He was among the 5,600 Denver metro homeless people surveyed in 2014. The study found 34 percent reported mental illness. (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post)

Denver City Council members this week moved to create a new ad hoc committee aimed at examining further solutions to homelessness — and ways to pay for them.

The new effort is aimed at elevating the issue and sparking a wide-ranging discussion among both council members and staffers in Mayor Hancock’s administration, who also likely will take part in the panel.

Council members made the move two days after approving contracts for a new privately funded supportive housing program aimed at a 250-person slice of the homeless population. Those qualifying are considered “chronically homeless” and cycle frequently through jails, the emergency room and detox, costing the city millions of dollars a year.

Denver had 3,737 homeless people counted in last year’s point-in-time survey, out of 6,130 in the metro area. A new estimated produced by city officials in recent weeks shows the city is set to spend nearly $48 million this year on programs and services for the homeless across 13 departments and agencies.

Despite the spending, which is up 17 percent over the 2015 total, the presence of homeless people has become more pronounced, by many accounts, both downtown and in outlying neighborhoods.

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In Colorado, only the “head of a family” may homebrew beer for limited “family use.”

It’s far from reality in the state with the most members of the American Homebrewers Association, but it remains part of an outdated state homebrewing law that lawmakers are taking steps to fix.

A bill sponsored by state Rep. Steve Lebsock, D-Thornton, is headed to the House floor after receiving unanimous approval Thursday in committee. The measure would replace “head of family” with “adult” and rewrite “family use” as “personal use.” Under the law, “adult” would mean anyone 21 years or older.

Lebsock called the House Bill 1084 “a common sense, straight-forward bill” to remove “old antiquated language.”

A recent Denver Post article put a spotlight on the law’s language after the state Liquor Enforcement Division conducted an unprecedented sting on a local shop that sells supplies to homebrew beer. The law enforcement action revealed the ambiguous nature of the current law, which in large part is subject to the interpretation of the current director.

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Colorado’s U.S. Senate race is similar to the GOP presidential contest because each feature 12 candidates. But the similarities are more than numbers.

The political landscape is shaping the Senate candidates into categories based on the presidential contenders, according to voters and conversations with a dozen Republican operatives. (Read the full story here.) And certain candidates are courting the connection to the White House race.

So at the risk of stretching the comparisons too far for fun, let’s create a new political parlor game: Match the Colorado U.S. Senate candidate to the Republican presidential candidate.

Here’s the best early guess — again based on the candidate’s own words and conversations with Republican consultants. (Offer your matchmaking picks in the comments section below!)

Robert Blaha: Donald Trump

Robert Blaha

Donald Trump

The comparisons in style and issues are what make this connection. Blaha is focused on Iran, immigration and the deficit. He touts himself as a successful businessman who’s never held public office. And he’s running an eye-popping TV ad with his own money.

The one catch is that Blaha told me his model senator is Republican Ben Sasse, who is opposing Trump. Also, at least one member of his campaign team worked for the Nebraska senator.

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Sen. Tim Neville on opening day of the 2012 session.

Colorado lawmakers launched into the first Second Amendment debate of the session Wednesday, as a Senate panel voted along party lines to advance a bill that would allow gun owners to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.

State Sen. Tim Neville, R- Littleton, is the measure’s sponsor and it dovetails with his agenda in the U.S. Senate race, where he is one of a dozen candidates vying for the GOP nomination.

Neville called the ability to carry a firearm “a God-given, inalienable right” and suggested that it “enables people to defend themselves in a better fashion.” Supporters call the measure “constitutional carry,” and point to states such as Arizona and Wyoming that have similar laws.

The Colorado bill would remove the requirements — first enacted in 2003 — for in-person training and a fingerprint background check in order to carry a concealed firearm in public. Residents would still need to pass a less rigorous background check to purchase a firearm. The current concealed firearm permit process would remain in place for those seeking reciprocity rights in other states.

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