Today is May 28, 2024, and here’s what you need to know:

Trisha Calvarese within striking distance of Lauren Boebert, Colorado Democrat's internal poll shows

Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert starts off leading Democrat Trisha Calvarese by a sizable margin, but that lead turns into a nearly equal deficit after voters hear about Boebert’s positions on abortion and other issues, according to an internal poll conducted by a Colorado firm for the Calvarese campaign.

Boebert is one of six Republicans running in next month’s primary for the seat formerly held by Republican Ken Buck, who resigned from Congress in March, while Calvarese, a former speechwriter for the AFL-CIO and staffer at the National Science Foundation, is one of three Democrats seeking her party’s nomination in the solid red 4th Congressional District.

In a simultaneous special election, voters in the district will also elect someone to fill the remainder of Buck’s term through the end of the year, choosing between Calvarese, Republican Greg Lopez, Libertarian Hannah Goodman and Approval Voting Party nominee Frank Attwood.

Lauren Boebert, Mike Johnston troll each other over Denver's 'Newcomer Playbook'

Look out. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston are throwing haymakers at each other on social media over illegal immigration.

The exchange started Tuesday morning, when Boebert slammed Johnston’s “Newcomer Playbook” — Denver’s how-to guide, offered to other jurisdictions, for “successfully integrating” immigrants.

“This is a guide that tells other cities how to follow the Denver model of bringing illegals into a city,” Boebert said in her tweet. “I wish I was joking, but this is reality. We need to vote out everyone in government who refers to illegal alien criminal invaders as ‘newcomers’ and do so quickly.”

Ron Hanks signs Colorado Libertarians' pledge, aims for 'spoiler'-free race if he wins GOP primary

Republican congressional candidate Ron Hanks has signed a pledge drafted by Colorado’s Libertarian Party as part of a deal to prevent the state’s largest minor political party from fielding potential spoiler candidates in competitive races.

Under an unprecedented agreement between the Colorado Republican Party and the state’s Libertarians, if Hanks wins next month’s crowded GOP primary in the 3rd Congressional District, the Libertarian candidate plans to withdraw from the general election ballot, theoretically so the third-party candidate won’t siphon off votes from Hanks.

A retired military intelligence officer and former state lawmaker, Hanks is one of six Republicans running for the seat currently held by Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who moved across the state to run in another district this year after narrowly winning reelection in 2022.

Appeals court finds no connection to local government necessary to enforce open meetings law

For the first time, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week that every person in the state may challenge governmental compliance with the open meetings law, regardless of whether they have a connection to the government body at issue.

In 2014, state legislators amended the open meetings law to allow “any person” whose rights were denied to sue a government entity for alleged open meetings violations. Recently, two trial judges came to opposite conclusions about whether a plaintiff anywhere in Colorado has suffered an injury when a local government far away violates the law.

Siding firmly with those seeking to enforce the law, a three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals emphasized that “any person” means any person, and plaintiffs do not have to explain their motivations for alleging an open meetings law violation.

Gov. Jared Polis signs bill on Colorado wetlands, health care

Gov. Jared Polis visited Summit County and the Yampa Valley on Wednesday to sign several bills into law, including measures that sponsors say will protect Colorado’s wetlands.

The governor also signed measures that seek to increase health care access for rural communities.

In Silverthorne, Polis signed House Bill 1379 and House Bill 1435.

HB 1379 is state lawmakers’ response to the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, which stripped critical protections away from about one million acres of Colorado wetlands.