Stunning political news today.
Colorado’s state Supreme Court ruled Monday that GOP Congressman Doug Lamborn cannot appear on the primary ballot in his district due to a problem with his ballot petitions.
The court ruled that a petition gatherer working for Lamborn’s campaign did not live in the state at the time, rendering the signatures he gathered invalid and moving Lamborn below the threshold for ballot access.
“Therefore, the supreme court holds that the Secretary [of State] may not certify Representative Lamborn to the 2018 primary ballot for Colorado’s Fifth Congressional District,” the court ruled.
Wow!
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
You may remember that the same thing happened to a couple of Michigan Congressmen over the past couple of cycles, including John Conyers who was in Congress over 50 years and should have known better (as well as not showing up to meetings in his jammies).
https://www.thedailybeast.com/this-50-year-congressman-cant-find-the-ballot
http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/05/thad_mccotter_may_not_get_on_b.html
I think part of the problem is the arrogant sense of entitlement and invincibility that elected officials develop. The first thing a rookie candidate does (or should do) is talk to the county clerk or elections board to find out what the rules are. On the Congressional level, some of them don’t feel the need to mingle with the grass roots – Paul Ryan hasn’t had a town hall meeting in years, he limited interaction to what I call hostage situation appearances, where a friendly Republican business owner invites him for a factory tour and the workers are a background prop told when to clap.
In Wisconsin on the state level the legislators get dependent on the caucuses for help and find out they better not cross leadership or they’ll be on the short end of the stick. That’s why so many people who campaign as “Independent thinkers” who’ll work across the aisle end up voting party line
The elected officials raise money and depend on consultants who hire people to collect nomination paper signatures and to take care of everything else. Their grassroot contacts atrophy. An example of this was several years ago when the Republican Caucus put out an urgent request (probably on state time) to Capitol staff for use of a pickup truck on the weekend to put up lawn and 4X8’ signs for Gene Hahn. Um, Hahn was an 18 year office holder and a farmer and from a rural swing district. He didn’t have a single local supporter with a truck? Dan was going to borrow my Ranger with the Feingold and Tammy stickers on it. May have caused a few jaws to drop.