Thirty-one of Colorado’s thirty-seven delegates are being picked this week – three (one Congressional district’s worth) tomorrow, the other twelve remaining on Friday, and thirteen statewide delegates on Saturday (plus the usual 3 reserved for state party leaders) – and we are well at the stage in this election cycle where every single delegate matters. Ted Cruz took an early lead in this stop-and-go primary, and he’s expected to build on his recent wins to pick up more this week. And, interestingly: he may have the field effectively to himself.

Let’s go to Marshall Zelinger out of ABC’s Denver 7 News: he’s reporting on Twitter right now that a Thursday Donald Trump rally in Colorado Springs is now officially canceled. It wasn’t on the official calendar, yet – but Zelinger followed up by reporting that his law enforcement source told him that the campaign did in fact start arranging for this campaign stop last week.  And now it is not – and apparently by Trump’s own choice.  This at least suggests that reports earlier this month that Trump was going to follow Ted Cruz’s lead and attend Saturday’s convention may in fact end up not being true.

Which makes a certain amount of sense, if you assume that Donald Trump is more worried about his personal brand than he is in winning elections.  Or, for that matter: the considerations of his supporters.  Colorado is promising to be a romp for Ted Cruz: he’s widely expected to pick up the lion’s share of the CD delegates this week and probably at least a large hunk of the statewide delegates as well.  When your sole selling point is that you win, it’s usually smarter to avoid going to places and races where you suspect that you’re going to lose.  I mean, ‘keep your head down and keep running until you hit New York’ is not a great long-term strategy or anything, but it’s the only strategy available to Trump right now.

Mind you, I still half-expect Trump to show up at the Saturday convention. Or at least send a surrogate. I would normally say ‘a competent one, this time’ – except that I’m not sure if in fact the man has any.

Moe Lane