🥔 Happy Wednesday! It's National Potato Day — a celebration of starchy sides, road trip chips and, naturally, 'taters in our stews.

🌧️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny, with a chance of showers and thunderstorms., Highs in the 80s.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Mary Jo Manydeeds!

Today's newsletter is 702 words — a 2.5-minute read.

Boulder independent Bob Chew is putting big money into shaking up Colorado’s U.S. Senate race ahead of November's election.

Why it matters: Chew is betting U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper's closer-than-expected Democratic primary win created an opening for a third-party challenger.

Zoom in: A former Navy nuclear submarine officer and engineer, Chew co-founded an engineering and technical services company with his wife in 1996.

• He grew up in Cleveland but long vacationed in the Boulder area and had business ties to the city.
• He moved to Boulder about 10 years ago and enjoys hiking in his free time.

Driving the news: Chew is not a big name, but has garnered attention for pouring more than $1 million of his own money into his campaign ad.

• "What irritates me the most is when newspapers talk about the race in terms of Republican and Democrat," he said. "It was only by my willingness to put a lot of my own money into this race that people have suddenly paid attention."

State of play: This is Chew's first time running for office.

• He chose this race because he believes the Senate offers him a platform to enact real change.

Reality check: Chew is neither a MAGA Republican nor a democratic socialist — rather, he's running to represent the political middle.

• His guiding principles, he says, are defending the U.S. Constitution and supporting small business, free enterprise and limited government.
• Chew told me his focus would be on addressing the national debt, deficit spending and health care costs.
• "If we've solved that, a lot of other problems become a whole lot easier," he said.

Go deeper

Well, we've seen our final 8pm sunset of the year.

The big picture: We lose a little more daylight every day as the Earth's Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the Sun through Dec. 21 — the shortest day of the year.

• But the farther west within a time zone you live, the later your sunsets will typically be.

Zoom in: Colorado recorded its final 8pm sunset Aug. 11, and the next one won't be until May 2027.

Mitchell's thought bubble: Obviously, it's a bummer that summer is drawing to a close.

• But it's also nice to be able to watch the sun go down in scenic places without getting stuck in the dark at 9pm.
• I captured this shot in Steamboat Springs last weekend.

📸 Send me your favorite Boulder County sunset photo of the summer for a chance to be featured in a future newsletter.

⚖️ A woman injured by an exposed stadium seat pole at a Folsom Field concert last fall is suing the company that rents the seats to CU. (Daily Camera 🔑)

💰 Buffs head coach Deion Sanders has been called to testify at his son's bankruptcy trial the same week Colorado opens its season at Georgia Tech. (Daily Camera 🔑)

⚽️ The No. 13 CU soccer team picked up where they left off, beating CSU and then Army to start the season 2-0. (Buffzone)

• Oh, and star Hope Leyba made the SportsCenter Top 10 with this diving header.

Nikola Jokić is coming to Boulder — U.S. 36 traffic permitting.

The Denver Nuggets are bringing the NBA to town this fall for a preseason game at the CU Events Center.

State of play: The Denver Nuggets are bringing the NBA to town this fall for a preseason game at the CU Events Center to play the Utah Jazz on Oct 4.

Fun fact: Both teams have former Buffs on their roster: K.J. Simpson with the Nuggets and Cody Williams with the Jazz.

Flashback: The Nuggets last played a preseason game in Boulder in 2015.

The intrigue: Denver is hosting open tryouts later this month for their G-League affiliate — so technically, your path to playing in Boulder remains open.

📺 Mitchell is excited for the new season of "Reacher."

Thanks to Gigi Sukin for editing.