Posted on 11/05/2004 10:34:53 AM PST by stopillegalimmigration
Rep. Tom Tancredo coasted to an easy victory Tuesday, clobbering his Democrat opponent for a fourth term in Congress.
Tancredo beat challenger Joanna Conti, capturing 60 percent of the vote.
Tancredo first won the office in 1998, pledging then to serve only three terms in Congress. Last year he decided to seek a fourth term and Conti tried to exploit the issue, saying he'd broken his term-limits pledge.
Tancredo was a prominent figure in the term-limits movement in the 1990s, playing a central role as head of the Colorado Term Limit Coalition in convincing voters to approve term limits for state and local politicians. Since the 1990s, however, the term-limits movement has largely fizzled.
Tancredo emerged as a leading figure in the debate over immigration reform in Congress, where he serves as chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. He favors strong restrictions on illegal immigration, a position that has earned him national accolades from immigration reform groups and scorn from others.
Tancredo has been a reliable vote for limited government and smaller taxes.
Conti was a successful businesswoman who left the Republican Party in 2002 because she said the party had moved too far to the right. She started her own software and food companies in the 1980s and 1990s after working as a manager for Procter & Gamble and Campbell Soup Co.
She started the Alliance for Youth Achievement, a non-profit organization that helps thousands of orphans each year in Africa and Asia.
Conti attacked Tancredo for his stands on illegal immigration, saying he had alienated members of the Republican Party by his views on immigrants.
Unlike previous challengers, Conti vowed to give Tancredo a serious run. She raised more than $711,000 by the middle of October, falling short of Tancredo's fund-raising by only about $53,000. Conti also hired a professional staff to run her campaign.
Colorado's 6th Congressional District has been a reliable seat for Republicans. The district rings metro Denver to the South in Jefferson, Park, Douglas, Arapahoe and Elbert counties.
In 1998 Tancredo won the seat by nearly 28,000 votes. In 2000 he beat Democrat Ken Toltz by almost 31,000 votes and in 2002 he trounced Democrat Lance Wright by 87,524 votes.
Conti lost by almost 70,000 votes.
He has been thrown out of the White House by Karl Rove and taken to the woodshed by Tom DeLay for his anti-Hispanic activities. He made a total nuisance of himself at the national convention.
He even proposed a 5% tax on transactions that primarily applied to only one company. When he was informed that the company was headquartered in his district and was the largest employer in his district he did the fastest crawfish DC has seen in years.
Tancredo will not be able to hire any first rate campaign staff. No serious contributers will back him. No reputable Republicans will endorse him.
Tancredo will probably be taken out in the next primary just like Rove and company took out Daschle this year. His only hope is to fire his idiot campaign manager now and blame everything on him.
Tancredo is among the few with the guts to take on the immigration crisis. Too bad the president refuses to. I'll take principle over pander any day.
You may take your marching orders from Rove. Many of us look at voting records instead.
You may take your marching orders from Rove. Many of us look at voting records instead.
He must be doing something right. The buchanan's wouldn't keep him on if he wasn't making them money somehow.
Thenn send him your money.
Who is your favorite congressperson and senator?
60%!!! Great!!!
Not many congressman can claim that.
Down here in south Texas all the Democrat congressmen were re-elected overwhelmingly.
My new one. I don't remember his name. He didn't advertise but he carried counties in which I couldn't even find someone willing to hold a Republican primary 20 years ago.
The amnesty party is foaming at the mouth because of Tancredo's overwhelming anti-illegal mandate.
He sold his district out to Buchanan. Watch what happens this next session.
It will be interesting to see if and when any talk about immigration issues surfaces in the next 4 years. I bet Bush dusts off his "Amnesty" program sometime late next year.
He may have cost the GOP a senator in CO.
Tancredo must be doing something right to have been easily re-elected, again.
Tom's great. Didn't know he was very pro home-schooling too.
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