Posted on 09/15/2010 6:00:01 AM PDT by 50mm
Third-party gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo on Tuesday survived a legal maneuver to remove him from the ballot, setting up a potentially brutal political brawl within the GOP as members continue to pick sides between him and Republican Dan Maes.
Denver District Judge William Hood's decision in Tancredo's favor also may create more headaches for Maes. Tancredo on Tuesday released a stinging television ad impugning Maes' character, and a Rasmussen Reports poll showed Maes for the first time trailing the former GOP congressman.
"It's lucky for conservatives that I'm here, because they wouldn't have any options if I wasn't," Tancredo said.
Nate Strauch, spokesman for Maes, said the poll results were merely a hiccup.
"Clearly after the last two weeks it was inevitable that Dan would suffer some in the polls. Now that everything is out in the open, we're confident Dan will pull up in the polls and the third-party candidate will trail off."
Both Tancredo and Maes lag behind Democrat John Hickenlooper.
Maes has been bruised in past weeks from a number of self-inflicted blows, most recently embellishing his record as an ex-police officer. Also, multiple prominent Republicans called for him to get out of the race. When he refused, many threw their support behind Tancredo.
"If you are representing the Republican Party as a precinct leader or district captain or in some other way, you have no business publicly advocating for another candidate in another party," said state Sen. Dave Schultheis of Colorado Springs.
But other Republicans have different thoughts.
"If they feel at this point they cannot support our party's nominee for governor, I certainly understand that," said state Rep. Spencer Swalm, a Centennial Republican who has endorsed Tancredo.
The Arapahoe County Republican executive committee was expected to take up the issue Tuesday night. A county precinct leader sent an e-mail Tuesday to "Republican Tancredo supporters and fellow precinct leaders" referring to the county GOP chairman, Dave Kerber.
"Mr. Kerber has defined many ways that precinct leaders cannot publicly support Tancredo, and he wants precinct leaders to resign if they publicly support Tancredo," the author said.
Kerber said the bylaws are clear that a Republican Party official elected by fellow Republicans can't publicly support another candidate from another party.
"It doesn't say, 'except for Tom Tancredo,' " Kerber said.
Tancredo, a former Republican congressman, switched his affiliation in late July and announced he was running as the American Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate to replace a candidate who pulled out. He chose Patricia Miller as his running mate.
Last week, two Maes supporters brought an action to remove Tancredo and Miller from the ballot. They alleged, among other things, that Tancredo's party switch was invalid under state law because it occurred too late in the year.
Hood found that when it came to filling vacancies, the legislature intended to treat minor parties, such as the ACP, differently from major parties, such as Democratic and Republican. Therefore, Tancredo did not have to adhere to certain time tables. Additionally, Hood said, Colorado law permits minor political parties to fill a vacancy through a process spelled out in their bylaws. ACP rules mandate that two-thirds of the candidate search committee and executive committee approve the candidate. Since Tancredo and Miller were unanimously approved by those committees, the law is satisfied, Hood said.
"In short, the fact that Mr. Tancredo and Ms. Miller were longtime registered Republicans until they switched parties 'at the 11th hour' as Plaintiffs put it, and were then designated by ACP to fill the vacancies is irrelevant, because the plain language of the controlling statute does not preclude that path to the ballot," Hood wrote.
Hickenlooper thanks you, Trancredo.
Go Tancredo! Go American Constitution Party!
If the Repubs won’t run conservatives, then the Tea Party or the Constitution Party will!
Throw the rino bums out and don’t let new ones infest the place.
Uh McInnis was the Rino who was kicked out in the primaries and the tea party backed candidate was the one who beat him.
Damn right!
In the meantime Maes picked a pro-abortion running mate, came out about running a scam on mileage reimbursements, and made a recent statement (2009) in favor of citizenship for illegals.
Besides, he never won any colorado primary.
In short, Coloradans smell a stealth-rino.
Good, it gives the republican establishment another worry.
The tea-party backed candidate, Dan Maes, is a scam artist. He doesn’t deserve a place on the ticket. Honesty is still a conservative value I cherish. He can spout all he wants about “conservative values”. Character, in my opinion, counts.
Not thrilled with Tancredo, but if it’s between him and a weak-charactered Maes - I’m voting for him - never having voted third party in my life.
“Besides, he never won any colorado primary”
?? How’d he get on the ballot for govenor?
Well hopefully, the elected constitution party members representing their constituents in the legislative bodies throughout the United States will be able get the Rinos in line with conservatism
An assembly vote.
View the Constitution Party as a fallback position for those who refuse to vote for rinos, i.e., pro-choice, pro-amnesty, pro-big gov’t, etc.
I guess I’m not following if you’re referenced Tancredo or Maes when saying “he”. If you mean Tancredo got on with assembly vote, I have no idea. If you mean Maes, he did win the primary over McInnis. off to get more caffeine!
Vive le Caffeine!
Got some great Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Think I’ll join you.
Tancredo BUMP.
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