Posted on 09/15/2010 9:34:36 AM PDT by MissTed
Whether Republicans like it or not, Dan Maes is their nominee for governor. Whether they like him or not, most GOP county chairs in Colorado say they support Maes.
Mark McCarol, Conejos County chair summed up the comments of many of the 28 county GOP chairs surveyed by the Colorado Independent last week: “Mr. Maes won fair and square. [Colorado Republican Party Chairman] Dick [Wadhams] needs to curb the opposition to Maes. He should have backed Mr. Maes right away.”
The Colorado Independent called all 63 county GOP chairs, spoke with 28, and left messages for most of the rest (see part one of our two-part series). It’s interesting that while an overwhelming majority of chairs we talked to support Wadhams overall and think he has done a good job, most think he has done a poor job with the governor’s race.
“Dan has done the work. He’s done what he needed to do,” said John Ponikvar, of Moffat County.
“Dan Maes is who we support,” said Pueblo County chair David Dill. “I wish [American Constitution Party candidate Tom] Tancredo would just find something else to do. All he can do is act as a spoiler. I am not sure what is in it for him.”
“I support Dan Maes unequivocally,” said Otero County chair Judy Reyher.
While the chairs may be trying to circle the wagons, not all of Maes’ support runs very deep.
“I’m worried about the party. I support the idea of the Tea Party. I understand why Dan Maes has the support he has. I personally like Tom Tancredo. If something drastic doesn’t happen, we will end up with a Democrat [Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper] in the governor’s office,” worries Patricia Daugherty, Cheyenne County.
(Excerpt) Read more at coloradoindependent.com ...
The RINOs are despicable! They are quick to say we all need to get behind the Republican candidate when they win, but when they lose, they want to take their toys and go home, or they run as an independent. Hypocrites.
Not.
The same RINO’s that are responsible for the Democrats take over of Colorado in the first place. RINOectomy is in order!
What exactly is wrong with Maes? I thought he was supposed to be the “Tea Party candidate”?
Dan Maes has crossed Freda Poundstone.These fools don't understand.
Appears the Colorado Independent is just another crappy lefty rag.
You’d think the Denver Post would have that market cornered.
For one thing, he has resume problems. It came to light that some of his claims about his law enforcement experience in Kansas turn out to be either fabrications or serious distortions of the truth.
His response to the revelations was not heartening -- defensive and unconvincing.
It really just highlights a larger problem with the Colorado GOP, which seems incapable of finding good candidates for state-wide office.
Maes was on-track toward a 2nd place finish to Scott McInnis, until it turned out that McInnis had plagiarized large portions of a body of work he'd been paid handsomely to do.
And now, of course, Tom "Hey, Look At ME!!!" Tancredo has thrown his own turd into the punchbowl....
The Senate race pitted Jane Norton againts Ken Buck. Norton had problems and Buck won.... but he has a history of uncomfortable quotes that his opponent is using to great effect.
I begin to long for the good old days of the smoke-filled room.
They're unabashedly leftist, and say so ...
However, their political reporting is actually very good. They do their homework, and uncover a lot of things that candidates of all parties would rather keep hidden.
Where political reporting (local, county, state) is concerned, they're the place to go for reliable information (you do, of course, have to account for their biases; the "real" newspaper in town, the Colorado Springs Gazette, can't report their way out of a paper bag.
The truth is that Maes is a poor candidate, and he's most likely going to get trounced in the general election.
The undercurrent of this story is dissension in the Colorado GOP, and I think they've done a pretty good job of looking into it.
Wow, what a mess.
Yup. And has been for quite a while.
The Colorado GOP got lazy and overconfident. They failed to account for the nature of the population growth in the state over the past 20 years or so -- the nature of the electorate has changed at lot, and become less conservative and more suspicious of conservative claims.
At the same time, candidate recruitment has simply ceased to be effective.
r9, Thanks for the inside scoop on CO GOP + media!
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