Posted on 10/19/2010 8:13:40 AM PDT by Fred
A supporter for Republican Dan Maes says he talked to two GOP county chairmen and a conservative blogger who said a wealthy donor was willing to pony up money if Maes would drop out of the governor’s race.
Joe Harrington of Highlands Ranch said Monday that Maes rejected the offer, which is illegal under Colorado law.
If Maes dropped out of the race, political observers believe Tom Tancredo, a former Republican running on a third-party ticket, stands a chance of beating the frontrunner, Democrat John Hickenlooper, for governor.
Harrington said the county chairs and the bloggers separately conveyed the offer to him, but said nearly the same thing. He said they asked him to keep their names confidential.
“Dan Maes was offered money from a 501(c)4 non-profit foundation, in exchange for getting out with the money coming from some unnamed wealthy donor,” he said. “Two of three who made the offers to me commented that they found the offer repulsive but felt it their duty to pass it along.”
Harrington added he wants to be clear that neither Tancredo nor his top advisers, Bay Buchanan or Cliff Dodge, were involved in any offers.
“I can not even imagine in my wildest dreams that anyone in our organization would offer Dan Maes anything, especially not a payoff or a job,” Dodge said. “This is ludicrous.”
Harrington on Monday posted a comment about the events on his Facebook page, and elaborated in a separate interview. Asked about the Facebook posting, Maes spokesman Nate Strauch said, “Dan has confirmed the accuracy of Joe’s account,” but declined further comment.
Included in the Facebook post was an e-mail from Maes to Harrington blasting Tancredo.
“Tell that hypocritical, draft dodging, TARP voting, pot endorsing thug to get out of the race and let the people’s choice win this thing for real conservatives!” Maes wrote.
Said Buchanan: “Dan Maes is an angry, bitter man who has no one but himself to blame.”
Harrington said at the same time the money offer was conveyed, he separately proposed to Tancredo that Republican primary voters or state assembly voters take a poll on whether Tancredo or Maes should drop out or run as the other’s running mate.
Harrington said Tancredo told him “no” on a new, GOP-only poll, noting that outside polling firms have shown Tancredo is closing the gap with Hickenlooper.
Maes won the state GOP assembly and the primary, edging former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis. Tancredo jumped into the race on the American Constitution Party ticket, saying Maes was a fraud and couldn’t beat Hickenlooper.
A number of Republicans initially were upset with Tancredo, accusing him of bypassing the process and splitting the ticket. But in recent weeks Maes has lost high-profile supporters who defected to the Tancredo campaign.
Maes sounds like a nut, and makes Tancredo seem steady in comparison.
How did Maes get the nod to begin with?
From everything I have seen and read about Maes he sounds like a complete dirtbag. I still think Tancredo will win this race, even though we are closing in on Nov 2nd I think a lot of Repub voters are seeing how nasty Maes is.
Other guy in the primary was surrounded by scandal and was fined for violating campaign rules.
Since it is stated that Maes has broken the law by refusing the offer, I expect he will have to drop out due to being indicted under Colorado law. /sarc Am I missing something here?
I thought Tancredo was a perennial FR favorite son along the lines of Duncan Hunter, or other winners like Rick Santorum and George Allen?
Wow, that story is tough to follow.
I don’t think he was offered anything to drop out...I think he is sending the message that he would entertain an offer!!!
Maes was the choice of the TEA Party.
"surrounded"? Bravo Sierra. The plagiarism rap was blown out of proportion and the $100 fine McInnis paid for late finance report filing pales in comparison to the nearly $20K in fines; including a single $17,500 fine, the largest in state history, that Maes has had to pony up. When it's all said and done, Maes may very well end up in jail for embezzlement.
1. Maes was the Tea Party favorite
2. The GOP front-runner, Scott McInnis, was caught in a plagiarism scandal, among other things.
3. The Colorado GOP has an awful record over the past 10+ years, where it comes to finding good candidates for state-wide office.
Item 1 is an anomaly -- if McInnis hadn't self-destructed, he'd be the candidate and would probably be doing somewhat better. But he did self-destruct, and if it hadn't been in the primary it would have come out about now .... same result.
Hardly. McInnis was paid big bucks to produce a study on water law, and ended up plagiarizing large swaths of it. He can try to pass the buck on to others ... but he was the one who was supposedly writing this stuff.
I expect to hear lots of crickets.
Maes will be lucky if he gets enough votes (10%) to keep the Republican Party from being demoted to “minor party” status in Colorado.
Tancredo can still win this election. A lot of the people who are still with Maes when they realize he has not chance to win.
Does anyone remember the story about the dog in the manger?
One wonders why anybody still supports Maes....
To be honest, I'll be surprised if Tancredo actually wins.
And, just for fair disclosure, I'm not going to vote for him -- he's a self-promoting jackass who was utterly ineffective as a congressman, and who would make a terrible governor.
I'm going to write in the hippo at the local zoo.
You rely on the leftstream media for your conclusions, don’t you?
Is Dan Maes paid off by Hickenlooper like Scott Ashijian is a paid stooge for Harry Reid?
“The Colorado GOP has an awful record over the past 10+ years,”
Beg to differ: Bill Owens (R) did a fine job.
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