Posted on 10/01/2010 8:53:38 AM PDT by MissTed
Third-party gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo is suggesting that Republican Dan Maes follow his own advice and drop out of the debates now that his support has dropped to less than 20 percent.
Speaking on 630 KHOW radio on Sept. 9 about how should be invited to the gubernatorial debates, Maes said Tancredo should be able to participate in the debates as long as he's polling at least 20 percent.
"If you're polling at 20 percent, come on board; if you're not, then you don't come," Maes said. Click here to find out more!
Wednesday on his website, Tancredo said he's looking forward to a two-man race with Democrat Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.
The website said a new Fox News poll had Maes at 15 percent, Tancredo at 34 percent and Hickenlooper at 44 percent.
"Dan Maes said he'd end his sideshow if he dropped below 20 percent," said Bay Buchanan, Tancredo’s campaign manager. "We'll see if he lives up to it, or if this turns out to be just another one of Dan's tall tales or serial exaggerations."
Maes campaign spokesman Nate Strauch told the Denver Post that Maes intends to attend debates.
"It was a hypothetical discussion. That was just an arbitrary number that he threw out," Strauch said. "He stands by his position that invites should be left up to debate sponsors."
of course I’m not privy to a lot of the shennanigans, but if Maes drops out, Tancredo will get need some cash....
Establishment Republicans continue to back Maes. This will lead to the Colorado Republican Party becoming a “minor party” if Maes gets less than 10% of the vote.
Go Tom Go!
Funny, I remember Tom showing up at the 2008 presidential debates when he was pulling a solid “*” in the polls.
Tom is simply applying the standard that Maes set.
No, they should not. If you are running for office you should be included in the debates...period! Give THE PEOPLE the opportunity to see ALL the candidates and hear their positions first hand, not through the filtered enemedia versions. Fraudulent polls are not the way to make the decisions either. Recall the 2008 Presidential debates?
Sad part is that so many are going against Tancredo because he is running as a Third Party conservative....even though he really is the only conservative in the race.
Need to get over this mantra of voting GOP “even if the GOP candidate is liberal” nonsense.
Tancredo’s poll numbers keep rising. Real conservatives in Colorado need to vote for Tancredo...maes is toast
Yeah, that’s what we want, a dozen challengers tying up precious debate time when there are only two or three who have a chance to win.
Most of the establishment Republicans I know do not like to be put on the spot and are keeping their mouths closed in public, but seem to be closet Tancredo supporters.
I've been told by a couple of people during the past week that Maes is sticking with the race in order to not let down some groups who are still sticking with him.
In previous threads on this topic, I have mentioned that some Tea Parties in Colorado became a detriment to the movement when they got bored with organizing rallies and decided it would be more fun to try to be kingmakers and tell people who to vote for—sometimes pitting conservative candidates against each other, and sometimes (e.g., Maes) pitting unvetted nobodies against conservatives.
In particular, the group that I have heard mentioned as an important Maes hold-out is the Southern Colorado Tea Party. The gubernatorial page on their own web site seems to indicate that they are so out of it that they don't even acknowledge Tancredo's presence in the race.
In addition to pressuring Maes to drop out, perhaps pressure needs to be applied to residual "kingmaker" Tea Parties who feel they can't back down without losing face.
What a disaster. We are just giving this state away and it will probably end up hurting us down ballot. Maes is horrible, but Tancredo’s 3rd Party run is a nightmare too. 3rd Parties are almost always a horrible idea. How is it we haven’t learned from this? How did Maes win this nomination in the first place?
Ugh, we are not even going to be competitive for a governorship we might have had a real chance to win.
Not from CO, so wondering why if he wants to be the governor, did Tancredo not run in the Republican primary?
The potential "good" candidates were Josh Penry, Scott McInnis and Tom Tancredo. To avoid splitting the vote, it was agreed that only one of them (McInnis) would run. What was not forseen at the time was McInnis getting shot down and Maes moving into the resulting vacuum. Except for some minor party unknowns, conservatives were left with no credible candidate; so Tancredo stepped up to the plate.
Precious debate time? Need more time? Have another debate! Take the time to do the elections right...for a "change"
Tanc BUMP.
“Sad part is that so many are going against Tancredo because he is running as a Third Party conservative....even though he really is the only conservative in the race. Need to get over this mantra of voting GOP “even if the GOP candidate is liberal” nonsense. Tancredo’s poll numbers keep rising. Real conservatives in Colorado need to vote for Tancredo...maes is toast”
Exactly.
The whole idea of the Tea Party movement is that conservatives are not going to be gamed by the political party schemers anymore.
I’m a conservative, not a Republican.
Since Tancredo is a conservative, I support him whether he is running as a Republican or on a third party ticket.
In this case, one of the contenders, Dan Maes set out the threshold of who he thought should get to be in the debate.
Have you ever looked at the ballots for some of the various positions? There are often a whole bunch of unknown candidates on there who haven’t garnered even a small following of support, and they shouldn’t be allowed to muddle up the debate time.
Didn’t the stuff on Maes’ dishonesty come out fairly late, preventing Tancredo from being on the GOP ballot?
In some states, ballot position is determined by % of gubenatorial vote. Does this mean Constitution Party would be second on the ballot if they get more votes than the GOP?
Maes' dishonesty has been known for a long time to anyone who did any vetting of him. After speaking with him over half a year ago, I put him at the top of my list of people most likely to end up in jail if actually elected. And Tancredo has said that he found him to be a dubious character (or words to that effect) long before that. What didn't happen was proper vetting by 1) leaders of some Tea Parties (who were obsessed with endorsing any underdog) and 2) the media (who ignored him until he became a factor later on).
What you might be thinking about was allegations of plagiarism against Scott McInnis that the newspapers ran in the headlines every day until McInnis was mortally damaged.
Before the McInnis meltdown, Tancredo stayed out of the race because he trusted McInnis to be the standard bearer. After the meltdown, Tancredo decided that McInnis was no longer suitable as the standard bearer; but by this time, it was too late to get on the Republican primary ballot.
Tancredo is for Tancredo.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.