Posted on 10/18/2010 12:53:36 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Tancredo celebrates rising poll numbers, mocks GOP Digg Tweet By John Tomasic 10/18/10 12:35 PM
Candidate for governor Tom Tancredo is buoyed by the results of a Rasmussen poll taken Friday. The poll has Tancredo, a late-entry third-party candidate in the Colorado race, pulling within four points of Democratic frontrunner John Hickenlooper and swamping GOP Tea Party candidate Dan Maes.
“They say I’m going to sink the Republican Party if I draw too many votes. That’s funny. There is someone in this race sinking the Republican Party but it’s not me. It’s the guy running as a Republican who’s polling 12 percent,” he told the Colorado Independent and then burst into laughter.
If Maes at the top of the ticket draws below 10 percent of voters, the Republican party will sink to minor party status in the state, presenting challenges to fundraising and significantly lowering the threshold for candidates who want to run under the party’s banner, giving the state party little vetting control and potentially flooding the party with unpracticed and unattractive candidates.
Tancredo says he needs some combination equivalent to 65 percent of the state’s Republican voters, 44 percent of independents and 8 percent of Democrats to win.
The Friday Rasmussen survey suggests the Tanc is still falling short of his own minimum victory calculation, but not by much.
Hickenlooper, the mayor of Denver, now has the support of 84% of Colorado Democrats, while Maes has the backing of just 24% of the state’s GOP voters. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Republicans now favor Tancredo. Among voters not affiliated with either party, the independent candidate earns 42% of the vote to Hickenlooper’s 32% and Maes’ nine percent (9%).
From Rasmussen:
The longtime Republican congressman sees the GOP voter bloc as the most ripe for picking.
“Voters know me. My joining the American Constitution Party this year is a marriage of convenience not of love. This is not some [philosophical] metamorphosis. I needed to get on the ballot and the [American Constitution Party] needed to draw votes.”
Tancredo is quick to mock the Republican party but he said that, if he should he win the governor’s race, he might consider switching back.
“What’s the point? I mean, if I can be more effective as governor, if the Republicans in the legislature are going to have their feelings hurt or whatever, then I’ll consider it. But really what’s the purpose? What do I need from [GOP Chairman] Dick Wadhams? Why would I argue anymore with the head of what might soon be a minor party?
“Look at the recent track record. Bush I and II and then McCain? I didn’t vote for Bush I in 1980. I was one of two GOP delegates to vote against putting him on the ticket with Reagan. I said, ‘c’mon no way I’m voting for that guy.’ It was me and one other delegate who voted against him.”
Tancredo also dismissed the new Sarah Palin branch of the GOP.
“Palin, yeah. Where is she in the total scheme of things?”
“My estrangement from the GOP is so long. In 1976 I ran for office. I sat in my mom’s kitchen [making fliers]. I never got a dime.”
Most notable, from the Rasmussen poll, perhaps, is that Maes has essentially lost the Tea Party vote.
Sixty percent (60%) of Tea Party members support Tancredo, while 26% prefer Maes. Sixty-one percent (61%) of non-members favor Hickenlooper, and another 26% support Tancredo.
So far, Maes takes top spot in the killer “unfavorable” category.
Hickenlooper is viewed favorably by 53% of Colorado voters and unfavorably by 40%. This includes 35% Very Favorable and 25% Very Unfavorable.
For Maes, favorables are 24% and unfavorables 62%, with only six percent (6%) Very Favorable and 37% Very Unfavorable. Forty-nine percent (49%) have a favorable opinion of Tancredo, while 42% view him unfavorably, including 26% Very favorable and 30% Very Unfavorable.
He's pointing out that he isn't the one embarrassing the party, Maes is.
Tancredo has promised to appoint Republicans to his administration, which will be Republican in everything but name.
Except that they won't come from the screwed up, McCain dominated RINO establishment in Colorado, they'll be the Republican base, the people who populate the Tea Party rallies, and pray that someone gets elected who isn't planning on turning into a money grubbing Democrat once in office.
rove is worse than that Frantzie.
LLS
Like it or not, Maes won the nomination. Tancredo needs to be careful about being too smug. That could lose him some votes.
Replace Tancredo with Maes in your post and then it makes more sense.
The governor’s race on the GOP side is a case study in ineptitude. Of the two front runners one was found to have engaged in plagarism on a report he did years ago for a private foundation and for which he was paid a great deal of money. And the other squeezed thru to the nomination without anyone bothering to vet his record until it was too late. There were efforts to get Maes to drop out but he refused so Tancredo came in on the 3rd party ticket to try and give us a viable choice against the rat, Hickenlooper. At first it looked like this would just split the vote and ensure the rat a win but now it looks like the voters are breaking heavily to Tancredo and he has a shot.
The situation here is not at all like that in other contests. I hope the Tea Parties take note and come to understand that they MUST vet the people who are running.
“Man up, Maes. Do the right thing.”
Ditto! Meas hasn’t a snowballs chance.
“Voted by mail and voted Tancredo.”
Same here; wife, too!
Yes, I would agree - there is.
Perhaps someone from Colorado can explain why it the GOP nominee deserves to be defeated after winning the primary. There have been times in the past where I did not support the primary winner--for example, Arlen Specter's last run. Perhaps this was one of those occasions. I don't know, but I do know Tancredo is conservative and that amnesty is one of our biggest issues in the next few years.
Yes, I remember Bush & Rove telling Tom to never darken the doorway at the White house after Bush spent three or four years ignoring, then pretending that 24 million illegals were not an issue.
I still don’t understand how ONE candidate running for ONE office in the state could get the party moved to minority status. Isn’t there other statewide offices with republican candidates?
I just feel that they keep saying that to try to talk republicans into voting for the republican. Because if it’s true, it is a really stupid way to judge a political party.
That’s my opinion of him, too.
With that endorsement from you, Tancredo's my man.
Seriously, there was only pefect man and he wasn't in politics. Adequate is all you can hope for, and Tancredo is more than that. Don't let your personal antipathy over-rule your common sense.
Yes, I remember Bush & Rove telling Tom to never darken the doorway at the White house after Bush spent three or four years ignoring, then pretending that 24 million illegals were not an issue.
It was the same GOP liars that urged everyone not to talk about borders and immigration when Bush was running in 2004. I remember it perfectly, these liars saying, "There will be plenty of time to discuss illegals and our borders once Bush is elected", but lets not spoil it!!
Spit*
I'll never forget these lying SOBs.
“Isn’t Maes a faux tea party candidate? A poseur?”
Unfortunately, no. Maes is the real deal as far as the Colorado Tea Party is concerned. No one else feels that way about him, though. Even most of the Republicans.
I believe your account may be a little distorted. Dan Maes is the one who reported his suspensions of a possible gambling ring. He did not find out about it, he started the investigation. He admitted he told his girlfriend in confidence. Dan Maes was also not granted appeal which is uncommon. Since the case records were never made public the media reporting of Maes embellishing his resume was exaggerated.
He voted not once, but TWICE for the $700+ Billion dollar TARP bill.
He voted FOR the Patriot Act.
I supported him a lot in the earlier years when he was my Congressman in Colorado's 6th CD.
I wouldn't vote for him to be dog-catcher now.
A lot of Tea Party people feel betrayed by the adoption of Palin (the GOP) by the Tea Party. They don’t like Rinos (socialists) and Palin supports Rinos... They feel the tea party has been highjacked.
I think they are wrong but we will see if the Tea Party sticks by the constitution in shrinking government and repealing socialist medicine after the election rather than sticking by McLame and Co. It is not only the GOP that has something to prove in the area of reform - the Tea Party has some proving to do, too. I really hope and pray we hang together and keep after the GOP if they get majority power through us.
Gee...(Dela)where have I heard that before this cycle?
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