Free Republic

Mike Littwin If you haven’t heard the news, let me be the one to break it to you: Hillary Clinton is definitely running for president (OK, you knew that), and the two leading contenders to be her running mate are reportedly Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Colorado’s own senator… Michael Bennet. I’m not making this up. It was right there in Politico, under the byline of Washington insider Mike Allen, who got it from people deep inside Hillaryland, where the talk is that Bennet and Kaine have the inside track. (Others mentioned: Sen. Cory Booker, HUD Secretary Julian Castro,...

A big endorsement for the insurgent campaign of former Adams County Republican Party chairman Steve House for chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, via a letter to the Colorado Statesman–Attorney General Cynthia Coffman would like current GOP chairman Ryan Call to hold this icepick for her. In his back. I write today to encourage your support of Steve House for Chairman of the State Republican Party. (SNIP) Steve House's stated willingness to forgo the generous salary Call had enjoyed could be a major selling point with central committee members, who have groused for years about Call and predecessor Dick Wadhams...

Exclusive: Tom Tancredo warns of scenario in which conservatives split their votes. Jeb Bush leads all other Republicans in early polls for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Without question, Bush is the anointed front-runner, and without question, the Republican establishment is ecstatic. The Republican Party should be happy about the prospect of Jeb Bush as its 2016 presidential candidate only if it has a death wish. Bush 41and Bush 43 dug a hole the party could not climb out of, so Bush 45 aims to fill it with the broken promises of the Republican platform: The Party of Lincoln, RIP....

During a presidential primary debate in 2007, I and the other seven candidates on the stage were asked about waterboarding. The question was: As president, would I agree to waterboard a captured terrorist if three bombs had gone off in this country and we were awaiting the “big one” and we had a captive who we believed knew when and where it would happen? I replied, not only would I waterboard the guy, but I’d be looking for Jack Bauer, the superhero character from the television series “24.” That was my answer after all other candidates said no because John...

Former two-term gubernatorial candidate and Congressman Tom Tancredo is forming a political action committee to “stop Chris Christie” from getting the GOP nod for president in 2016. (SNIP) “I have never liked the guy… [B]ecause he was concerned that I would, in fact, go against the [United States] Chamber of Commerce position on immigration and make it a big deal, and I might win, he chose to … spend a quarter of a million dollars of Republican money…to attack me, here, in Colorado. And launder the money through Attorneys General Association.”

Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.) has cosponsored Rep. Phil Gingrey's (R-Ga.) Nuclear Family Priority Act, H.R.477, that would eliminate the extended family visa categories (e.g., married sons and daughters of citizens, etc.), thus ending "chain migration" as recommended by the bipartisan Barbara Jordan Commission in 1997. Current immigration law allows U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to sponsor non-nuclear, adult family members, creating an endless chain of mass legal immigration.

DENVER — Tom Tancredo isn’t trashing Bob Beauprez, but he’s demanding one of his biggest benefactors, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, come clean about the Republican Governors Association’s influence on Colorado’s GOP gubernatorial primary. On Monday, the Denver Post reported that a campaign finance watchdog group discovered that the RGA, which Christie chairs, funneled money to help Beauprez through the Republican Attorney Generals Association despite its public pledge not to attempt to influence GOP primaries. (SNIP) “We already have a situation in Mississippi where grassroots Republicans feel disenfranchised by party elites. We need to avoid a repeat in Colorado. “Governor...

DENVER — Hours before the polls closed Tuesday and Bob Beauprez was quickly declared the winner of Colorado’s GOP gubernatorial primary, he speculated that the Democratic effort to tip the race to Tom Tancredo may have backfired. A day later, it’s crystal clear that that is indeed the case

Tom Tancredo, the firebrand former congressman, Harley-Davidson biker and perennial headache for Colorado’s Republican leaders, was taking fire from all sides last week in the final days of his primary campaign for governor. His rivals were slamming him on the airwaves. Moderate Republicans were warning that Mr. Tancredo’s name on the ballot could doom their chances in crucial races across this swing state. (SNIP) Last week, a radio commercial from a Massachusetts-based group attacked Mr. Tancredo as a “big-spending Republican in Washington” who frequently switched positions. The group, Colorado Campaign for Jobs and Opportunity, has ties to a consulting firm...

It's primary week and finally there’s some news. First, and most critically, we have our first-ever shakeup at the top of the Littwin Weekly GOP Governor’s Race Rankings. As LeBron James so ably put it, history is made to be broken. Second, John Hickenlooper apologized to a meeting of state sheriffs for hurting their feelings on guns, which came out sounding like he was apologizing for passing the gun laws. Worse (for Hick), he told the sheriffs he never talked to then-Mayor Bloomberg when, in fact, he had and, in fact, had said he had and, in fact, of course...

With precious days left to sway primary voters, three of the four Colorado Republicans seeking their party’s gubernatorial nomination are aligning themselves with the anti-establishment wave that just toppled the second most powerful Republican in the U.S. House, majority leader Eric Cantor. After Cantor lost his seat Tuesday night to a virtually unknown professor, Dave Brat, due to strong support from anti-Cantor forces within conservative talk radio and beyond, Tom Tancredo, Scott Gessler and Mike Kopp openly celebrated. “If I were a drinking man, I’d have been drunk last night.

Barton (TX), Coffman, Denham, Valadao, Diaz-Barlart, Farenthold, Heck(NV), Reichert and Herrera Beutler voted no.

It’s another Tuesday and time for the latest version of the weekly Littwin GOP Guv Rankings. And the internal polls that I’ve been told about all say the same thing — that Tom Tancredo is ahead of the pack, maybe 10 points ahead. And, coincidentally, he leads the Littwin rankings, too. That shows at least two things — that Tancredo’s name value works in a four-way race and that no one else’s, to this point, does. To the rankings (last week’s ranking in parentheses): 1. (1) Tancredo. How’s he done it? Well, by avoiding debates. By refusing entreaties to get...

THE Colorado Republican party’s nightmare is coming true. Tom Tancredo, unfazed by the three so far ineffectual candidates running against him, is speeding toward victory in the GOP primary race for governor. Tancredo is a controversial national figure known mostly for his fiery, unswerving position on illegal immigration — which he sees as a plague that officeholders on every level of government must address as a top priority. Tancredo is an avuncular character with a hard edge. He is in the moment on the stump and in intreviews, quick with a joke, ready to spin out stories and asides that...

Colorado gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo couldn’t win a statewide race if the Democratic candidate were caught in a sexting scandal, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette’s editorial board. In a scathing editorial, the paper urged Republican primary candidates Scott Gessler and Mike Kopp — described in the editorial as capable candidates — to fall on their swords and bow out of the June 24 primary race. That would eliminate the chance for moderate Republicans to split three ways between them and former Congressman Bob Beauprez — the scenario that makes it easiest for Tancredo to win the nomination.

Back in 2006, then State Treasurer Mike Coffman stood in font of 200 people on the steps of the state Capitol as they launched a ballot initiative that would have stopped Colorado from providing services to all undocumented immigrants, even children. Coffman led the group in reciting the pledge of allegiance, and then handed the microphone over to a string of speakers from an organization called Defend Colorado Now, which was organizing the extreme anti-immigrant initiative.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez snagged the endorsement of high-profile politicians this week, including winning the support of former GOP presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. “As a former governor, I can tell you that Bob Beauprez has exactly what Colorado needs to lead,” Romney wrote in an email sent to Beauprez supporters. “Bob’s unique combination of passion, drive, conservative values and experience will make him an outstanding governor.” Beauprez was the most prominent Romney surrogate in Colorado during the 2012 presidential campaign — the Republican lost the state by about 5 points to President Barack Obama —...

Surprise action outside Denver's Brown Palace Hotel this morning, as a press release from a coalition of groups including Together Colorado and the Colorado Immigration Reform Coalition (CIRC) explains: Outside a fundraiser headlined by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) for Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) today, local leaders staged a rally to protest the fact that these three House Republicans are key obstacles standing in the way of immigration reform that would keep Colorado immigrant families together. It has been 322 days since the Senate passed a bipartisan immigration bill, but Speaker Boehner and House...

Kansas City had its chance on Friday to show members of the Republican National Convention committee that it has what it takes to host the 2016 convention. Members of the mayor's task force for the Republican National Convention met with members of the RNC Committee during their first visit as they narrow down the list of contenders to host the 2016 convention.