Since 2004, interested parties have relied on Colorado Pols for news and insight on Colorado politics and policy matters. Proposition 103 is an education funding initiative on the statewide ballot this November. If passed, Proposition 103 would restore the income and sales tax rates that were in effect in 1999 in Colorado: increasing from 4.63% to 5%, and 2.9% to 3% respectively for five years.
If Proposition 103 passes, Colorado will immediately be set upon by a fierce, probably rabid plague of squirrels. Yes, squirrels. Scary ones. Scarier, even, than the one in the picture at right.
In order to combat this squirrel attack, Colorado will be forced to import massive numbers of Squirrel Monkeys, which we presume eat squirrels (and also stuffed ducks). Over the course of three years, these Squirrel Monkeys will succeed in decimating the population of crazed squirrels...at a terrible price. You see, the Squirrel Monkeys will reproduce at incredible rates. In pictures we've seen, they can fly between trees and stuff, which means that they will soon be soaring back and forth across the skies of Colorado.
This new menace will force more Coloradans to abandon their bicycles and stick to riding in cars (but the convertible business will be destroyed). Ultimately the Squirrel Monkey infestation will expose the folly of the United Nations' sinister plan to force people to ride bicycles, thus validating the beliefs of 2010 Republican Gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes (which, frankly, is still the most unbelievable part of this entire post), propelling him to victory in the 2014 U.S. Senate race over Democratic Sen. Mark Udall.
It piqued our curiosity when we heard the book was coming out in June--as the Durango Herald'sJoe Hanel reports, 2010 GOP gubernatorial nominee Dan Maes has some new theories on what happened to him, and his (nominal) party's chances in the governor's race last year:
Maes blames part of his campaign's collapse on tea party groups - also known as patriot or liberty groups - for demanding perfection and a rigid adherence to ideology.
"The tea party was looking for Jesus Christ and nitpicked anything they could. They wanted purity, and the harsh reality was and remains that no one is perfect or pure, not even little Danny Maes." he wrote in a book he published this summer, Running Without Cowboy Boots...
[Scott] McInnis dismisses any talk of internal divisions in the party.
"I don't think there are lasting impacts. All of that upheaval was caused, frankly, by an ambush on me," McInnis said.
Without the discovery by Democratic-aligned operatives that portions of the "Musings on Water" papers his research assistant wrote were plagiarized, McInnis thinks he would have been the GOP nominee and won the governor's race.
Tancredo, who has rejoined the GOP, said the best scenario for Republicans would have been McInnis as the nominee without the taint of scandal that followed him last summer. Tancredo thinks his own candidacy was a longshot.
As we've said repeatedly and we believe is conventional wisdom now, any hope of GOP victory in the 2010 gubernatorial race vanished the moment that Scott McInnis was brought down in scandal. Tom Tancredo had no ability to win, or even produce a face-saving result--and Maes was never a serious candidate for governor. Nonetheless Republican leadership, beginning with former party chairman Dick Wadhams but certainly not ending with him, made a disastrous mistake by publicly abandoning Maes after failing to pressure him to withdraw in time to be replaced on the ballot. A worse message for primary voters could not possibly have been sent.
Even though Maes could never have won, the chaos that ensued as Tancredo jockeyed for position and top-level Republicans spurned the GOP nominee was a huge distraction--and a source of conflict in the grassroots to the present day. And that leads to the key point: whatever Maes says now, it wasn't the "Tea Party" that sealed his fate. It was Colorado GOP leadership who believed they could salvage an unsalvageable situation by muscling Maes out of the race. The "Tea Party" was little more than a confused rabble by this point, as incapable of affecting the outcome as Wadhams or anyone else. And given a different cue from GOP brass, they would have been happy to give Maes enough token support to avoid this lingering sense of treachery. Besides, all of the things that Maes complains about regarding the "Tea Party"--those problems exist for every Republican candidate for every office.
As it happened, everyone involved made the worst possible choice for their credibility, with the lone possible exception of Maes. Perhaps Maes feels obligated in hindsight to cover for those most responsible for his electoral fate? Given the way he was treated...he shouldn't.
Republican Dan Maes, the 2010 GOP nominee for Governor (it still feels weird to write that) is apparently not letting his bygones, uh, be.
We didn't have a chance to get to this earlier in the week, but didn't want to forget to mention it. On Tuesday, Maes sent out a long note to supporters and people who "want the truth" detailing his continued anger at Tom Tancredo, Steve Durham, Bob Beauprez, Josh Penry, etc., etc. We were forwarded Maes' "newsletter" as it appeared on a Facebook page, and we've included the entire missive after the jump.
The 2010 election is old news, certainly, but it's interesting to read Maes' detailed account of some of the events leading up to his nomination for Governor, as well as his calling out a handful of Republicans individually:
Bob Beauprez - you broke my heart. You mentored me and you called me from Chicago right after the assembly to congratulate me personally. Your radio commercial was a betrayal to me and conservative voters.
Freda Poundstone - you called me 4-5 times a day, even at 7:00 AM on the weekend to snoop around while acting like you supported me. Shame on you. You gave 300.00 to another candidate and told him not to cash it until after his election. The games you played.
Josh Penry - you were a hired gun that could not hit a target. Your political capital is gone except in parts of GJ and with some of your cronies.
Greg Brophy - you sell out to whomever Penry tells you to.
Ted Harvey - be thankful for your strong R base in Douglas County. Their loyalty to you is admirable and your loss for chair has been your chastisement.
Click after the jump to read the full "newsletter," complete with references to The Christmas Story, Men In Black and a sermon about giving forgiveness 77 times.
We can't tell you how much we are going to miss Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes. His bizarre statements and appearances have kept us entertained for more than a year, and Maes didn't disappoint with his "end of campaign" email to supporters.
You can read the full email below, but the highlight is his spin that he saved the Republican Party from "minor party" status:
As most know, we delivered what may have been the most cost effective campaign in state history. We won the primary on approximately $175,000.00 and saved the Republican Party from minor party status on just under $300,000.00! [Pols emphasis] That, of course, with no thanks to the Republican Party financially.
Of course, if Maes wasn't the GOP nominee, there would never have been a risk that Republicans might end up with "minor party" status, but, whatever.
The fact that Maes saved the Republican Party should be enough incentive to send another contribution his way:
We need a little help closing our books. Your contribution of $50.00, $100.00, $250.00 up to $1,050.00 will help us make those final payments to vendors and maybe even a bonus to one of the hardest working young ladies in politics, Jordan. Jordan worked as my scheduler, executive assistant, and driver for 11 months. Many days started at 6:00 AM and ended as late as midnight for Jordan and she earned every penny making just $1,300.00/mo. For those of you who met Jordan you know she worked very hard and always had that beautiful smile on her face and a positive attitude that complemented her loyalty and dedication to our race.
Send that woman a bonus! Hell, we'd be in favor of giving Jordan Maes a bonus just for putting up with her father's campaign. And "bonus for daughter" looks (a little) better on a filing statement than "more mileage reimbursements."
Maes says in the email that he'll have an announcement about his future in a few weeks. We can hardly wait.
UPDATE (11:25): The big Denver paper and many of the other big TV stations have some major problems with their reporting. The Denver Post, for example, had Buck ahead of Bennet 48-46, on the strength of a 52-45 advantage in Boulder. A quick check of the Boulder Clerk and Recorder's website has Bennet leading Buck 67-29. There are a lot of somebodies who should have caught this immediately -- there's no way Boulder County would go solid red for any Republican.
We recommend sticking with the results from Fox 31, which not only has a page that seems to actually load correctly, but isn't making any obvious errors that we can see.
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UPDATE (11:16): It looks like we may be headed for at least one state legislative recount. In HD-29, Democratic Rep. Debbie Benefield trails Republican Robert Ramirez by 148 votes (50.34% to 49.66%).
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UPDATE (11:12): That didn't last long. With 56% of ballots counted, Bennet and Buck are now tied at 47-47.
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UPDATE (11:00): Buck has pulled ahead of Bennet for the first time tonight, leading 49-46 with 49% of precincts reporting.
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UPDATE (9:50): It's looking like the race that will have the biggest impact from an ACP candidate will not be the one anybody expected. The Secretary of State race is neck-and-neck, but the ACP candidate is already pulling 6% of the vote. Buescher may well win this seat by virtue of the American Constitution Party.
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UPDATE (9:44): The percentage of precincts reporting continues to rise, and Michael Bennet continues to hold a 50-45 lead over Ken Buck. This is not good news for Buck, because early returns should have favored him (Republicans voted in higher numbers than Democrats in early and absentee voting). Given Buck's numerous gaffes in the last two weeks of the campaign, it's not likely that late voters are going to choose him over Bennet, so it's hard to see how Buck is going to make up 5 points with 27% of the vote already tallied.
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UPDATE (9:08): It's always fun to see those really early returns that show absurd numbers. In HD-22, Democrat Christine Radeff is pummeling Republican incumbent Ken Summers 7,875 to 12. Yes, 12. For a few more minutes, anyway.
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UPDATE (9:05): Republican Cory Gardner is being declared the winner in CD-4.
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UPDATE (9:03): The Secretary of State race is coming down to the wire, and may be decided by the number of votes pulled in by the American Constitution Party candidate. Meanwhile, the race for Attorney General seems to be widening in favor of incumbent John Suthers.
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UPDATE (9:00): Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter has been declared the winner in CD-7.
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You didn't really think he could make it all the way to election day, did you? We hope this clears up why, while everybody else was joining the handwringing bandwagon as American Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo began his "surge," and the absurd whitewash meme of the "new Tancredo" tried to get legs under it, our only question was how long he could keep this up.
As the Pueblo Chieftain'sPatrick Malone reports, not long enough.
During a campaign swing through Southern Colorado on Tuesday, Tancredo told supporters about his perception of the threat Obama poses.
"It's to the Constitution, to the Bill of Rights," the Canon City Daily Record quoted him as saying. "It's not al-Qaida, it's the guy sitting in the White House." [Pols emphasis]
...At an Oct. 22 debate with his opponents, Democrat John Hickenlooper and Republican Dan Maes, Tancredo defended past inflammatory statements he has made.
The moderator pointed to past remarks by Tancredo that called for the bombing of Mecca, characterized Miami as a third-world country, whether he has the temperament to be governor, advocated literacy tests for Colorado voters and painted Obama as the greatest threat to the nation. He then asked whether Tancredo has the temperament to be governor.
"I absolutely do not regret (the statements)," Tancredo answered.
Our readers will recall that Tancredo said something very similar to this, at a rally for GOP Senate candidate Ken Buckjust before the primary. After a couple of days of hemming and hawing, Buck agreed with Tancredo--and took hits in the press for days afterward. That was before Tancredo jumped into the gubernatorial race as a third-party candidate, of course, so Buck was the one who looked bad. Now, Tancredo's self-inflicted wounds carry a price for himself; in addition to all the Republicans who have rallied to his standard out of desperation, amnesia, or whatever is going on.
And that isn't the only jaw-dropping Tancredo gaffe in this final week of campaigning--The Denver newspaper reports today that Tancredo embellished President Barack Obama's oft-misquoted remark about how some "bitter" people "cling to guns or religion." The thing is, Obama never mentioned "white people." That's, rather unsurprisingly, just what Tancredo imagined hearing.
Or, as Tancredo said, "take the most inflammatory one I can think of and accept that it's true."
Now that, dear reader, is the Tancredo we know.
Bottom line: the gubernatorial race in Colorado has been over since several weeks before the Republican primary. All that has happened since then has been a sideshow with one possible outcome. Make that two outcomes: Governor John Hickenlooper, and a bunch of embarrassed Republicans who will spend the next few months wondering what the hell they were thinking -- particularly if Dan Maes ends up with less than 10% of the vote.
On Monday we posted screenshots from Facebook accounts of Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes and supporter Joseph Harrington about alleged continued attempts by American Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo to negotiate a way for Maes to exit the race for Governor. Tancredo and friends denied the accusations, naturally, but the story is far from over.
As Fox 31 reports, Harrington claims to have "proof" of the discussions via a voicemail from Tancredo campaign manager Bay Buchanan:
A voicemail has surfaced in which Bay Buchanan, Tom Tancredo's campaign manager, can be heard inviting Dan Maes to come to the negotiating table, apparently contradicting the Tancredo campaign's statements this week that they have not been looking to make a deal to get the embattled GOP nominee to quit the governor's race.
The recorded voicemail was sent to Joe Harrington of Highlands Ranch, a Maes confidant, who posted a video of himself playing the voicemail on Facebook Thursday morning.
"Tom is within four points of Hickenlooper," Buchanan says in the message, which was sent at 12:56 p.m. last Friday. "It's the time. He's got to find somebody he trusts to talk to us, somebody who he trusts their word.
"Give me a call if you're interested. I won't bother you any more if you guys aren't, but the time is now. The time is absolutely now."
So what does Tancredo's campaign have to say about this voicemail? That it's all Harrington's fault...or something:
But, Buchanan says that Harrington first opened the door to negotiations last week when he walked into Tancredo's campaign office and met with [Cliff Dodge (a Tancredo advisor)] last week -- and that her voicemail was a response to his initial inquiry about a way for Maes to exit the race.
"He came to us and indicated that Dan was tired and might be interested in getting out," Buchanan told FOX 31. "We do not deny having many conversations with them, because we felt like we had a contact with Maes and that we might be able to work this all out. [Harrington] wanted us to put something in writing, he even mentioned specific jobs. And I sent him the law that states it's illegal to even talk about those types of things. We said he could be involved in the campaign, but beyond that we were very clear that we couldn't offer him a job.
"When he asked what we could do, we told him 'nothing'."
None of this is going to change the fact that Democrat John Hickenlooper is going to be elected Governor in two weeks. But at the rate this spat is going, somebody (if not several somebodies) may be looking at serious legal problems.
It's bad enough for Republicans that they have essentially given away the Governor's race for a second straight cycle, but what they really don't need is for this mess to produce serious legal challenges that include various GOP officials ending up giving depositions on potential backroom deals. From all indications, there are a lot of different people who had conversations with Maes over the last few months about getting out of the race for governor, and it's not out of the question that many of them could be dragged in front of lawyers over the next 12 months.
Colorado Ethics Watch earlier this week called on Maes to disclose details of any potential offers in a press release:
Republican Gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes today pointed to a post on Facebook from a supporter named Joseph Harrington about apparent continued efforts by Republicans to get Maes to leave the race for Governor.
Talk about beating your heads against the wall. Republicans have been trying to get Maes out of the race since at least July, and he has yet to agree to any of their deals. So why would they keep trying, especially with the election just a few weeks away now? Do they really think Maes is suddenly going to decide to drop out now? Of course he isn't, and the more that these stories continues to come out, the more that the Republicans involved risk getting exposed for obviously illegal activity (assuming this is true).
Is independent Tom Tancredo now becoming the de facto Republican candidate for governor of Colorado? He's now moved to within four points of Democrat John Hickenlooper to turn the race into a toss-up.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Colorado finds Hickenlooper with 42% support, while Tancredo, the candidate of the American Constitution Party, earns 38% of the vote. Support for Republican Dan Maes continues to fall and now stands at 12%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.
Less than two weeks ago, Tancredo earned 35% of the vote to Hickenlooper's 43% and Maes' 16%. That shifted the race from Solid Democrat to Leans Democrat in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Gubernatorial Scorecard. Now the race moves to a Toss-Up.
First off, we don't believe for a second (and neither do most informed politicos in Colorado) that the governor's race here is anything close to a toss-up. Democrat John Hickenlooper is going to be elected governor -- he's been too far ahead for too long, and he has significantly more resources than Tom Tancredo.
But news of this poll from the notoriously right-leaning Rasmussen Reports is not actually helpful for Colorado Republicans. Tancredo is going to (rightly) tout these polling numbers as proof that he can defeat Hickenlooper, which will do two things: 1) Convince more potential Republican voters to choose Tancredo over GOP nominee Dan Maes, and 2) Give a big boost to American Constitution Party candidate Doug Aden in CD-4.
According to Rasmussen, Maes is sitting at 12% of the vote, just two points away from falling under the 10% required to cause Republicans to lose their "major party" status. More significantly, any rise for American Constitution Party candidate Tancredo makes Aden look more credible as well, and just about every vote that Aden receives is a vote that would have otherwise gone to Republican Cory Gardner in CD-4.
As "The Fix" reports yesterday, Democrats across the country are suffering the fallout from a weak top-of-the-ticket showing:
Rick Snyder may be House Democrats' biggest nightmare.
The Michigan Republican, a former head of the Gateway computer company, is running way ahead of Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero (D) in the Wolverine State's gubernatorial race. (A poll released Sunday gave him a 20-point advantage.) Such a wide margin for Snyder creates the potential for a down-ballot sweep that could wash out Democrats' chances in two hotly contested House districts...
...With Snyder leading Bernero by such a wide margin, there is considerable concern among Democratic strategists that a poor performance at the top of the ticket could make just enough difference to sway the 1st District and 7th District races against them.
The situation in Michigan is the most extreme - but far from the only - example of how Democratic struggles at the top of the ticket could well cost the party a handful of congressional contests on Nov. 2.
"Getting tied to an unpopular ticket hurts with swing voters, but it also makes it even harder to rally your base and get them to turn out," said one Democratic consultant who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the problem candidly...
...In close races - and there will be lots of them at the House level in 22 days' time - a few hundred votes can make all the difference. And that's where a stronger-than-expected (or weaker-than-expected) than expected showing at the top of the ticket will matter - in a major way.
There's no mention of Colorado in this article, but Republicans stand to face the same problems with the, uh, less-than-venerable Dan Maes as the GOP candidate for governor. We've been saying this since even before Maes's primary victory in August, when it became clear that the Republican Governor's Association would not be playing in Colorado.
As we've also said, this is why ballot-chasing and GOTV efforts will be so critical to many other top races. For example, Cory Gardner's campaign in CD-4 needs to find those Republican voters -- who might have lost interest in casting their ballot after watching Maes flounder around for months -- and make sure they still decide to vote for him. But without RGA money in Colorado, there are fewer resources available for exactly those ballot-chase and GOTV efforts that many Republicans candidates rely upon. That's the dangerous doubly-doozy you get with a disaster of a gubernatorial candidate like Dan Maes.
In order to combat this squirrel attack, Colorado will be forced to import massive numbers of Squirrel Monkeys, which we presume eat squirrels (and also stuffed ducks). Over the course of three years, these Squirrel Monkeys will succeed in decimating the population of crazed squirrels...at a terrible price. You see, the Squirrel Monkeys will reproduce at incredible rates. In pictures we've seen, they can fly between trees and stuff, which means that they will soon be soaring back and forth across the skies of Colorado.
This new menace will force more Coloradans to abandon their bicycles and stick to riding in cars (but the convertible business will be destroyed). Ultimately the Squirrel Monkey infestation will expose the folly of the 
