THURSDAY UPDATE #4: This is all becoming really very silly. Former Senate President, and Republican right-wing standard bearer, John Andrews issued this statement this morning:
This morning I called Dan Maes to withdraw my endorsement and urge him to end his candidacy, for the public good. As a conscientious Republican who earlier voted for Dan, I cannot support a manifestly unfit nominee. He has flunked his job interview with the people of Colorado in the weeks since Scott McInnis faded. The party should cut Maes loose if he does not resign the nomination. I intend to write in a vote for Jane Norton for Governor. [Pols emphasis]
Jane Norton? This makes perfect sense. Try to kick out someone who won the Republican primary in order to replace him with someone who lost a primary election of her own. We've absolutely reached the point where this is causing more harm than good for Republicans, whether or not they can convince Maes to withdraw.
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THURSDAY UPDATE #3: There is a Gubernatorial debate scheduled to be taped today at Noon as a joint production between Colorado Public Television (CPT12) and CBS 4. The debate is scheduled to air at 9:00 p.m. tomorrow, which could be a bit odd if Maes did withdraw from the race.
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THURSDAY UPDATE #2: Moments ago, Dan Maes posted this defiant-sounding update to his Facebook page. Does this read like a man about to pull out of this race?
THURSDAY UPDATE: The Colorado Statesman'sJody Strogoff confirms much of this story in a detailed must-read report this morning: renewed pressure to withdraw, a few days of expressed leeway by the Secretary of State's office should a vacancy committee be necessary, and a twist you may not have expected: Bob Beauprez waiting in the wings?
As Jody Strogoff of The Colorado Statesman reports, major Republican donors Larry Mizel, Greg Maffei and Fred Hamilton are co-sponsoring a big fundraising lunch on Sept. 22 for Democrat John Hickenlooper's campaign for Governor:
With Mizel, Maffei and Hamilton out of the closet, so to speak, others will likely follow.
Mizel, chairman and chief executive officer of M.D.C. Holdings, Inc., is also one of Colorado's major political players, although most of his activities are behind the scenes. Between 1989 and 2006, Mizel and his wife are reported to have contributed about one million dollars to federal candidates, PACs, and political parties; 94 percent went to Republican candidates and party committees. His large donations, which have continued over the last few years, have placed Mizel among the nation's top 100 political contributors.
Mizel wasn't supporting McInnis for governor, and clearly won't be lending his name to Maes. But rather than having his endorsement of Hickenlooper construed as anti-Republican, Mizel views it simply as a smart business decision. He says Hickenlooper provides bipartisan leadership that is good for the city, good for the state, and good for business in general.
Hickenlooper, Mizel says, has shown his brilliance in terms of economic development leadership and will do well in reestablishing Colorado as a state that welcomes growth and development, business and a good quality of life...
...Greg Maffei also has a strong personal relationship with Hickenlooper. According to a profile in the Denver Post a few months ago, the Liberty Media Corp. chief executive was one of the first people Hickenlooper turned to when he was considering whether to run for governor. Maffei told Hickenlooper he thought the job was a good fit and urged him to run.
Maffei has strong Republican Party ties, here in Colorado as finance director for the state Republican Party, and as a major figure in Sen. John McCain's political activities over the years.
As the Statesman story points out, expect to see more major Republican donors migrating to Hickenlooper. After all, these guys didn't make their money by betting big on long shots.
SATURDAY AM UPDATE: As we suspected, Dan Maes is not proving agreeable to 'suggestions' that he exit the race--posted to his Facebook profile last night:
To be clear, the story is about high-level Republicans wanting Maes to get out of the race, or failing that to select a running mate from their approved roster. The only part of the "rumor" he has control over is his response--and for the time being anyway, there you have it.
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UPDATE: In this video from a gubernatorial debate between Scott McInnis and Dan Maes at the end of last month, McInnis strongly defends Maes (and himself) from any attempt after the primary to force either of them from the race. McInnis calls attempts to force either of them out a "bait and switch," and flatly states it would be "out of line" to go against the choice of primary voters.
No doubt he still thinks so.
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Top Republican "emissaries" are meeting with Republican Gubernatorial nominee Dan Maes today in an attempt to convince him to drop out of the race and let the GOP replace him with someone else.
According to an anonymous Republican source, GOP Chair Dick Wadhams is not among those involved in the meeting in an effort to keep some official distance from the process. The message from Republicans is that there will be no outside money and no fundraising assistance for Maes if he stays in the race, but if he drops out there could be support for him for future opportunities.
Republican leaders have been conspicuous in their public silence about Maes, and that silence was apparently part of the plan leading up to today's meeting. Top Republicans wanted to let Maes have a few days to himself after the election, hoping that their lack of attention would show him that he doesn't have the support he would need to win in November.
From what we have heard over the last 24 hours, however, Maes is unlikely to agree to any terms that would see him remove himself from the race for Governor because he truly believes that he has earned the nomination. As part of a last-ditch effort, top Republicans may try to get Maes to agree to their choice for a running mate, in hopes that a stronger Lieutenant Governor could be in a position to take over the ballot at some point.
It's important to keep in mind that these discussions are not really about finding a candidate who can win the governor's race in November. As we first reported in mid-July, Republicans recognize that their chances at beating Democrat John Hickenlooper are close to zero. What they want now is to find someone who can excite the GOP base and not be a drag on the ticket -- both for Ken Buck's U.S. Senate bid and for the downballot races. Maes can't win, and neither can a potential replacement; but at least a potential replacement isn't regularly being mocked both locally and nationally as a joke of a candidate. Maes' much-discussed "U.N. Bicycle Plot" is bad enough when he's just one of several candidates running in a Primary, but now it's the Republican candidate for Governor saying these things. That's a lot different.
Whatever the decision, Republicans don't have a lot of time to make it; the Secretary of State certifies the ballot on Sept. 3. A replacement candidate could still be programmed into the voting machines for early and Election Day voting, but the new name likely wouldn't make it onto the early mail ballot if something wasn't done before Sept. 3.
Earlier we pointed you to a Politico story about former State Senator and former GOP Senate candidate Tom Wiens trying to throw his hat into the ring for Governor, should Republicans figure out a way to replace either Scott McInnis or Dan Maes on the ballot.
From what we've heard lately from top Republicans, however, there is probably no scenario whereby McInnis drops out of the race if he wins the Primary on Tuesday. Why not? The reasons are pretty simple:
Today "The Fix" provides its list of the 10 most interesting primary fights in the country, and Colorado's Republicans made it into two of the top three!
Most interesting, however, is that "The Fix" notes that Scott McInnis leads Dan Maes by 15 points in the race for the Gubernatorial nomination, while Jane Norton may now be leading Ken Buck 45-40 in the Senate Primary:
3. Colorado governor (R, Aug. 10): What happens if you hold a primary and the party regulars don't want either candidate to win? That's what's happening in Colorado at the moment with scandal-plagued Scott McInnis (plagiarism) and Dan Maes (campaign finance violations) battling it out. A survey shown to the Fix and conducted by a Republican pollster in the last few days put McInnis ahead by 15. If he manages to win the nomination, there will be a major push by establishment Republicans to push him out. But will McInnis go? (Previous ranking: N/A)...
1. Colorado Senate (R, Aug. 10): Just when Weld County prosecutor Ken Buck looked like he was going to pull off an upset against former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, he made a series of impolitic comments -- the most potentially damaging of which was calling elements of the Tea Party "dumbasses". A poll conducted by a major Republican firm looking in at the governor's race in the last few days showed Norton ahead 45 percent to 40 percent, which suggests that Buck has incurred considerable political damage. (Previous ranking: 3)
We've talked before about the negative effects that could affect the entire Republican ticket given their meltdown in the Governor's race. Today MSNBC takes a look at the carnage and offers a sobering historical lesson for Republicans:
There's at least one previous case of GOP intra-party turmoil in one race spilling over into down-ballot races.
"The clearest recent example of a gubernatorial downdraft is Ohio 2006," said Claremont McKenna College political scientist John Pitney. "The incumbent GOP governor (Bob Taft) had been ensnared in scandal and his party's candidate to replace him (Ken Blackwell) was unpopular. Together with bad national trends, trouble at the top of the ticket helped bring down incumbent senator Mike DeWine and cost the GOP a couple of House seats."
Now, obviously those national trends that benefited Democrats in 2006 are not there in 2010. But a race like CD-4 could come down to the wire, and the Republican troubles at the top of the ticket could mean the difference for Rep. Betsy Markey.
UPDATE: To wit, Politico'sKasie Hunt, who we're pretty sure had never once written about--or even heard of--the American Constitution Party before Tom Tancredomade it famous:
Former Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo's rogue bid for governor, already imperiling the GOP's shot at the state's top office, could also dim Republican prospects for knocking off first-term Democratic Rep. Betsy Markey in the 4th Congressional District.
That's because Tancredo's running on the ticket of the conservative American Constitution Party- a minor third-party ballot line that happens to include a candidate, Doug Aden, running in Markey's district. A statewide campaign that draws attention to Aden's party might give him the kind of lift that would make him a spoiler for Republican state Rep. Cory Gardner's campaign...
This is turning into a pretty big deal for this formerly-insignificant minor party--Tancredo's high profile and strong support on the hard right are certain to give the ACP the broadest exposure in its history. And given that "Tea Party" and related groups are already nonplussed by GOP nominee Gardner after his run-in with Steve King a few weeks ago, the danger of Aden peeling off votes from Gardner is bigger than first impressions might suggest.
We've updated The Big Line after some admitted confusion over how we would list Tom Tancredo's new Party affiliation. This is the first time we can remember that we've ever listed an American Constitution Party candidate on the line.
Tancredo's entry into the Governor's race may have another unintended consequence beyond all but ensuring that Democrat John Hickenlooper is elected Governor. American Constitution Party candidate Doug Aden should get a small boost in CD-4 because of all of the press that Tancredo's new party will receive, and in a close November race, that boost could be a killer for Republican Cory Gardner's bid to knock off Democrat Betsy Markey.
We've also upped the odds for Republican Jane Norton in her bid to win the GOP nomination for Senate over Ken Buck. While Buck remains the frontrunner, he keeps screwing up just enough, while Norton adds some high-profile endorsements, that this race is tightening by the day.
UPDATE: Republican State Party Chair Dick Wadhamsis none too happy about Tancredo's ultimatum:
I am terribly disappointed in Tom Tancredo's announcement that he has made a backroom deal with a minor political party to run for governor.
Tom Tancredo used the Colorado Republican Party to get elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in the 1970's, to work as a political appointee in the Reagan administration in the 1980's, and to get elected to Congress from 1998 to 2008. But now it appears he wants to destroy Republican chances to win a governor's race after four failed years of Bill Ritter...
...Let there be no mistake about it: Regardless of who our nominee is for governor after the primary, if Tom Tancredo carries through on his threat to run as a third party candidate, he will be responsible for the election of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper as governor and for other races that will be imperiled as well.
Yup. This should end well.
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We reported last week that Republicans in Colorado were scrambling to figure out how to replace both Scott McInnis and Dan Maes as candidates for Governor, while at the same time looking for someone who could prop up the ticket enough to benefit the GOP Senate candidate and every other candidate down the ballot. It looks like former Rep. Tom Tancredo is going to do everything he can to elbow his way in.
Click after the jump for the full statement from Tancredo, which was just released. He gives McInnis and Maes until Noon on Monday, July 26 (no seriously, that's exactly what he wrote) to publicly promise to withdraw from the race after the August 10 primary results are announced...or else Tancredo will run for Governor under the American Constitution Party platform.
If both McInnis and Maes do withdraw, presumably Tancredo would then be the Republican candidate for Governor.
This all seems a bit melodramatic and silly, but both words pretty well sum up Tancredo's career in general. We'd be surprised to see this from anyone but Tancredo, frankly, though we're still not sure how this helps Republicans.
Demanding a withdrawal by an arbitrary deadline only serves to humiliate McInnis and Maes more than they've already humiliated themselves. McInnis has always been too proud to admit his own errors; we just don't see him bowing out of the race to kiss the feet of one of the Colorado GOP's foremost lunatics.
Tancredo's threat is also pretty meaningless. Neither McInnis nor Maes can possibly win the general election for Governor anyway -- not after their various collection of scandals and misstatements. If McInnis and Maes don't withdraw, and Tancredo runs under the American Constitution Party banner...so what? Tancredo pulls enough votes from the GOP candidate to ensure that they won't win a race they weren't going to win anyway?
UPDATE: Ready for another twist? Fox 31's Eli Stokols:
In a new audio recording obtained by FOX 31, Buck is discussing the Tancredo firestorm roughly a day later, on Friday, and said, "I can't believe that guy opened his mouth."
It's a seemingly reasonable reaction, given that Tancredo completely stole the headlines following Buck's Thursday rally with South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint; and it aligns with Buck's initial response to the media when, moments after Thursday's rally ended, he told a group of reporters, "I think there are a lot of threats to the White House and I don't think the man in the White House is the greatest threat to this country at all."
...Norton's decision to stick up for Tancredo, who has endorsed Buck and harshly criticized Norton and her campaign, underscores how this primary continues to be battle to demonstrate the most strident conservative credentials possible.
That dynamic is largely responsible for Buck's recent momentum; and it may explain why, on Saturday, Buck himself took a notably different stance on Tancredo's remarks while speaking at the Conservative Western Summit.
The fallout from former Rep. Tom Tancredo'scrazy comments at a rally for GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck continues, with the rhetoric becoming less and less comprehensible by the day. Politico has more on the story today (most of which you've already seen here):
Buck quickly distanced himself from the comments, and a YouTube video showed that the Republican primary hopeful did not applaud Tancredo's remarks. "I love Tom, but I don't always agree with him. I don't agree that the greatest threat to the country is the man in the Oval Office," Buck said, noting that Tancredo "tends to exaggerate sometimes."
The Colorado Democratic Party still hammered Buck by association, and state party Chairwoman Pat Waak said in a statement: "No one should give Ken Buck a pass on the extreme and shocking statements of his good friend Tom Tancredo."
But it was former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, the favored Senate candidate of national Republicans who has been nudged to the right by Buck's feisty campaign, who jumped to Tancredo's defense.
"There was a real measure of truth in what Tancredo said," Norton wrote on her Facebook page. "Obama is spending this country into bankruptcy. [Joint Chiefs Chairman] Admiral Mullen said our debt is a greater threat than terrorism. It's time to end the culture of political correctness. Obama's brand of big government is a threat to America."
Norton's decision to stick up for Tancredo, who has endorsed Buck and openly criticized Norton's campaign, shows how completely the Republican Senate primary has become a battle for the hardest-line conservative credentials.
We've discussed for some time on this website how the Republican primary for Senate may end up driving the winner so far to the right that it will be difficult for either Buck or Jane Norton to tack back to the center in time for the General Election. But the way things are going now, it's not right vs. left vs. center that we'll be discussing, but rather, which candidate can at least be coherent?
Through a spokesman, Buck said he looked forward to a debate that puts not just President Obama, but the whole Democratic Party's views on debt, energy, Israel and more in the spotlight.
"If Obama leaves office, you turn on your TV and you hear the following, 'I Joseph Biden do solemnly swear.' The threat continues because then Nancy Pelosi is in office, Harry Reid is in office, Barney Frank is in office and the liberal progressives continue marching down that path," Buck said.
Yeah, you said...wait, what are you talking about?
To this point we've been generally dismissive of radio host Jimmy Lakey's hints at running for Congress in CD-7. Radio personalities, like Dan Caplis, often talk about becoming candidates but never actually make the jump.
But it appears as though Lakey is really running, as evidenced by a recent endorsement from former Rep. Tom Tancredo. Take a look at the Tancredo endorsement email after the jump, which warns of illegal immigrants kidnapping your dog, or something, if Lakey's primary opponents (Ryan Frazier and Lang Sias) win the nomination. "The Republic is at risk!"
We joke about Tancredo's endorsement, but in a multi-candidate Republican primary, it could actually play a huge role. Lakey only needs about 10,000 votes to win a three-way race, (there are 85,000 active Republican voters in CD-7, and traditionally only about one-third of eligible voters participate in a primary) and we're guessing there are a lot of anti-immigrant GOP voters who will take Tancredo's advice on who to vote for this August. If Lakey can do even a decent job of raising money, he's got a real shot here.
Whatever desire that Democrats may have to bring Senate candidate Jane Norton down to earth should not permit subsidizing the rants of Colorado's greatest embarrassment since John Chivington. Noting very, very briefly what the Denver Post reports:
Former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton will announce her candidacy for the U.S. Senate today, much to the chagrin of retired U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo.
Tancredo said he would not have had a problem if Norton earlier this year had called fellow Republicans statewide to say she wanted to run for the office and outlined her reasons.
Instead, he charged that Norton in recent weeks got talked into running by Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Norton family friend and political ally.
"Does John McCain have a right to do that? Sure. Do I have a right to (complain) about it? You bet," Tancredo said in an interview Monday night. "Jane Norton is a nice lady who I like. End of story. But I fear she is not ready for prime time."
Yeah, we'll remember that next time you run for President on the "Send 'Em Back" ticket. And why do we have the feeling that Tancredo wouldn't be nearly so angry if McCain had suggested that he should run for Senate?
At least Post reporter Lynn Bartels had the sense to edit Tancredo for the print version, in the first version of this story he asks, "Do I have a right to bitch about it?"
If the messenger makes your skin crawl, it's really hard to listen to what they say. Almost makes us wonder if he's learned his lesson from the Sonia Sotomayor burn and is now using his ignominy to inversely boost the team...
We weren't the only ones who commented that calling Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a racist probably wasn't a good strategic move for conservative critics, so there's no need to say "We told you so." Actually, it was so blatantly obvious that this was a stupid line of attack that "we told you so" would be too generous.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich now sheepishly admits that the "racist" attack might have been a bad idea. From The Associated Press:
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Wednesday he shouldn't have called Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a racist, but said he was still concerned that she would bring bias to her decisions.
In a letter to supporters, the Georgia Republican said that his words had been "perhaps too strong and direct" last week when he called Sotomayor a reverse "racist," based on a 2001 speech in which she said she hoped the rulings of a "wise Latina" would be better than those of a white male without similar experiences. Gingrich's remarks created a furor among Sotomayor's backers and caused problems for GOP figures who have been pushing to bring more diversity to the party.
We'll give Gingrich some credit for belatedly realizing what a stupid attack this was for the GOP in general, but unfortunately for the Republican Party, the damage has been done.
Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry is apparently beginning to seriously engage in discussions about running for Governor, and may soon file paperwork to make it official. Penry is doing this quietly while he tries to gauge support for a potential run against Gov. Bill Ritter, and trying to keep this quiet is probably the smartest thing Penry has done in months.
Our prediction? Penry doesn't actually end up running for Governor in 2010. And here's why...
We'd been waiting until after the election to discuss 2010 more in-depth, but it looks like the cat is out of the bag regarding one potential GOP challenger. Congressman Tom Tancredo, long thought to be considering a run for Senate in 2010, has instead focused his sights on running for Governor. The reason, we've heard, is that poll numbers show Ken Salazar to be a strong incumbent, while Gov. Bill Ritter is the weaker of the two statewide candidates. Tancredo wants to run statewide in 2010, and it makes more sense to take on Ritter than to challenge the stronger Salazar.
Also rumored to be seriously considering another run for governor in 2010 is - don't laugh - Bob Beauprez. But while Beauprez may be seriously considering a run himself, it's doubtful that any other top GOP backers would seriously take him seriously. You don't run the worst statewide campaign in Colorado history, as Beauprez did in 2006, and try to run again for the same race four years later.
Colorado no longer has one of its own in the race for President. Today Republican Tom Tancredo withdrew from the race for President...and endorsed Mitt Romney.
Rep. Tom Tancredo officially bowed out of the race for the White House today, declaring a moral victory despite never escaping the bottom rungs of the polls.
At an afternoon news conference in Des Moines, the Colorado congressman also endorsed Mitt Romney, saying he was satisfied the former Massachusetts governor is well-suited to drive many of the same immigration reforms that Tancredo has been pushing on the campaign trail.
Tancredo called Romney "the best hope for our cause."
He also said worried if he stayed in the race that someone who is wrong on immigration - namely former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee - could benefit.
"I don't want to do anything that would aid them," he said of Huckabee, while also mentioning Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Tancredo did not say anything about his immediate plans. He's long left the door open to a possible Senate run in 2010...
...It's unclear how much weight a Tancredo endorsement might have with just two weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3.
In Iowa, Tancredo got between 2 percent and 6 percent in the most recent polls, and his supporters and campaign volunteers appeared to be split among various camps.
Tancredo's exit from the race is certainly no surprise, but we'd be lying if we said the Romney endorsement was not.
In an effort to boost his Presidential campaign, Rep. Tom Tancredo has gone the scary route with his latest campaign ad - as in, try to scare people into voting for you.
On Monday he unveiled a new television ad that shows a hooded man slip into a peaceful shopping mall, set down a black backpack - not far from where children are playing - and then, boom!
Interspersed with images of a bloody body and the destruction from recent terrorist attacks in London, Spain and Russia, it argues that this could be "the price we pay for spineless politicians who refuse to defend our border against those who come to kill."
But one Iowa political analyst called it such a "brute" appeal for fear, that it's not likely to help Tancredo's long-shot campaign here in the nation's first presidential caucus state, nor prompt any of the other candidates to respond, as Tancredo told reporters Monday was his real goal.
"This is just blatant, raw fear images, and they've never worked in the United States, period," said Bruce Gronbeck, a communications professor from the University of Iowa who teaches a course on politics in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
As we've said on the Big Line for months, and the Rocky Mountain News reports today:
Even if he loses his long-shot bid for the White House, Rep. Tom Tancredo will be leaving the U.S. House of Representatives at the end of 2008.
Tancredo, 61 , waited until after the Colorado Rockies' last out of the World Series on Sunday night before announcing that he plans to retire from Congress at the end of this, his fifth term.
"It's the fact that I really believe I have done all I can do in the House, especially about the issue (immigration) about which I care greatly," he said.
Tancredo said other people are now taking up leadership on the immigration issue...
The decision is not a surprise, considering Tancredo's repeated complaints that his presidential run was taking a heavy toll on him and his family. But it is sure to set off a mad succession scramble in his solidly conservative, suburban Denver district.
Tancredo parlayed a back-bench seat in Congress into a national megaphone to oppose illegal immigration, denounce a so-called "cult of multiculturalism" and warn about a "clash of civilizations" between radical Islam and Western civilizations.
Those issues have been the centerpiece of Tancredo's bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, although he has yet to break out of single digits in most polls...
Initial predictions: lively GOP primary. Seat stays GOP, but Dems will make a more serious run than in years past -- meaning no unseasoned candidacies like that of Bill Winter. Republican state Sen. Tom Wiens will declare early and work hard to be anointed frontrunner, but don't count Mike Coffman out of this thing.
We hate to say we told you so, but...who are we kidding? We told you so. As always, remember that you read it here at Colorado Pols first. Kudos to M.E. Sprengelmeyer of the News for getting the scoop on the official announcement.
Rep. Tom Tancredo wants to go all in. He's batting for the fences. He's a Rockies fan, he's from Colorado, they're in the World Series against the Red Sox, darnit… He's on a roll.
So Tancredo, who had already pegged an announcement on whether he'll run for reelection to his Littleton, CO Congressional seat to the Rockies -- he'd announce his intentions when their season ends -- had his spokesman call ABC News to officially offer a friendly little high stakes wager to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Red Sox fan.
"If the Rockies lose, Tancredo will drop out of the Presidential race," said spokesman Alan Moore. But if. . . IF the Red Sox lose, Moore went on, "Romney would have to agree that he'd drop out."
Usually when politicians bet on sporting events its for food. Boston Baked Beans versus some Silver Bullet smooth Coors, or something else from Colorado. A Denver omelet?
Romney would be nuts to take the bet, obviously. So while there is no official response yet from team Romney, with Mitt's enormous campaign war chest and status in the polls among the GOP frontrunners, he's got a bit more to lose than Tancredo, who raised less than a million dollars in the most recent financial quarter.
We've always wondered why Rep. Tom Tancredo doesn't do more about illegal immigration, since, you know, he's a congressman and all. Apparently the answer is simple: He just forgets.
Rep. Tom Tancredo two months ago announced a far- reaching proposal to rewrite immigration laws. Today that plan is missing in action.
The Republican congressman from Littleton never submitted the bill he trumpeted in July, legislation that would severely limit family-based legal immigration, imprison employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants and deny citizenship to babies of illegal immigrants who are born in the U.S.
Tancredo's spokesman said that the congressman and his staff have been busy and that perhaps it just slipped their minds.
"We've been fighting a lot of other fights" on immigration, said Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa. "Are we going back to that? Of course we are."
Tancredo, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, also has been hard to pin down, Espinosa said.
Vote Tancredo for President! He'll solve the immigration problem...unless he forgets.
We