March 01, 2010 09:19 PM UTC

Northern Colorado Tea Party considers endorsements

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• by: BobMoore

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

The Northern Colorado Tea Party, one of the more engaged and better organized Tea Party groups in the state, is considering endorsements in key races, according to an e-mail the group sent out Monday morning.

The endorsements would be decided by a poll being conducted on the Northern Colorado Tea Party’s Web site. The poll is here, and as you’ll see below, there doesn’t appear to be any controls on ballot stuffing.

http://www.northerncoloradotea…

“The endorsement would align the Tea Party with the candidates who receive over 51 percent of the vote with at least a 20 point margin from the runner-up candidate,” according to the announcement. “The candidates would have the ability to use the endorsement on literature, press releases, speeches, etc.”

The poll includes four races – governor, U.S. senator, U.S. representative for the 4th Congressional District and Larimer County sheriff. When I looked at the poll results at about 10:45 a.m. Monday, two candidates met the endorsement threshold – gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes and Senate candidate Ken Buck.

State Rep. Cory Gardner of Yuma led Tea Party native son Dean Madere 43-27, so he’s in reach of hitting the endorsement thresholds.  

There is one major flaw to the poll that I see. It appears to allow multiple votes from the same computer. That opens the door to campaigns to flood responses and impact the endorsement. It’s also an open invitation to mischief.

UPDATE: Sometime around 2 p.m., the Tea Party took down the 4th Congressional District part of the poll. This appears to have occurred after a sudden rush that pushed Tom Lucero from near the bottom to the lead. The other three races are still up.

UPDATE NUMERO DOS: By 3:30 or so, McInnis had passed Maes. Maybe Neal Cavuto was right.

UPDATE NOMBRE TROIS: As noted in the comments, the poll is now gone. Not a surprising development given the way they set it up.