May 21, 2010 06:45 PM UTC

The Campaign to Discredit...Dan Maes?

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• by: Colorado Pols

There’s been a lot of buzz among Republicans this week about efforts to discredit GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes in advance of the Republican state convention.

Joe Gschwendtner, who announced his campaign for Governor just a few weeks ago, is being discussed as nothing more than a “straw man” candidate entered into the race in order to discredit Maes, whose surprising returns in the caucuses have Scott McInnis worried that he’ll make the 30% threshold for ballot access in the Primary.

In the last week, many Republicans have reported receiving robo-calls from Joe Gschwendtner “Joe G” that were done entirely to rip into Maes and discredit him. One of the calls promotes the website Dan Maes Can’t Win, which has led to the “straw man” argument about Gschwendtner; after all, why would “Joe G” work so hard to discredit Maes, when his obvious competition is really McInnis?

The McInnis campaign is absolutely worried about Maes making the Primary ballot, and for good reason; while Maes almost certainly cannot win the Primary, he would definitely force McInnis to spend time and money in a race that he doesn’t want to deal with.