September 02, 2010 09:06 PM UTC

What Would You Do If You Were Dan Maes?

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the last ditch efforts to replace Republican Gubernatorial nominee Dan Maes continue, we’ve been trying to look at this from Maes’ perspective — since we all know what the GOP power brokers want — and thinking about what he might be thinking about as he weighs calls for him to step down.

Again, keep in mind this is how we could see the decision from Maes’ perspective only. Looking at this from his view, it’s really hard to see why Maes would withdraw from the race.

For all his shortcomings as a candidate, the bottom line is that Dan Maes is really not that far away from actually becoming Governor. That doesn’t mean he will win, but NEVER in his life will he ever be this close to winning a top-tier race again. Never again will things fall into place for someone like Maes, who had no name ID and no real campaign operation, but won the GOP Nomination because, despite his flaws, he was still better than the other guy (Scott McInnis). Nobody bothered to do any opposition research on Maes, because nobody thought he would get this far. If he ever tried to run again, he would be crushed from the beginning under the weight of his own faulty resume.

While Maes’ chances of beating Democrat John Hickenlooper are certainly not great, anything could happen in the next 6-8 weeks. Maes could just stay quiet and stay out of the news (which seems to be what he’s been trying to do) and hope that enough uninformed voters just mark an ‘X’ next to the “Republican candidate for governor.”

And if he did win?  

If Maes were to pull out a victory, somehow, he could turn himself into a Sarah Palinesque figure as someone who fought the system and the power elites and won. Hell, even if he loses the race for Governor, as long as he kept it close he could still position himself in a similar manner, and at the very least write a book (or, more likely, have it ghostwritten) about how he fought the system and almost came out on top.

So for Maes, you can’t really offer him the opportunity to withdraw now under the promise that he’ll be supported for another office down the road (which happens with other politicians from time to time). We all know too much about Maes now; he’ll never get a serious chance again, and certainly never an opportunity to slide in under the radar. What could you possibly offer him that is better than what he has now — a real, honest to goodness opportunity to become Governor?    

The only thing that you could offer Maes is a nice, big-salaried job if he does withdraw. That could perhaps be appealing, since Maes does appear to have financial problems. We could see a compelling argument for Maes here, in telling him that if he loses the race he’s back to where he started (which is in a precarious personal financial situation), but if he withdraws he can make a good living at a real job. While that may sound enticing, after the way the GOP establishment has treated Maes, could he really trust that such an offer would be legitimate? And which road offers better odds? A nice long-term, well-paid job on a promise — or rolling the dice that an election wave supposed to favor Republicans will sweep Maes into office, too?

Pols reader JW brings up a third scenario, which is that Maes could end up with a decent job by just staying the course and earning kudos from people who admire him for standing tall. JW’s bigger point is that there are more potential positive outcomes for Maes if he remains as a candidate than if he drops out.

It’s obvious why the GOP wants to get rid of Maes, but it’s much less clear as to why Maes would accept any potential offer to withdraw. We should soon find out either way, but what would you do, fellow Polsters, if you were Dan Maes?