November 12, 2009 10:41 PM UTC

"The Tank" Hasn't Filed Yet, But...

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• by: Colorado Pols

It appears that the avid fans at the “Draft Tom Tancredo for Governor” Facebook group got a little ahead of themselves when they announced that former Rep. Tom Tancredo had filed “exploratory committee” papers to run for Governor. But, as Fox 31 reports, they may have only been temporarily mistaken:

Contrary to published reports, former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo has not yet filed papers with the Secretary of State’s office to form an exploratory committee to run for governor — but Tancredo tells FOX 31 he is planning to file in the next several days.

“I haven’t filed anything yet,” Tancredo said. “There are a whole bunch of things we have to put together to get to the point of filing. We’re not there yet, but we are looking. Once we get those ducks in a row, those organizational things, I anticipate we’ll file in a relatively short time.”

Tancredo, who twice ran for president on a hard-line anti-illegal immigration platform, had been a strong supporter of state Sen. Josh Penry. Penry ended his gubernatorial run this week and cleared the way for former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis to be the Republican party’s challenger to Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter, who is seeking reelection next year.

“I’ve said all along that if Josh wasn’t in the race, I would be,” Tancredo said. “Now, he’s no longer in the race. So stay tuned.”

We maintain our long-held view about a possible Tancredo gubernatorial bid–a stupendous gift to Democrats, which enough smart Republicans understand that it continues to amaze us how we’re actually discussing it. Let’s be clear: when we say the GOP base wants (and maybe needs) a “real Republican” to run, and Scott McInnis may not meet the test, we don’t mean a national laughingstock looney-hatch fringe icon who happens to call himself a Republican.

That would be enough commentary on this story, since the only thing that’s really going on with this in all likelihood is Tancredo acting out his pathological fame-whoring, but there’s something else related here that bears mentioning–why is Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams not jumping on the McInnis “clear the field” bandwagon? From the Denver Examiner blog:

Using familiar rhetoric, Colorado state GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams fell just short of pleading for another Republican to jump into the 2010 Gubernatorial Race.

When asked his thoughts on State Senator Josh Penry’s exit from the race to become the Republican nominee for Governor in 2010, Wadhams responded by saying that, “There is plenty of time for another candidate or candidates to get into the race.”

Wadhams and Republican frontrunner Scott McInnis have not seen eye-to-eye since McInnis made disparaging comments about GOP candidate Bob Schaffer in the midst of a close race with eventual US Senator Mark Udall.  McInnis had been lobbied to end his run for that open US Senate seat in much the same way that Penry was urged to leave this gubernatorial race; for the good of the party.

Now it is Wadhams giving opponents fuel as he fails to endorse the only broadly appealing candidate for Governor likely to come out of the Republican Party for next year’s elections…

Alright, so let’s assume for a moment that Wadhams is not utterly clueless–and we don’t think he is. That being the case, Wadhams cannot possibly be referring to Tancredo when he says there’s “plenty of time for another candidate to get in.” Though based on Wadhams’ open hostility toward McInnis so far in this race, it certainly does make sense that Wadhams would like to see somebody else challenge McInnis. Or is Wadhams just paying lip service to the raging base?

And if Wadhams means it, who might that candidate be?