July 27, 2010 11:28 PM UTC

Why Doesn't the Tea Party Just Do It Themselves in Colorado?

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Wall Street Journal reports today about the growing anger among Tea Partiers with Republican American Constitution Party candidate for Governor Tom Tancredo:

Six months ago, former GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo was cheered at the National Tea Party Convention. On Monday, he announced a third-party run for governor of Colorado-and many in the state’s tea-party movement responded with disdain.

Although Mr. Tancredo’s support for sealing the U.S. border against illegal immigrants, slashing government spending and taking on the Republican Party’s elite have resonated with tea-party activists, his decision to run for governor as the candidate of the tiny American Constitution Party set many of his former fans fuming.

Given Tancredo’s apparent change-of-heart with the Tea Party group, coupled with Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck’s middle finger to the Tea Party, it seems that the Tea Party in Colorado has a pretty obvious solution to all of this: Run their own candidates.

Several states have official “Tea Party” candidates on the ballot, including 23 who were nominated in Michigan over the weekend.

Forming a political party in Colorado isn’t all that difficult, and while it couldn’t be done in time for the 2010 elections, the Tea Party could easily make the threshold in time for the 2011 ballots. Here’s the process:

1. Create bylaws, rules, etc. for the party to follow

2. Find 1,000 registered voters and get them to affiliate with the Tea Party (before July 1 in a given calendar year)

The law in Colorado says that minor political parties are supposed to collect 10,000 signatures for ballot qualification, but that requirement can be superseded by getting those 1,000 voters to affiliate with the Tea Party. Given how the Tea Party folks have been jerked around by Republicans in 2010, it seems like a pretty simple solution for them to just go it on their own.