September 09, 2010 09:59 PM UTC

Is the Colorado GOP about to become a "minor political party" - thanks to Tom Tancredo?

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• by: Half Glass Full

Colorado election law at CRS 1-1-104(22) defines a “major political party” as “any political party that at the last preceding gubernatorial election was represented on the official ballot either by political party candidates or by individual nominees and whose candidate at the last preceding gubernatorial election received at least ten percent of the total gubernatorial votes cast.”

Any party not meeting the 10% gubernatorial vote requirement is by definition, at CRS 1-1-104(23), a “minor political party.”

This means that if Tancredo succeeds in marginalizing Maes, at the next statewide election, where “the two major political parties” are listed first and second on the ballot by lot, CRS 1-5-404, we might see the Colorado Democratic Party and the Colorado Constitution Party sharing that privilege, while the Colorado Republican Party would fall into a “second group” of minor political parties whose order in the ballot is determined mainly by lot within that second group (alphabetically, for gubernatorial candidates only). Theoretically, depending on the luck of the draw and the last names of 2012 candidates, if Tancredo and his supporters succeed in ruining Maes’ campaign, all of the statewide Colorado Republican Party candidates in 2012 might appear way, way way down on the ballot inbetween or even underneath the Libertarians, Greens, etc.

Wouldn’t that be ironic?

Viva Tancredo!!! Stick it to the GOP!!!

No, let’s get serious. Tancredo can’t win anyway. The best way for Colorado Republicans to preserve the status quo, assuming they don’t want to see their own Maes in office, and not penalize all of their candidates in 2012 is to hold their noses and vote for Hickenlooper. Let Maes come in a distant second, and let Tancredo get the dismal third place befitting a “minor political party” candidate – and his stature.