May 24, 2013 10:19 AM UTC

So Much For Steve Laffey

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• by: Colorado Pols

We received an announcement a short while ago from Steve Laffey, the Rhode Island transplant who briefly entertained the whimsical notion of running for governor of Colorado this week. On account of Laffey being ideologically in sync with Tom Tancredo—thanks for letting sane Colorado voters know this prior to running for anything else, Mr. Laffey–he'll be exiting the clown car.

After Tom's entrance into the Governor's race yesterday, I consulted with my wife and close friends. After discussion and prayer I have decided to withdraw from the 2014 Governor's race in Colorado.
 
I have been in two contentious primaries, against people with whom I disagreed immensely and were leading us in the wrong direction. When I entered this race there was no one else who had the capability to bring the case for Limited Government, Freedom and Jobs to the people of Colorado.   In this case, Tom and I agree on much, plus he is a good and honorable man, has a great background for the job, and will work towards producing more freedom for the people of Colorado.  
 
That would leave us with a divisive primary, arguing over mostly non-issues, splitting the fundraising in Colorado so that little is left for the general election (given Colorado's restrictive campaign laws), and dividing the Republican Party— ending with, for different reasons, the same disastrous results in 2014. Tom stepped in in 2010 on strong principled reasons; this will give a Republican the best chance to win in November.

We're pretty sure this means Laffey realized he was about to become the next Dan Maes. And like with Maes, there's an arithmetic chance that everybody else in the race could implode, and he might actually have to bear a Republican party's standard that he is in no way qualified to bear. Good for Mr. Laffey for having more sense as a vanity candidate than, you know, Dan Maes did. If that sounds like faint praise to you, that's because it is.

And the field is one nobody clearer for The Tanc!