February 05, 2014 12:14 PM UTC

Omitted from Tancredo interview is his belief that wooing Hispanics is mostly a lost cause

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

If you've been following Tom Tancredo from microphone to microphone over the years, like I have, you know he doesn't think his position on immigration is a liability for him in getting elected governor of Colorado. He thinks he can win in spite of it.

So it was no surprise to hear Tancredo tell KNUS talk-show host Jimmy Sengenberger Sat. that he doesn't care if the Democrats hit him on immigration, if he's running against John Hickenlooper.

Tancredo: Does anyone think I won't be hit on immigration? I intend to be very, very aggressive about that particular issue.

Sengenberger: Do you want them to bring it to you?

Tancredo: Absolutely.

Tom Tancredo on KNUS says, bring on immigration debate 2-1-2014

Tancredo doesn't believe most Hispanics care about his extreme positions on immigration, which, presumably, would include his view that immigration reform is "impossible" to achieve in Washington. (His solution is to require businesses to use e-verify to make it impossible to hire undocumented immigrants.)

Instead, the GOP gubernatorial front-runner argued in Saturday's radio interview that he'll try to reach Hispanics by talking about the importance of legal immigration as well as fiscal conservatism and such. For details, Tancredo directed listeners to VivaTancredo.com.

But left out during his radio appearance was Tancredo's core belief about Hispanic voters: Republicans shouldn't toss their principles out the window in an effort to win them over. It's a waste of time.

As he said last year, “We’ve seen that trying to woo the Latino is a losing proposition. Latinos vote for Democrats because they want big government. It has nothing to do with immigration.”