Saturday, July 24, 2010

Colorado Republicans

The Colorado Republicans have problem on their hands; the two people who are running for that party's nomination for governor both have some serious credibility problems. First, there is the Tea Party candidate, Dan Maes. Here is a person who describes himself as a successful business man. However, when his taxes were released recently, it was found that for two the years his family income fell below the poverty line. Also one of his former employers would not re-hire him.

Maes also has some campaign problems. He is not able to attract the money he needs for his campaign. However, in addition to not having the money needs, he has been fined $17,000 for campaign violations.

On the other hand, Scott McInnis, the other Republican in the race, has been able to raise more money, but has found himself in an ethical debate. It seems that McInnis produce some articles for the Hansen Family Foundation on water. The problem is that parts of them were plagiarized from articles by written by state Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs.

McInnis was paid $300, 000 for the articles. He had a researcher do the work for him. He paid the researcher a couple of hundred dollars for each article. The researcher says that he was not aware of the fact that McInnis was being paid for the articles.

This has left the state's Republican leadership trying to figure out their step. It looks like Scott McInnes will win the primary, but he will be asked to step aside by the party leadership.

Into this mess former Rep. Tom Tancredo has stepped. If the winner of the Republican primary does not step aside, he will run as the American Constitution candidate. He would run to take votes away from the Republican candidate. Tancredo's motivation for this threat is not obvious; it is not totally for the good of the Republican party. Also, if Tancredo wants to run as the Republican candidate, he would be as damaged as the other two candidates he is trying to prevent. Tancredo does not have any standing in the old Hispanic parts of the state; while these parts are quit conservative, Tancredo would be very offensive to them on immigration issues.

All this has left Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, the Democratic candidate with little attention by the media. However, at this point and considering the attention the others are getting,maybe that is not a bad thing.

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