Let us pray for the survival of Dan Maes’ candidacy. There’s a chance that it may not outlive the day:
Top Colorado Republicans are attempting to convince gubernatorial nominee Dan Maes to drop his bid for governor by the end of Friday, a well-placed Republican in the state tells POLITICO.
In a meeting Friday morning, party chairman Dick Wadhams and other members of the state GOP executive committee met with Maes to present what one called “damaging evidence” that hasn’t yet been made public but would further erode his standing as a candidate, according to the source.
A second Republican consultant confirmed the account and said while there was no explicit ultimatum presented by the chairman to Maes, the message was clear.
“It was: Do you really want to put your family through this? If you stay in the race, you’ll have to endure this and this,” said the Republican, citing potential reports by the Denver Post.
Meanwhile, Ken Buck and GOP Rep. Mike Coffman both pulled their support from Maes today. If Maes is gonna get out, he’ll need to do so before today’s 5pm local deadline (7pm Eastern) to remove his name from the ballot.
Cat fud fans take note — even if Maes is replaced on the ballot with someone like Jane Norton or state Sen. Josh Penry, Tom Tancredo is telling the Denver Post that he won’t back down from his third-party bid. Also, state Sen. Dave Schultheis, a Maes supporter, told the Colorado Springs Gazette that Maes told him he won’t back out. The Politico reports that Maes’ spokesperson is a lot more circumspect in their language, saying only that Maes “has no plans to exit the race at this time”.
5:32PM UPDATE: Dan Maes is saying that he’s staying in, apparently. But we won’t know for sure for another 90 minutes.
6:37PM UPDATE: From the Facebook page of Dan Maes, we have it straight from the horse’s mouth: Dan Maes is going nowhere!!
this race has nothing been but a Clusterfuck.
for the democratic process of primary elections?
that if neither McInnis and Maes were the GOP candidate, that he wouldn’t do his Indy run.
So now Tancredo has said he stays in whether or not Maes stays in or drops out? Nice.
America’s love affiar with polticians is sure to be strengthened by blackmailing candidates…
what else could be done? at this point it’s more like destroying his character than his viability.
“After speaking with, and hearing from, numerous Coloradans – from former Senators to family farmers – I’ve determined that I cannot turn my back on the 200,000 voters who nominated me to run for this office. This campaign found success through hard work, palm-pressing, and shoe leather, and that’s how I plan to engage …voters over the next two months and claim victory on November 2nd.”
Dan Maes has been a joke from the beginning, and he is a nut and was never going to drop out. And the Colorado GOP has been a disaster, there was no plan on what to do after the McInnis allegations came out.
I know that many in the CO GOP establishment won’t like this, but the only thing we can do is to endorse Tancredo and consider him our nominee. Yes, we will lose this race, and perhaps the Senate race as well, but it might salvage some of the House seats and the downballot races.
What a effing disaster.
more and more of the VT governor’s race in 2008. 3rd party anthony pollina and lackluster (putting it mildly) dem gaye symington each got 22% against jim douglas (pollina’s was higher). I can’t see it going this badly, as hick isn’t a 3 term incumbent, but still, I wouldn’t be flabbergasted if tancredo get’s 2nd place somehow.
think this is a bluff? Tank has already said he’s not going anywhere. if maes says he’s in, the deadline passes what would they accomplish by releasing the information? tank is pretty much guaranteed to take enough to doom any republican and releasing the information would A make the party look bad B force them to tancredo if the info is bad enough and maes stays in and C destroy a man’s life. there’s little to be gained from this, even if Maes drops out. it seems like a bluff.
The people of the Republican party nominated you. You truly represent them and what they and the tea party movement are about. Who are the party bosses to say you can’t run? While I can’t speak for any Republicans as a Democrat I’m proud to have you as a nominee of the Republican Party and wish someone like you would be nominated by Republicans EVERYWHERE.
This is the only open Dem Governor’s seat where the Dems are favored to hold on to the seat, and it’s only because the Republicans have imploded so badly.
nm
Does the establishment rally to Tancredo and try to make Maes irrelevant, or do they just entirely ignore this race?