LAKEWOOD - After a week of brash talk trashing the Republican Party's two candidates for governor and its state chairman, Tom Tancredo officially entered the Colorado governor's race Thursday afternoon with notably less bravado than normal.
Wearing a U.S. Border Patrol hat, Tancredo, 64, said he's likely to be the best choice for conservative voters in this fall's three-way race and told reporters that he will advocate the platforms of both the Republican Party, which he helped write, and the American Constitution Party that he joined earlier this week in order to get on to the November ballot.
Tancredo, who twice ran for the GOP's presidential nomination in order to highlight his hard-line stance on illegal immigration issues in what he termed a "beau geste", insists he has a chance to win as a third-party candidate although he seemed to understand the odds are hardly in his favor.
"Strange things happen in races when you've got more than two candidates," Tancredo said during a rambling 20-minute announcement speech and Q & A session Thursday afternoon.
But Tancredo, when pressed on whether he would remain in this race to the end, was noncommittal.
"I'm going to get in this race; I'm going to be here as long as I can," he said.
With Thursday's announcement, Tancredo followed through with his ultimatum issued last week to GOP contenders Dan Maes and Scott McInnis that he would enter the race if they didn't announce that they would drop out after the August 10 primary if they won but still trailed Democrat John Hickenlooper in the polls.
McInnis, who was long considered the front-runner for the nomination and even the general election, has seen his campaign crippled and his fundraising dry up in the wake of a plagiarism scandal.
Maes, meanwhile, continues to enjoy the support of the conservative grassroots despite his lack of political experience and questions about his personal and campaign finances.
Wearing a U.S. Border Patrol hat, Tancredo, 64, said he's likely to be the best choice for conservative voters in this fall's three-way race and told reporters that he will advocate the platforms of both the Republican Party, which he helped write, and the American Constitution Party that he joined earlier this week in order to get on to the November ballot.
"Strange things happen in races when you've got more than two candidates," Tancredo said during a rambling 20-minute announcement speech and Q & A session Thursday afternoon.
But Tancredo, when pressed on whether he would remain in this race to the end, was noncommittal.
"I'm going to get in this race; I'm going to be here as long as I can," he said.
With Thursday's announcement, Tancredo followed through with his ultimatum issued last week to GOP contenders Dan Maes and Scott McInnis that he would enter the race if they didn't announce that they would drop out after the August 10 primary if they won but still trailed Democrat John Hickenlooper in the polls.
McInnis, who was long considered the front-runner for the nomination and even the general election, has seen his campaign crippled and his fundraising dry up in the wake of a plagiarism scandal.
Maes, meanwhile, continues to enjoy the support of the conservative grassroots despite his lack of political experience and questions about his personal and campaign finances.
