DENVER - Former Republican Congressman and presidential candidate Tom Tancredo announced Thursday afternoon that he will enter the governor's race as a third-party candidate if the GOP's current candidates, Scott McInnis and Dan Maes, don't agree to drop out following the August 10 primary should they win.
"This decision is completely in the hands of Dan Maes and Scott McInnis," Tancredo wrote in a press release.
Tancredo's decision comes amid growing concern among Republicans that the GOP gubernatorial frontrunner, McInnis, has been irreparably damaged by revelations that he plagiarized work in a series of articles he authored for a foundation in 2004.
McInnis is being challenged by Maes, who himself is facing questions as to his own finances and business background, in the primary; and top GOP officials have been carefully distancing themselves from the McInnis campaign.
Tancredo, an outspoken advocate for immigration reform, endorsed McInnis in January after Josh Penry dropped out, but has recently called for him to exit the race.
"I can't just sit here and watch," the former congressman told FOX31 News earlier this month. "It's just not in my nature. We have the greatest opportunity we've had in my lifetime to recapture something and we are close to squandering it."
Tancredo, who could only replace McInnis or Maes should they quit after the primary and a vacancy committee tap him instead, told FOX31 he doesn't think either candidate on the primary ballot can beat Democrat John Hickenlooper in the general election.
Unlikely to be the choice of a vacancy committee, Tancredo is likely to enter the race only as a third-party candidate for the American Constitution Party, not as the Republican nominee.
His entrance into the race, however, would likely split the conservative base significantly enough to all but assure Hickenlooper of winning, a point not lost on GOP Chair Dick Wadhams, who responded to Tancredo's announcement Thursday afternoon.
"I am terribly disappointed in Tom Tancredo's announcement that he has made a backroom deal with a minor political party to run for governor," Wadhams said in a statement, quoted here in full:
"Tom Tancredo used the Colorado Republican Party to get elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in the 1970's, to work as a political appointee in the Reagan administration in the 1980's, and to get elected to Congress from 1998 to 2008. But now it appears he wants to destroy Republican chances to win a governor's race after four failed years of Bill Ritter.
"This past December, Tom Tancredo wrote a compelling op-ed calling on Tea Party and 9-12 activists to not form a third party because previous conservative third parties "succeeded in electing the more liberal candidate after many conservatives waste their votes on a third party candidate." Tom Tancredo should remember his own words.
"Let there be no mistake about it: Regardless of who our nominee is for governor after the primary, if Tom Tancredo carries through on his threat to run as a third party candidate, he will be responsible for the election of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper as governor and for other races that will be imperiled as well."
Tancredo recently made waves in the GOP Senate primary race when -while speaking at a rally for candidate Ken Buck- the former congressman told a crowd of conservatives that President Barack Obama is "the greatest threat" to the United States.
"This decision is completely in the hands of Dan Maes and Scott McInnis," Tancredo wrote in a press release.
McInnis is being challenged by Maes, who himself is facing questions as to his own finances and business background, in the primary; and top GOP officials have been carefully distancing themselves from the McInnis campaign.
Tancredo, an outspoken advocate for immigration reform, endorsed McInnis in January after Josh Penry dropped out, but has recently called for him to exit the race.
"I can't just sit here and watch," the former congressman told FOX31 News earlier this month. "It's just not in my nature. We have the greatest opportunity we've had in my lifetime to recapture something and we are close to squandering it."
Tancredo, who could only replace McInnis or Maes should they quit after the primary and a vacancy committee tap him instead, told FOX31 he doesn't think either candidate on the primary ballot can beat Democrat John Hickenlooper in the general election.
Unlikely to be the choice of a vacancy committee, Tancredo is likely to enter the race only as a third-party candidate for the American Constitution Party, not as the Republican nominee.
His entrance into the race, however, would likely split the conservative base significantly enough to all but assure Hickenlooper of winning, a point not lost on GOP Chair Dick Wadhams, who responded to Tancredo's announcement Thursday afternoon.
"I am terribly disappointed in Tom Tancredo's announcement that he has made a backroom deal with a minor political party to run for governor," Wadhams said in a statement, quoted here in full:
"Tom Tancredo used the Colorado Republican Party to get elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in the 1970's, to work as a political appointee in the Reagan administration in the 1980's, and to get elected to Congress from 1998 to 2008. But now it appears he wants to destroy Republican chances to win a governor's race after four failed years of Bill Ritter.
"This past December, Tom Tancredo wrote a compelling op-ed calling on Tea Party and 9-12 activists to not form a third party because previous conservative third parties "succeeded in electing the more liberal candidate after many conservatives waste their votes on a third party candidate." Tom Tancredo should remember his own words.
"Let there be no mistake about it: Regardless of who our nominee is for governor after the primary, if Tom Tancredo carries through on his threat to run as a third party candidate, he will be responsible for the election of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper as governor and for other races that will be imperiled as well."
Tancredo recently made waves in the GOP Senate primary race when -while speaking at a rally for candidate Ken Buck- the former congressman told a crowd of conservatives that President Barack Obama is "the greatest threat" to the United States.
