Tancredo’s Message is Ten Years Out-of-Date

Tom Tancredo will be lucky to get the 35 percent of the Colorado electorate he won last time out.  His message and approach had some resonance in the early 2000s, but is now a mostly secondary issue, and for Republicans, counter-productive.

“A Tancredo run for governor would put him at odds with a national Republican strategy of courting more Latino voters.  With comprehensive immigration reform being seriously discussed in Washington, Republicans are making a concerted effort to appeal to more Latino voters – a critical and growing demographic in the electorate.” (Denver Post, Kurtis Lee, 5-16-13)

Tancredo is only able to promote himself because the party has no significant figure able to either run against Governor Hickenlooper or Senator Udall or lacks a leadership group able or willing to recruit a candidate. Nature abhors a vacuum, and Tancredo love to fill them.

Hickenlooper, at one time, might have been competitive in a Republican primary.  But after the recent legislative session, he has managed to convince most Republicans that he’s a poor substitute for a veto-wielding governor or at least one house of legislature under Republican control.

The Republican Party is still struggling to start a process to get back into Colorado’s normally competitive elections.