It’s another Tuesday and time for the latest version of the weekly Littwin GOP Guv Rankings. And the internal polls that I’ve been told about all say the same thing — that Tom Tancredo is ahead of the pack, maybe 10 points ahead. And, coincidentally, he leads the Littwin rankings, too.
That shows at least two things — that Tancredo’s name value works in a four-way race and that no one else’s, to this point, does.
To the rankings (last week’s ranking in parentheses):
1. (1) Tancredo. How’s he done it? Well, by avoiding debates. By refusing entreaties to get out of the race. By calling on his old pals to help him raise money — Dog the Bounty Hunter, Sheriff Joe and Ted Nugent — and to show that there are people even farther out there than he is. By calling for Barack Obama’s impeachment, to show he’s still pretty far out there himself.
2. (3) Bob Beauprez. The best chance for any of the Little Three to win this race is to make it a two-way with Tancredo. That’s what the establishment has been trying to do with Beauprez. That’s why the Colorado Springs Gazette editorial page suggested Scott Gessler and Mike Kopp drop out of the race. But will Beauprez go along? Why did folksy Beauprez turn down the chance to show off his “crib” for reGENERATION Colorado, as reported by ace reporter Lynn Bartels? The other three are in, even Tancredo. It’s a gimme — and a would-have-been sure winner for Bob, who, you may recall, lost by 17 points in his last go-round.
2. (2) Scott Gessler. We’ll call it a tie for second, for now. In a Gazette op-ed, Gessler did try to separate himself from the pack, essentially calling Tancredo and Beauprez losers. Tancredo, he said, has the California problem, in which he has lost the Latino vote. And Beauprez has the Oregon problem, in which the establishment keeps nominating the same kind of Republican and keeps losing. Gessler’s problem is that he’s easily the most moderate of the four and he’s not sure how or if he can make that work for him in a GOP primary.
4. (4) Mike Kopp. We learn, via Bartels, that Kopp shows the reGENERATION folks that he keeps chicken and bees at his crib. Newt Gingrich is the zoo guy. Maybe there’s an endorsement in the works. Kopp definitely needs something to put him in the headlines and get him out of the Littwin basement.
