Maes defies state GOP by staying in race for governor

While the Denver Post reported a few minutes ago that both Dan Maes and Tom Tancredo are staying in the Colorado governor’s race, the Colorado Pols blogsite is reporting a rumor that state Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams today notified GOP gubernatorial nominee Maes that more damaging information about Maes not yet reported in the press would likely come out as a way to press Maes to step down.

If the Pols report is true, Maes would appear to opt yet again to meet the steely gaze of the machine, as he puts it at his Facebook page, without blinking.

The Maes campaign did not immediately return messages.

Wadhams has been openly working to move political novice Maes out of the race ever since he won the GOP primary on August 10. Maes has so far enjoyed the backing of the anti-incumbent influential tea party movement in the state. The tea party has rivaled the state GOP for leadership on the right all year and now seems to be in an open duel over the less than perfect candidacy of Maes.

Maes was fined for campaign finance violations and has repeatedly overstated his accomplishments at his website. Fact-checking reports have uncovered a slew of exaggerations that have set the blogosphere alight and made political observers rollick with laughter. The latest series has found that Maes lied about being an undercover agent in Kansas when he worked on the police force there. He explained that he was fired from the force because in his work as an undercover agent he had unearthed evidence of official corruption which sealed his doom as an agent of the law.

Maes has also struggled to articulate basic policy positions. As the Colorado Independent has reported, his position on state water rights was at best uninformed. He also said the proposed personhood measure in the state wouldn’t outlaw abortion. The aim of the proposed amendment, which Maes has endorsed, is specifically to outlaw abortion. He also made national headlines for signing onto a theory under which a Denver bike sharing program was part of a United Nations global takeover that was limiting American freedoms.

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Scot Kersgaard has been managing editor of a political newspaper, editor and co-owner of a ski town newspaper, executive editor of eight high-tech magazines (where he worked with current Apple CEO Tim Cook), deputy press secretary to a U.S. Senator, and an outdoors columnist at the Rocky Mountain News. He has an English degree from the University of Washington. He was awarded a fellowship to study internet journalism at the University of Maryland's Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. He was student body president in college. He spends his free time hiking and skiing.

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