While attempts by the Colorado Republican Party and American Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo to get Republican Dan Maes to drop out of the race appear to be ongoing, Maes’ hopes of a victory in November may be spurred on by polls such as the one conducted by Innovative Research and Data Solutions that showed Maes two points ahead of the Democratic candidate Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.
Unfamiliar with the conservative firm that conducted the poll and failing to note a number of caveats associated with the polling, Maes appeared to be grasping at straws Tuesday as he called on Tancredo to drop out of the race and allow him to conduct a head-to-head campaign against Hickenlooper.
“The evidence is here that we can beat John Hickenlooper, and I sure wish Tom would honor his word, in that he said, ‘If you can win and you can show that you can win, then great. If you can’t, get out.’ Well, here we did our part; now hopefully he will do his part,'” Maes said on KHOW’s Caplis and Silverman Show.
Tancredo previously said that he no longer harbors any intent to leave the gubernatorial race given the two candidates who are running, but on Wednesday offered Maes a deal. Tancredo said he would drop out if Maes did too.
Despite the lack of funds flowing into his campaign coffers and polling that shows that with Tancredo in the race his chances of winning are slim, Maes said no to Colorado GOP leader Dick Wadhams, who delivered the message.
The telephone poll conducted by a company founded by former Focus on the Family representative turned conservative talk show radio host Jim Pfaff had Maes up 44 percent to 42 percent against Hickenlooper in a two-man race. The two-point spread was within the 2.93 percent margin of error, with 1,055 individuals responding.
Though Maes appeared giddy with excitement over the results of the poll, he may not have been aware the same poll showed any GOP replacement of Maes winning 45 percent to 39 percent against Hickenlooper in a one-on-one race. He may also not have been aware that the data appears to be skewed towards conservative candidates.
Of 976 people responding to a question that asked their political identity, 39 percent of respondents self-identified as conservative, 17 percent as liberal, 31 percent as moderate, 7 percent as tea party, and 9 percent responded that they are undecided.
A 2009 Gallup poll of all 50 states found that in Colorado 38 percent of those polled considered themselves conservative, 31 percent moderate, and 21 percent liberal.
The poll did offer at least one positive statistic for Maes. When asked if they supported or opposed replacing Maes with a Republican nominee for governor, 43 percent of respondents said they opposed the action, while only 28 percent supported the idea. Of course, that left 30 percent of the 1,038 respondents undecided.
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