It’s Tuesday. Just five weeks from the June 24 Colorado Republican Party primary for governor. And the race is heating up. In fact, the only way it could get any hotter is if anyone were actually paying attention. Money, though not much, has been raised. Candidates have been asked to drop out, not that they have. And there’s a debate tonight, which three candidates are attending. Guess which one is not like the others. Onto the rankings. (Last week’s ranking in parentheses.)
1. (1) Tom Tancredo. He has told ace reporter Lynn Bartels that Republican leaders have asked him to drop out of the race because, you know, 1. they don’t like him, 2. He can’t win. Tancredo’s response has been: 1. Are you bleepin’ kidding me? 2. Are you bleepin’ kidding me? The Colorado Springs Gazette editorial board tried to do an end run on the Tancredo problem by suggesting everyone except Tancredo and Bob Beauprez quit the race. Surprisingly, this didn’t go over so well in the Gessler and Kopp camps. So, Tancredo is still here in a four-way. Meaning he’s still the one to beat.
2. (3) Scott Gessler may not really be No. 2, but what’s the point of the rankings if we can’t move people around? He did have a good week. He wasn’t in an ethics hearing. Only one newspaper asked him to drop out of the race. He won the fundraising period – although raising $28K to $25K for Tancredo and $20K for Beauprez isn’t much of a win. He says he’s going on TV, meaning it’s possible he might actually say something to differentiate himself from the crowd.
3. (2) Bob Beauprez — this is just a guess — liked the Gazette idea. But while Beauprez has become the establishment favorite, there’s no real indication that he’s anyone else’s favorite. He’s supposed to be the guy who can raise money, but finished third in the latest two-week fundraising period, one in which he didn’t loan the campaign any money. And he’s the guy who lost his last governor’s race by 16 points.
4. (4) Mike Kopp has a blueprint for victory. He has no green stuff for victory. The campaign highlight so far for Kopp was his surprise win at the Assembly, getting him the top line on the ballot. His second biggest highlight would be if he could ever crawl out of the Littwin Rankings basement.
