Promoted to the front by Erick because Dan Maes must drop out for the good of the people of Colorado and of the party he purportedly would lead.

Almost two weeks ago I wrote this. I truly believed it was in the best interests of Coloradans, especially in the long term, to continue to support Dan Maes in the Governor race. That all changed for me this weekend when I read about Dan Maes giving aid and comfort to the enemy:

I would say that John (Hickenlooper) absolutely brings that kind of moderate business acumen and business experience that Republicans in Denver proper really like. We’ve seen several major Republican businessmen back John Hickenlooper, so I would absolutely trust the Mayor when it comes to the economic health of our state and the business community more so than I would Tom.

Enough is enough. It’s one thing to realize you have no shot at winning. It’s quite another to prop up the liberal Democratic candidate that thinks the government creates jobs over the other conservative in the race. John Hickenlooper would continue the same failed policies of Bill Ritter. Maes isn’t content with just going down with his ship, he’s going to make sure Tancredo goes down with him.

While I argued for some time that it would hurt the Colorado GOP if Maes didn’t get 10% of the vote, and thereby cause the party to lose their majority status, I believe that Governor Hickenlooper would cause much more damage to Colorado, both in the short and long term. There are many here in Colorado that feel the same way. Ross Kaminsky. Ben Degrow. Rocky Mountain Right. Just peruse the diaries at the People’s Press Collective and you’ll see many others agree.

Each day that goes by sees Dan Maes lose more support. The only thing left for him to do is to try to hold on to enough support to ensure that Tom Tancredo can’t win either. As most of you know, Tancredo isn’t my favorite politician. But as it sometimes goes in politics, you have to go with the best you have. Even though it goes against my own principles (I’m eating no small share of crow here), this is the exception to the rule. I also understand that the rules at this site also prohibit supporting a third-party candidate. Regardless of the reasons why the GOP ended up with Dan Maes as its candidate, the time has come to dump him and support Tom Tancredo for Governor. The polls have tightened enough that if we all rally around him, he has a real chance to win.

We can’t afford to allow Hickenlooper to redistrict the state that would give the Democrats a majority for the next ten years. While important, the name placement of GOP candidates for the next four years is less so. We also can’t afford the additional taxes, fees, and loss of more of the TABOR laws and jobs that would certainly come with Hickenlooper at the helm.

I would urge all Coloradans to join with me and my fellow bloggers in voting for Tom Tancredo. Tom can lead, and while he won’t be the ideal Governor, he will turn Colorado back in the right direction. That’s more important in this election cycle than anything else.

Night Twister