Dan Maes vs. the Republican Establishment

Dan Maes

Republican gubernatorial candidate, Dan Maes, really ought to consider getting out of the race. After all, he is the only conservative that has been in the race since last year. He has put in countless hours traveling all over the state meeting with prospective voters, attending events, and logged a mere 80,000 miles on his car in the process. Oh, and did I forget to mention that he won the state assembly May 22, making him the top choice on the Republican primary ballot?

Regardless, now that the primary election is looming and McInnis has lost support in the wake of his plagiarism scandal, Maes really should drop out. At least, that is the message the Colorado Republican old guard has been trumpeting the past few weeks. Apparently, they really do not know what to do with themselves now that their designee “McIssn’t” going to cut it in the general election.

Walking into a back room deal last November, Scott McInnis, Josh Penry, Tom Tancredo, and no doubt some other prominent Colorado Republicans (including a certain radio commentator who comes to mind), thought it would be a good idea to put the fix on the next Republican gubernatorial candidate. They designated Scott McInnis the presumptive nominee. Leaving the meeting with the “unity platform” in hand, each then did his part to propel McInnis to the front of the pack.

For his part, McInnis began stumping by meeting with other high profile Republicans in the state who could fund his campaign, while avoiding the voters of El Paso County like the plague. Instead, McInnis sent proxies out to nearly every event where energized Tea Partiers were likely to ask him some hard hitting questions. Admittedly, however, this was an improvement over raising and spending money before announcing his candidacy, as he may have done earlier. [McInnis unwittingly left a message for a potential supporter in April 2009, wherein he signaled his connection to a 527 group (e.g. youtube.com search: McInnis 527)].

In the same vein, Josh Penry issued a press statement declaring the withdrawal of his candidacy from the gubernatorial race and his “enthusiastic” support of Scott McInnis. Similarly, “Chief” Tom Tancredo told the press, “Everybody is happy and satisfied and singing ‘Kumbaya.’” Finally, some of the behind-the-scene supporters who don’t like to tip their hand while working the microphone, got to work writing editorial columns in the Denver Post paying homage to McInnis for the unity platform, thereby lending him credence without a direct endorsement. The only problem with all of this is that the conservatives comprising the grassroots movement were not buying Scott McInnis—damn!

In all honesty though, the Tea Partiers were not that much of a concern to the Republican establishment. Sure, if the grassroots conservatives sat out the election, the Republicans would obviously lose big in the general election. In the end however, the old guard would have rallied that great silent majority to once again come out and hold their collective noses while they voted. They know the drumbeat and it is a simple one: “Hey! You don’t always get what you want! We can’t let the Democrats win, can we?! So, get out there and vote for the hand-picked Republican with the non-conservative voting record.”

In the wake of McInnis’ plagiarism scandal, all has gone awry. Now all we hear coming out of the establishment machine are cries of concern: “Who will we get to replace, Scott? Oh, my word! What will we do?!” Uh…Establishment Republican Party? Hello? This is your base calling. We just wanted to tell you that we are not happy with Scott, which is precisely the reason why he is not the top name on the ballot. No need to worry about getting a replacement. We already picked one a few months ago at the state assembly. Maybe you have heard of him—we can’t be sure. His name is Dan Maes (not Don Maes).

Unfortunately, the Colorado Republican old guard is still not taking our calls. So, Dan, you gave it a good run, but you just have to go now, Chief Tom says so. In case you had not heard, Chief Tom said that if you do not get out of the race, then he is going to step in and take it from you. Only…because the Republican Party has this ridiculous rule about not jumping in as a candidate at the last minute, Chief Tom is going to have to run as an American Constitutionalist Party candidate. Now, you can imagine how that will look. We don’t want those Republicans, err…Democrats to win, do we?! Go get em’, Dan.

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