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CO-Gov: Dan Maes Deathwatch Thread (Update: Maes Lives)

by: James L.

Fri Sep 03, 2010 at 4:40 PM EDT


Let us pray for the survival of Dan Maes' candidacy. There's a chance that it may not outlive the day:

Top Colorado Republicans are attempting to convince gubernatorial nominee Dan Maes to drop his bid for governor by the end of Friday, a well-placed Republican in the state tells POLITICO.

In a meeting Friday morning, party chairman Dick Wadhams and other members of the state GOP executive committee met with Maes to present what one called "damaging evidence" that hasn't yet been made public but would further erode his standing as a candidate, according to the source.

A second Republican consultant confirmed the account and said while there was no explicit ultimatum presented by the chairman to Maes, the message was clear.

"It was: Do you really want to put your family through this? If you stay in the race, you'll have to endure this and this," said the Republican, citing potential reports by the Denver Post.

Meanwhile, Ken Buck and GOP Rep. Mike Coffman both pulled their support from Maes today. If Maes is gonna get out, he'll need to do so before today's 5pm local deadline (7pm Eastern) to remove his name from the ballot.

Cat fud fans take note -- even if Maes is replaced on the ballot with someone like Jane Norton or state Sen. Josh Penry, Tom Tancredo is telling the Denver Post that he won't back down from his third-party bid. Also, state Sen. Dave Schultheis, a Maes supporter, told the Colorado Springs Gazette that Maes told him he won't back out. The Politico reports that Maes' spokesperson is a lot more circumspect in their language, saying only that Maes "has no plans to exit the race at this time".

5:32PM UPDATE: Dan Maes is saying that he's staying in, apparently. But we won't know for sure for another 90 minutes.

6:37PM UPDATE: From the Facebook page of Dan Maes, we have it straight from the horse's mouth: Dan Maes is going nowhere!!
James L. :: CO-Gov: Dan Maes Deathwatch Thread (Update: Maes Lives)
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CO-Gov: Dan Maes Deathwatch Thread (Update: Maes Lives) | 52 comments
Man
this race has nothing been but a Clusterfuck.  

19, Male, Independent, CA-12
Yes...
... but a Good Clusterfuck.  :)
[ Parent ]
This is best compared to NY-13
from the 08 cycle.  Mmmmmm, that was some tasty cat fud.
[ Parent ]
And there could be a redux this year...
...with both candidates still on the ballot.  I'm cheering Michael Allegretti on.  Grimm supporters seem more likely to stick with him in the general.  And Molinari is petty enough to undermine the candidate who isn't his pet.

NY-13, Democrat. Blog @ http://infinitefunction.wordpr...
[ Parent ]
Where is Rep. Issa and his concern...
for the democratic process of primary elections?  
2 hours 51 minutes...

2 hours and 43 minutes
 Maes has been so stubborn though, I do not see him leaving. Also, what happened to the idea of voters choosing the candidate? Why are the teabaggers not crying foul that the party officials are picking the candidate and not the voters?  

for more election analysis, visit  http://frogandturtle.blogspot....




17, CA-06,  

[ Parent ]
Twitter says Maes is NOT LEAVING

[ Parent ]
Link, please.


Ad hoc, ad loc and quid pro quo!
So little time, so much to know!
[ Parent ]
A bunch of sources are saying he's not leaving on Twitter.
[ Parent ]
2:36
How bad do you think the Denver Post stories are? I propose the following point scale:

100 Sex crime
90 Assaultive felony
80 White supremacism
70 Felony of any kind
60 Prior mental health diagnosis
50 Non-criminal sexual harrassment
40 Compromising photo,  not otherwise specified
30 Affair
25 Serial exaggeration/lying
20 Campaign irregularity
10 Unadjudicated drug use
1 Implausible political statement

What's a plausible over/under here? I think it could be as low as 25.

[ Parent ]
er, 1:59.
Anyway, he's in.
[ Parent ]
I think...
... that some of these are out of wack for the state and party:

100 Sex crime

Only a 100 if it's with a Child or a Male.  ;)

90 Assaultive felony

That seems not to be a problem with the GOP in Florida.

80 White supremacism

Isn't the Indy in this race one of these, and he's likely to win of Maes leaves?  No... this might solidify the Base in Colorado.  ;)

70 Felony of any kind

Would have to have him dead to rights, and probably a conviction.  Kobe Bryant has reclaimed his image, and he was accused of a felony in that state.

60 Prior mental health diagnosis

We need to be clear on this: not just mentally insane like Glenn Beck and Tommy T, but actually have been sent to the looney bin.

50 Non-criminal sexual harrassment

This is the GOP... they're down with that.

40 Compromising photo,  not otherwise specified
30 Affair

Affair goes up to 90.  You can get away with it when you're like Vitter: years away from running for re-election.  You can't get away with it two months out from the primary.

25 Serial exaggeration/lying

No big deal.  IL, a Democratic state, might elect a serial liar to take Obama's seat.

This is a 25-50 if the person is a Democrat.  If he's a GOPer, it's expected.

20 Campaign irregularity

Minor.

10 Unadjudicated drug use

This might be a little higher, especially if it's more recent and well supported.  This is the GOP, the base and he's not super popular.  No one wants their dope taking dragged through the mud, not does the base really love dope taking... unless they hate a Dem more (i.e. they hated Gore more than Bush being a former cokehead).

1 Implausible political statement

That's about right

I'll go back to the first one: anything relating to him being TUH GAYZ would be 100.  Just can't have that documented in the GOP... they'd go batshit.  I'd suspect that An Affair would be high on the list, especially if it were recent.  Again, Vitter and Ensign have a chance of surviving because they weren't up for re-election right after it came out.

John

[ Parent ]
1:30, exactly, via timeanddate.com

[ Parent ]
Originally, I believe Tancredo indicated

that if neither McInnis and Maes were the GOP candidate, that he wouldn't do his Indy run.

So now Tancredo has said he stays in whether or not Maes stays in or drops out?  Nice.  

This is called: digging in your heels.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/th...
"It doesn't matter what Dan Maes does or what the Republicans do," Tancredo told The Post. "I don't care if they bring back Abraham Lincoln to run. From this moment on, I'm never going to answer this question again. I'm here to stay.
[ Parent ]
Ahh blackmail
America's love affiar with polticians is sure to be strengthened by blackmailing candidates...
"further arode his candidacy"
what else could be done?  at this point it's more like destroying his character than his viability.

Top ten signs you're an SSPer #1: your favorite song is "Panic At Tedisco" and no one understands what you mean.
Wild guess from the Politico article
Some sort of fraud, based on

Earlier this week, the Post reported that Maes falsely claimed he did undercover police work in Kansas before being terminated.

and
Earlier this summer, the tea party-backed candidate paid a record $17,500 fine for violating campaign finance laws

I'm guessing that he'll stay in, based on

He does not respond to traditional reason," said the source.

Anyone here know of a teabagger who responds to "traditional reason"?

[ Parent ]
Dan Maes just posted this on facebook
"After speaking with, and hearing from, numerous Coloradans - from former Senators to family farmers - I've determined that I cannot turn my back on the 200,000 voters who nominated me to run for this office. This campaign found success through hard work, palm-pressing, and shoe leather, and that's how I plan to engage ...voters over the next two months and claim victory on November 2nd."
Is There a Precedent for This?
And by that, I mean trying to force out a candidate who legitimately won the primary and has no real baggage besides some off-the-wall viewpoints?

Male, 23, NJ-12
[ Parent ]
Oh, you're incorrect, he's got personal scandals and not just off-the-wall views......
See above, tietack's post, Maes had to pay a fine of over $17K for violating campaign finance laws earlier this year, and he lied about doing undercover police work in neighboring Kansas in his past.  Remember McInnis was done in by plagiarism, and Maes' yarn-spinning is in the same league.

The stupid state Republicans always assumed they could force Maes out of the race, and thus went ahead and put the hammer down on McInnis very publicly pre-primary.  I always thought that strategically, the smart to have done was to keep their mouths shut and see what happens.  But instead they destroyed him themselves, and the polling followed......I think it was very plausible that his polling wouldn't have completely crashed otherwise.

43, male, Indian-American, Democrat, VA-10

[ Parent ]
And the quoted article in the original post
Says that the GOP heads showed him more damning stuff they found that still hasn't been made public yet.  Wish we had more freebies like this.
[ Parent ]
Oh God
Dan Maes has been a joke from the beginning, and he is a nut and was never going to drop out.  And the Colorado GOP has been a disaster, there was no plan on what to do after the McInnis allegations came out.  

I know that many in the CO GOP establishment won't like this, but the only thing we can do is to endorse Tancredo and consider him our nominee.  Yes, we will lose this race, and perhaps the Senate race as well, but it might salvage some of the House seats and the downballot races.

What a effing disaster.

38, male, conservative Republican, TX-3 currently (IL-13)

I see parallels between this and South Carolina
Other that the fact Republicans thought they had a shot at winning some stuff in Colorado after a few years of being also-rans to the Democrats.  

26 White Male. Born and raised in MN-8, currently living in MN-5.

"A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything."

[ Parent ]
not really like SC
The Republicans were taking the race seriously, but McInnis was considered a shoo-in until the plagiarism problem hit. In SC, the Dems weren't taking the Senate race seriously at all so they ended up with Greene.

41, Ind, CA-05
[ Parent ]
Not as serious
However, the Democrats had a hand picked candidate waiting to take on an incumbent senator. That candidate didn't win the primary, and then the state party tried to force the primary winner out in favor of a more electable choice. I see plenty of parallels between the two.

26 White Male. Born and raised in MN-8, currently living in MN-5.

"A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything."

[ Parent ]
ok
I see your point, but I think the CO Republicans had more of an excuse than the SC Democrats. McInnis' plagiarism was unexpected and came late. Rawl could have locked up that primary at relatively little cost.

41, Ind, CA-05
[ Parent ]
I
wouldn't have called McInnis a shoo-in before the plagiarism. A slight favorite but not a shoo in.  

Proud member of the Indiana Democratic Party from IN-9.  
[ Parent ]
He meant in the primary.

[ Parent ]
My Mistake nm
nm

Proud member of the Indiana Democratic Party from IN-9.  
[ Parent ]
this is starting to remind me
more and more of the VT governor's race in 2008.  3rd party anthony pollina and lackluster (putting it mildly) dem gaye symington each got 22% against jim douglas (pollina's was higher).  I can't see it going this badly, as hick isn't a 3 term incumbent, but still, I wouldn't be flabbergasted if tancredo get's 2nd place somehow.

Top ten signs you're an SSPer #1: your favorite song is "Panic At Tedisco" and no one understands what you mean.
anyone else
think this is a bluff?  Tank has already said he's not going anywhere.  if maes says he's in, the deadline passes what would they accomplish by releasing the information?  tank is pretty much guaranteed to take enough to doom any republican and releasing the information would A make the party look bad B force them to tancredo if the info is bad enough and maes stays in and C destroy a man's life.  there's little to be gained from this, even if Maes drops out.  it seems like a bluff.

Top ten signs you're an SSPer #1: your favorite song is "Panic At Tedisco" and no one understands what you mean.
Definite bluff
if its even true.

Let's face it, most people can't keep a secret.  if you put a bunch of people in a room with the same dirt on a guy, it'll get out either way.  So Maes has nothing to gain...if the info is true.  If its not, well then who knows what really transpired.

Kind of stupid to wait until the last day.  Even if he drops out, they announce a candidate next week and they just look in disarray.  

IMHO, I'm thinking there probably wasn't any real blackmailing.  More likely there was some potential horse (no show job offer) trading.  

[ Parent ]
don't
"no show job"'s violate tea bagger sensibilities?  or is that only when "lazy state workers" get them? snark

Top ten signs you're an SSPer #1: your favorite song is "Panic At Tedisco" and no one understands what you mean.
[ Parent ]
which is why
He's still in the race :-)
[ Parent ]
Maybe it hurts Maes personally but not politically...
so they could release it to make good on the threat without dooming their (already slim) chances of winning the election, plus make clear they have nothing to do with him (and hence maybe improve Bux chances). Yet it might still be something Maes would prefer not see the light of day.
[ Parent ]
I just don't think its real
After McInnis, I'm sure indie reporters scrubbed backgrounds on the remaining candidates.  And while stuff always falls through the cracks, if the state GOP party knows something, its unlikely they've kept it a secret.
[ Parent ]
24 minutes to go


party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
4 minutes to go!


party: Democratic, ideology: moderate, district: CT-01
[ Parent ]
buh duh dew dew
ba duh dew do dew
[ Parent ]
Stay strong Mister Maes.
The people of the Republican party nominated you.  You truly represent them and what they and the tea party movement are about. Who are the party bosses to say you can't run?  While I can't speak for any Republicans as a Democrat I'm proud to have you as a nominee of the Republican Party and wish someone like you would be nominated by Republicans EVERYWHERE.

NY-13, Democrat. Blog @ http://infinitefunction.wordpr...
The scary thing I just realized
This is the only open Dem Governor's seat where the Dems are favored to hold on to the seat, and it's only because the Republicans have imploded so badly.
Aren't we favored a little in FL at this point?


34, WM, Democrat, FL-11
[ Parent ]
florida isn't an open dem seat
it's rep--->indie.

Top ten signs you're an SSPer #1: your favorite song is "Panic At Tedisco" and no one understands what you mean.
[ Parent ]
Sorry I missed the Dem part.
Yeah the drag of unpopular Dem state administrations are killing our candidates in OR, NM, WI, PA, MI.  Third party candidate Cutler may be what's killing us in ME.  TN, OK, KS, and WY were uphill all along.

34, WM, Democrat, FL-11
[ Parent ]
New York too
Of course it's pretty scary that that's the only other one.

21, male, CA-15 (home and voting there), LA-2 (college)


[ Parent ]
Still up by 2 or so in Maryland
Maine might not be as bad as it looks right now either.
[ Parent ]
I bet Ritter regrets retiring. nm
nm

Proud member of the Indiana Democratic Party from IN-9.  
wow, I never even thought of that
hahahahahahaha, that sucks for him.  Oh the beauty of politics.  Or Susan Bysiewicz from CT, if she had known Blumenthal would get to go for Dodd's seat instead of Lieberman, she would have just ran for SoS again.  Her dropping from Gov to AG pretty much immediately after that shook-out and there may have been some posts on SSP with her stalling for definite answers.

And then Himes and Larson get to take over after they go.  CT is gonna be real boring after 2012 Senate wise me thinks.

[ Parent ]
Now
Does the establishment rally to Tancredo and try to make Maes irrelevant, or do they just entirely ignore this race?  
Good question
Ignoring it may hurt Buck. Tough decisions to make.
[ Parent ]
CO-Gov: Dan Maes Deathwatch Thread (Update: Maes Lives) | 52 comments

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