← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Okiereddust
Thread ID: 3587 | Posts: 11 | Started: 2002-11-19
2002-11-19 06:24 | User Profile
URL Source: [url=http://www.rollcall.com/pages/politics/00/2002/11/pol1118b.html]http://www.rollcall.com/pages/politics/00/...1/pol1118b.html[/url]
Target: Tom Tancredo
Some Say GOPPrimary Challenge Likely
November 18, 2002 By Josh Kurtz
He represents one of the most conservative districts in the nation. He just trounced his Democratic challenger by 37 points. Yet Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) may be one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the 2004 election cycle.
Tancredo, a controversial, outspoken voice for the Republican right who is entering his third term, has angered leading Republicans back home and in the White House.
The House Member's criticisms of President Bush's immigration policy bought him a 40-minute rebuke earlier this year from Bush adviser Karl Rove, who, in the Congressman's own words, warned him "never to darken the door of the White House again." And his decision to renounce his pledge to serve only three terms has infuriated powerful Colorado Republicans, including his political patron, former Sen. Bill Armstrong ®.
"I'll be surprised if he doesn't have a primary [in 2004]," said Floyd Ciruli, an independent Colorado pollster.
Several Republicans, including popular state Treasurer Mike Coffman, who just won a landslide re- election of his own, are considering taking on Tancredo in the '04 primary.
Other potential candidates include state Sen. Jim Dyer ® and former Arapahoe County Commissioner Steve Ward. "It's a given" that someone will run against the 56-year-old lawmaker, Coffman said. "There are questions about his term-limit pledge. When you have someone like Senator Armstrong, who was his mentor, backing away from him - I think that resonates."
Armstrong was instrumental in getting Tancredo elected in the first place, endorsing him over four strong opponents in a competitive GOP primary to replace retiring Rep. Dan Schaefer ® in 1998. By Tancredo's reckoning, Armstrong's blessing was worth 3 points at the polls - which just happened to be his margin of victory in the primary.
Even though he may not seek re-election in 2004 - and would consider running for Senate if Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell ® retires - he has chucked the term-limit promise nevertheless.
"The term-limit pledge in and of itself is not the deciding factor if he will run again," said Tancredo spokeswoman Lara Kennedy.
Like all Members who change their minds on term limits, Tancredo has cast his decision as being in the best interests of his district and pet causes. Tancredo wants to preserve his seniority for his suburban district south of Denver and angle for better committee assignments. Plus, he does not want to lose the momentum he has built fighting the government's open immigration policies, Kennedy said. Tancredo is the founder of the House Immigration Reform Caucus.
While plenty of politicians have broken their term-limit pledges before, including Rep. Scott McInnis (R- Colo.), Tancredo's decision is more noteworthy because he once headed Colorado's term-limit organization.
"All too often you have terrific candidates who come to Washington with the best of intentions, but they get too comfortable, and when the time comes, they don't want to go home," lamented Stacie Rumenap, a spokeswoman for U.S.Term Limits.
Whether Tancredo suffers any political damage remains to be seen. So far, the handful of Members who have broken their pledges, including McInnis, have not suffered any consequences at the polls, Rumenap conceded. And U.S.Term Limits is not in the business of recruiting challengers to incumbents who have broken the pledge.
Tancredo has promised to return campaign contributions to donors who are dismayed at his decision to ignore the term-limits pledge. But Armstrong - who did not respond to several messages left at his Denver law office - called the refund offer "hollow," according to The Rocky Mountain News.
Armstrong, meanwhile, has offered some kind words about Coffman.
"Mike Coffman is someone the Republican Party and the people of Colorado will rally around,"he told the News. "There is no doubt in my mind that he will be on the short list for whatever comes along - it could be governor, it could be Senator, it could be Congress."
Coffman, in fact, began running for Congress last year - in the new 7th district, which adjoins Tancredo's. But when the final district lines were drawn, Coffman found himself in Tancredo's 6th district, just a few blocks from the 7th, and chose not to move or run.
Coffman said that while he has not given much thought to the 2004 election yet, he believes that Tancredo will be vulnerable. The three Republicans most frequently mentioned as challengers are all military veterans, while Tancredo is not, and that could make a difference in a district that values military service, political insiders said.
Coffman, a 47-year-old Marine Corps vet who served in Operation Desert Storm, said Tancredo's military deferments during the Vietnam War would hurt him as America prepares to attack Iraq, and could be linked to his decision to ignore the term-limit pledge.
"Here's a guy ordering young men off to war and he himself didn't serve," he said. "I think in this conservative district, something like that could resonate."
Certainly, Tancredo's record would contrast with Coffman's, or Dyer's, who is an Air Force veteran, or Ward's, who is a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves and is on active duty in Florida.
Dyer called it "highly unlikely" that he would challenge Tancredo, but said somebody else might, and predicted that the term-limit issue would sting the incumbent.
"I think a number of people that support Tom are not going to support him if he breaks the term-limit pledge,"said Dyer, who was a surrogate for Tancredo at a candidate forum this fall. "We can't say that situational ethics is bad for party A but not for party B."
Ward, a former mayor of suburban Glendale, could not be reached for comment, but is expected to return to Colorado next year. In an interview with the News after completing his one term on the Arapahoe County Commission, Ward made his opinion of politicians who stay in office too long perfectly clear.
"Any politician who can't find the bathrooms in the first week doesn't deserve to be in public office," he said.
It is unclear whether the White House would try to get involved in a primary challenge to Tancredo.
But it is fair to say that Tancredo is not one of the president's favorite people. Earlier this year, the Congressman accused Bush of pandering to Hispanic voters and trying to prop up Mexican President Vicente Fox by offering amnesty to certain undocumented immigrants. That declaration brought an angry 40-minute phone call from Rove, and Bush pointedly failed to introduce Tancredo to the crowd during a political rally in Colorado in September.
With his hard-line views on immigration, Tancredo is no stranger to controversy. In 1999, he gained publicity for reaffirming his support for gun owners' rights just days after the massacre at Columbine High School, which is six blocks from his house.
The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report last summer linking Tancredo to extremist groups, which the Congressman dismissed as "McCarthyism."
And he was embarrassed earlier this year when it was revealed that undocumented workers had been hired to do some construction work on his Littleton home.
But pollster Ciruli said Tancredo's views on immigration are in line with his constituents'.
"Nobody who's going to argue the soft side of immigration is going to beat him in the Republican primary, or even in the general," he said.
After seeing two fairly viable opponents get wiped out by Tancredo in 1998 and 2000, Democrats appear to have abandoned the 6th district - leaving Republicans there to decide whether they want him to remain in office.
[url=http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readarticle.cgi?101+6028]Liberty Post[/url]
I say get together a petition. "If the White House door is too good for Tancredo, its too good for us".
2002-11-19 06:37 | User Profile
So I guess this means the Stupid Party leadership is gonna try pull a McKinney-style hit on Tancredeo in '04
I think him and Ron Paul should both sit tight where they are and be thorns in the side of the GOP. As the economy goes south and globalization marches on, Tancredo--as the standard-bearer for immigration reform--will be able to get truckloads of cash from donors across the country and bury anyone who dares oppose him.
He still sucks on the Iraq issue, though, but I rank that second behind the immigration question.
2002-11-19 07:58 | User Profile
Originally posted by Centinel@Nov 18 2002, 23:37 So I guess this means the Stupid Party leadership is gonna try pull a McKinney-style hit on Tancredeo in '04
Or a Buchananizing.
Mr. Tancredo's hugely popular call for immigration reform is resonating not only in his own state, but across the nation, despite the breast-beating of the Compassion Fascists who on one side of the aisle see this as a threat to their poll numbers, and who on the other side wring their hands over the thought of actually making their kids do household chores rather than under-the-counter cheap "colored" help being highly accessible to keep their little darlings from sullying their hands.
After seeing two fairly viable opponents get wiped out by Tancredo in 1998 and 2000, Democrats appear to have abandoned the 6th district - leaving Republicans there to decide whether they want him to remain in office.
That's up to the 6th District voters, now, isn't it?
Wonder if the GOP, in its desperation to appease Senors Fox and Dees, will pull a "Sanchez" in Tancredo's territory and recruit dead people to vote against him? Ya jes' know them danged grassroots rednecks don't know 'nuff to vote who's GOOD for us...
2002-11-19 08:11 | User Profile
**Wonder if the GOP, in its desperation to appease Senors Fox and Dees, will pull a "Sanchez" in Tancredo's territory and recruit dead people to vote against him? Ya jes' know them danged grassroots rednecks don't know 'nuff to vote who's GOOD for us... **
I don't think the real pressure on the GOP over Tancredo will come from the ADL and SPLC. More likely it will come from globalist Republican business executives who jumped on the "free trade" bandwagon in the last decade to justify importing cheap foreign labor and relocating productive capacity abroad. The tech industry wanting foreign H-1B workers and the Cato Institute come to mind as likely agitators, along with Roman Catholic clergymen from the Southwest.
2002-11-19 08:23 | User Profile
Originally posted by Mercuria@Nov 19 2002, 07:58 **That's up to the 6th District voters, now, isn't it?
Wonder if the GOP, in its desperation to appease Senors Fox and Dees, will pull a "Sanchez" in Tancredo's territory and recruit dead people to vote against him? Ya jes' know them danged grassroots rednecks don't know 'nuff to vote who's GOOD for us...**
The 6th district's hardly rednecks. More like Orange County when it was a Reaganite suburb. (The largest housing development there, Highlands Ranch, is built by some California developer).
But no doubt, they're still not good enough for the Rove's of the White House. I can just hear them chuckling saying "elections are too important to be left up to the voters"
2002-11-19 08:27 | User Profile
Originally posted by Okiereddust@Nov 19 2002, 01:23 The 6th district's hardly rednecks.
I'm quite aware of that, but you know these RINOs...anyone who denies them their "right" to discount illegal labor so they can play Big White Massas Of The Manor has to be a banjo-plucker!
2002-11-19 08:29 | User Profile
Originally posted by Centinel@Nov 19 2002, 01:11 I don't think the real pressure on the GOP over Tancredo will come from the ADL and SPLC.
I said "Fox", not "Foxman". B)
2002-11-19 14:19 | User Profile
Okiereddust,
The GOP just sucks; that is about all one can say.
He represents one of the most conservative districts in the nation. He just trounced his Democratic challenger by 37 points. Yet Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) may be one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the 2004 election cycle...
The House Member's criticisms of President Bush's immigration policy bought him a 40-minute rebuke earlier this year from Bush adviser Karl Rove, who, in the Congressman's own words, warned him "never to darken the door of the White House again."
2002-11-19 18:29 | User Profile
A question is posed to one of FreeRepublic's more offensive muds:
To: Luis Gonzalez
I attack people like Tancredo for their blatant demagoguery...
You don't like Tancredo for his demagoguery, you don't like Buchanan for his demagoguery, you don't like FAIR for their demagoguery, let's face it, you don't like ANYONE who speaks out against illegal immigration.
Here's a chance to prove me wrong. Who do you admire for speaking out against illegal immigration?
249 posted on 11/18/2002 9:05 PM PST by Reaganwuzthebest [ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 236 | View Replies ]
[url=http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/791503/posts?page=249#249]http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/791...ts?page=249#249[/url]
500 posts later and still no answer. Fact is, Speedy just wants a country that looks more like him and less like us, in spite of the mountain of evidence that people who look like him tend to produce countries that smell and look like stopped-up toilets. And that's OK, because he's not White. Well, Speedy, we're going to do our best to bring this country to a place where it's OK for Whites to feel the same as you.
2002-11-19 20:23 | User Profile
Recluse,
That FR thread is a good thing....good for paleos, that is. Stories like this that lay the GOP's globalist agenda bare for all to see, followed up by GOP shills on FR trying to stifle and marginalize dissenters can only disillusion more of the fence-sitters and drive them into our fold.
Sometimes things have to get pretty bad before brain-dead herds of sheeple finally get a clue.
The mainstream media is trying to spin the November 5th election as a "GOP mandate" by the people. The real story is the Democratic sweep of California and the utter destruction of its GOP, an omen that will be repeated throughout the Southwest unless drastic measures are taken to thwart immigration.
2002-11-22 02:48 | User Profile
Anyone know of some good biographical material on Rep. Tancredo? I'd like to see if there is anything to indicate that he has the right stuff to take on the "bipartisan" elite on immigration. I heard that a conservative Republican once explained our two party system to a Russian visitor as follows: "There are two parties, a stupid party and an evil party. Every once and awhile they get together and do someting both stupid and evil and call it 'bipartisan.'"