Will Dan Maes hurt Republican chances for taking back the White House in 2012?
That’s what some Republicans fear in Colorado as Tom Tancredo surges in his third party bid for governor and support collapses for Maes, the GOP’s candidate.
If Maes, who has faced a barrage of stories about his background and character, does not win 10 percent of the vote in November, the Republican Party could be relegated to minor party status in 2012 and 2014, the Denver Post reports.
A Rasmussen poll released Friday shows Tancredo within four points of Democrat John Hickenlooper, causing the pollster to deem the race a toss-up. Maes, who has faced calls to drop out of the race, pulled in 12 percent in that poll.
A recent memo written by Dave Kerber, the chairman of the Arapahoe County Republican Party, outlines what could happen to the GOP in Colorado — traditionally a swing state — in 2012 if Maes doesn’t reach the necessary 10 percent.
“The effect of the designation of minor party status for the 2012 election would be that our candidate for president will not be in the top two lines which will be reserved for the Democrat and American Constitution Party candidates,” Kerber wrote, according to The Denver Post.
“We will be left to compete for ballot position with the Greens, Socialists, American Communist Party, Libertarians. Prohibitionists etc,” he said.
But in the case this would happen, GOP leaders have said, an effort would be made to change the law.
“It’s not that a big of a deal,” GOP chairman Dick Wadhams recently told FoxNews.com. “The statue can be changed and I anticipate it will be changed. Our party will not function any differently as far as the nomination process goes.”
Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin and others will join Tancredo today at a Unity Rally in Colorado Springs.