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Tom Tancredo denies being recruited by Bannon to run for Colorado governor

By Jessica Machetta 11/27/2017 | updated 8 years ago

Republican Tom Tancredo denies that his run for Colorado governor is part of a larger agenda spearheaded by political operative, former White House chief strategist and current Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon.

“First of all, he did not recruit me, as identified in many [reports],” Tancredo told The Washington Examiner.

“We met in Colorado Springs. He asked me about quote ‘the lay of the land’ out here, politically. We were not meeting, however, for the purpose of him saying to me, ‘Tom, I’m asking you to run.’ He didn’t. He did not ask me to run for governor. His greatest concern is the Senate and Congress.”

But Tancredo didn’t exactly turn his nose up at the possibility of his campaign being bankrolled by Bannon either.

“Now, believe me, if he were to help us out financially, I’d be a happy camper, happy to take it.” Tancredo said. “But I do not have any expectations of it. He never promised me he would give me any resources.”

And money could very well be the key factor in this race if U.S. Rep. Jared Polis is the nominee. Polis is one of the wealthiest members of Congress and was one of the reasons  U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Arvada decided to drop out of the Democratic primary.

Tancredo, who ran for governor twice before, says he decided to run a third time after a Braynard Group poll showed him tied with Polis.

However, many disputed the accuracy of the pro-Trump group’s poll, which showed Tancredo getting 24.7 percent of the vote, just over one point behind Polis’ 26.2 percent, but the poll of 1,000 respondents showed 47.2 percent undecided and a margin of error is 3.16 percent. (Polis has consistently won his races for U.S. representative with 55 percent to 67 percent of the vote.)

“I hadn’t even announced, and I was tied with Jared Polis,” Tancredo told Westword. “That seemed to me to be a pretty good indicator that I do have a chance and perhaps I’ve got the best chance against a guy like Polis.”

Even the poll’s director, Matt Braynard, former data chief and strategist for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, says the October numbers should be taken with a grain of salt.

Political analysts say Tancredo fits Bannon’s anti-establishment preference since he ran as a candidate of the American Constitution Party in 2910 and hasn’t always been the GOP’s chosen candidate.

Bannon’s strategy to get a GOP stronghold in the U.S. Senate is heavily hinged on the Alabama race, which is swirling with controversy following candidate Roy Moore facing allegations of sexual assault. Bannon continues to back Moore amid the damning headlines that he preyed upon underage girls.

Polis is hardly Tancredo’s biggest concern at this time. The crowded Republican primary includes the likes of statewide officeholders Treasurer Walker Stapleton and Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, along with entrepreneur Victor Mitchell.

Republicans accounted for about 37 percent of statewide turnout in 2014.

 

 
Jessica Machetta

Reporter

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