Colorado’s race for governor – at least for the general election – got a lot more interesting this week with the early exit of former Congressman Tom Tancredo. Hopefully, the GOP front-runner’s departure makes the primary contest more competitive and substantive across a broader range of issues facing the state than the hardliner’s focus on illegal immigration.

Tancredo, as friendly and warm as his core supporters and others find him, so frequently served as a hyper-partisan warrior – by his own estimation, a lightning rod – that his presence in the race threatened to lock the debate in Trump Land. Tancredo’s 2008 presidential candidate race helped pave the way for Donald Trump’s signature issue. He became tied to former White House aide and Breitbart chairman Stephen Bannon and has supported this divisive presidency.

What happened? Since the day Tancredo launched his third shot at the governor’s office last fall, most every pundit and operative counted him the likely Republican nominee. And though few favored his chances at winning the general election in a state Hillary Clinton carried by 5 percentage points, the expectation has been that the true believer cared less about winning and more about forcing his party to the hard right.

Tancredo blames his exit on a lack of money. After entering the race in October, he closed out the year with only $75,000 in campaign cash, whereas Republican Walker Stapleton, Colorado’s treasurer, collected $750,000.

Read more at denverpost.com.