By now it’s clear that the Liberty Movement could both place a conservative candidate in the Colorado governor’s “win” column on Election Day and that it probably won’t.
Conservative minor-party candidate Tom Tancredo has surged to 34 percent, while Republican nominee Dan Maes has dropped to 15 percent. Democrat John Hickenlooper hovers at 44 percent. Enough independents are moving to the right that if conservatives went all in for Tancredo, they would win.
But there’s a good chance that not enough members of the Tea Party and 9-12 groups will support Tancredo.
The reason is far more interesting than the glibly pejorative explanation from some quarters that those who make up the Liberty Movement are kooks.
Rather, a significant percentage of the Liberty Movement’s members are too principled to win this one. They would prefer to lose the race and teach Republicans a lesson than pick a candidate they believe is tainted by his establishment connections.
I’m impressed with Hickenlooper and would be happy to see him take the office. But I’m also fascinated by the Liberty Movement, and hope its members will be able to help our state and nation right the fiscal ship.
To do so, the movement will have to first reform the Republican Party. It cannot allow itself, as the conservative writer Angelo M. Codevilla argues, to be co-opted by the same Grand Old Party that has been every bit as responsible as the Democrats in creating a government the nation can’t afford.
That GOP shares a cynical role in what Codevilla calls “the ruling class” he so deeply loathes. In Colorado, a prominent 9-12 organizer tells me that many in the Liberty Movement believe the state Republican Party also is run by ruling class elitists who are not responsive to the people.
“I call them ‘the shadowy cabal,’ ” says Lu Busse, the 9-12 Project Colorado Coalition leader. She and others are sick of Colorado’s powerful GOP players running the show, because the result is candidates like Scott McInnis.
Long before the plagiarism scandal, the former congressman’s treatment of Liberty Movement groups created anger and anxiety, Busse says. McInnis was patronizing — and even “blew up” at some of their questions at public events.
“McInnis is a career politician who doesn’t care what the people think is important,” Busse says.
Yet Tancredo played a signature role in trying to clear the primary field for McInnis. He also helped sway the Liberty Movement types against forming a third party. When Tancredo left the GOP to run against Dan Maes, he betrayed a lot of people and hurt a lot of feelings.
The congressman now is understandably campaigning to mend fences, but Busse says many will stand by Maes, despite his many blemishes. Some will simply skip the race.
At least, Busse says, Maes is a man of the people, of Codevilla’s “country class.” But here’s where I disagree with Busse’s logic, which strikes me as obviously self-defeating: Maes isn’t just a flawed candidate; he is a deeply flawed candidate, and he would be a poor governor. In this case, it is perfectly understandable that Tancredo and GOP officials would want a better nominee than Maes.
And while the Liberty Movement’s disaffection with McInnis also is understandable, something happened this summer that changed the equation. Tancredo exercised real leadership, as hard as that is for some to accept. The latest polls support the assertion. With his name recognition and campaign-trail experience, Tancredo has proven in these right-leaning times that he can win.
This is how you gain power in politics.
What the Liberty Movement in Colorado and nationally will have to realize going forward is that while they must fight the traditional GOP from usurping them, it won’t do them any good unless they also work with conservatives to field credible candidates that the rest of us in the country class can trust.
Contact Chuck Plunkett at cplunkett@denverpost.com.
