(Updated with Tancredo comments)
(CNN) – Conservative firebrand Tom Tancredo will run for governor of Colorado despite strident objections from the state GOP, the former congressman is set to announce later Monday.
Tancredo floated the possibility of a third-party gubernatorial run last week, demanding that the two-current GOP candidates who have both been beset by scandals withdraw from the race after the August 10 primary if polls show Democrat John Hickenlooper far ahead.
The Republicans - Scott McInnis and Dan Maes - both scoffed at Tancredo's threat, prompting the onetime Republican presidential candidate to step up his announcement.
"I will officially announce at noon that I will seek the nomination of the constitution party," Tancredo told The Denver Post.
The move gave rise to a heated exchange between Tancredo and Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams on local radio station KHOW Monday, with the two men descending into a shouting match over what is best for the Colorado Republican party.
"Why don't you wait until after the primary?" Wadhams implored Tancredo.
"Because you know as well as I do, if I am going to run, I have to get going," responded Tancredo. "There is no downside for either one of these guys to simply say 'If I am not ahead at that time I will get out.'"
"What will your agenda be?" Wadhams also asked Tancredo sarcastically. "Are you going to keep talking about impeaching Obama and bombing Mecca?
McInnis, a prominent Colorado lawyer apologized earlier this month for plagiarizing several passages of a judge's work in producing a series of essays for which he was paid $300,000 to write as part of a fellowship in 2003. Maes, meanwhile, is facing political troubles too, agreeing earlier this month to pay more than $17,000 in a fine for campaign finance violations.
From CNN Politics
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Tancredo? BWAHHHHHH. This man is decades beyond his freshness date. I doubt many would like to take the state backwards as Tancredos vision implies.
I wonder how he manages to walk upright without tripping on his knuckles. He's a true neanderthal.
Republican leadership is truly a parade of miscreants. Who will come out of the woodwork next to say the next outrageous thing?
Not representing the GOP. Must be on the LFP (Lunatic Fringe Party.)
Shame on the Republican Party. Is right wing extremism the only way forward for you people?
Or maybe the white trash just is so fearful that the minorities are actually getting ahead and taking "their" country.
Here is a 2nd generation immigrated man speaking like he understand best the long history of illegal immigration issue of American, Where some of the people he were referring to are 6 or 7 generation Americans who have spilled their blood for this country. What gives him the power. He was born into this race, the human race without a chose of who would be the parents, the sex or color of his skin nor borders of country.
Tancredo is like Wamp of Tennessee – Wamp wants to seceded (like Perry of Texas).
You can't unring a bell, idiot.
Go ahead and secede – your state is a drain on this country. Take Alaska, Kentucky, Texas, SC, Miss.,, Alabama, and Georgia with you.
You lose your senators and representatives, emergency aid, and all else. Go ahead - MAKE OUR DAY.
Add Colorado if need be. We can always go to Switzerland to ski.
Who cares? Whoever runs from the republican party will lose to the democrat mayor.
Poor little Tommy,his momma and Pappa should have taken him to a real church when he was a kid,not to hear a bunch of pseudo christens that mettle in government affairs.
This kind of nutcase getting any kind of national attention is an embarrassment to Colorado and the people of this state.
This nut needs to be put away.
I love the Tea Party and Tancredo. The words out that he is going to run as an independent in some wacko winger' party. It will split the GOP and hand the election to Dems on a silver platter. This is going to happen in other states too. Ain't the baggers' sweet??
All I can say is-NICE HAIR. His hair will determine the outcome.
Somewhere, in Colorado a garden is missing it's troll.
This is great news for Colorado! It will ensure that Democrat Hickenlooper will win the race and help keep Colorado Blue. Tancredo a GOP idiot, typical of the Republican party.
GI Joe if those States left the USA would have no money to run anything. As for Trancredo...Go away.
Don't let Tancredo's hawkishness on immigration policy fool you. If he were to be elected governor, he has a long agenda of social conservative policies he would like to see implemented. When are people (especially so-called Constitutionalist Conservatives) going to learn that you cannot legislate morality!
Old Tom comes to the Arizona border to cavort with the local idiots. Now he will try to get elected. These Repukes really are so very angry about EVERYTHING. They are losers and we, as a country, better start waking up to the risk of electing these clowns.
I don't know which is more repulsive about Tancredo: that he is so xenophobic despite being himself descended from immigrants, or that he is so pro-war despite having done everything possible to avoid military service.
Why is that conservatives – the same group that keeps saying we need to vote out all the incumbents and put in some fresh blood – are also the ones who keep bringing back these old, career politicians like Tancredo, Gingrich, and Romney.
Why is it that the photos of conservatives always make them look like crackpots? You never see that in the MSM when they show photos of the President. I'm pretty sure CNN could find a photo of Mr. Tancredoin it's vault that doesn't make him look loony. Unless, they have an ulterior motive............Just sayin'......
Tancredo is delusional. Everyone but him knows what a twit he is.
Tancredo is a dimwit and a racist.
It is unbeleivable that such a low-life actually has a voice in American politics.
God help us all!!!!!!!!!!!! If he becomes Governor, by some miracle, the Great State of Colorado, of which I'm a resident, will be seen as a state full of conservative nut jobs whose only agenda is to ruin what was once a State with a great future. I'm afraid that if Tancredo or the conservatives take over once again, we're all going to suffer and be nothing more than a joke on late night tv!
Tancredo is a one tick pony, it's so easy to blame a minority for the majority of problems...
...Hitler did it too, and we know how that turned out...
I hope he does run as a 3rd party candidate. That will split the Republican vote and assure a Democrat will win.