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Update: Anti-Immigrant Zealot Tom Tancredo to Announce He's Running for Colorado Governor

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Update: He’s doing it! Tom Tancredo said that he will soon officially announce his bid for Colorado Governor.

From the Denver Post:

Tancredo last week indicated he is strongly considering a run for governor in 2014. As of Wednesday night, Tancredo had not filed the necessary paperwork with the secretary of state’s office.

Tancredo did note, however, he will formally announce his candidacy on conservative talk radio host ’ show…

In 2010, Tancredo ran in a tumultuous gubernatorial contest as a third-party candidate, netting more than 35 percent of the vote in a lopsided Democratic victory by then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. Republican candidate Dan Maes received 11 percent of the vote.

Some political analysts have said that Tancredo’s stances against immigration reform would run counter to the Republican party — both locally and nationally — as it attempts to court more Latino voters here in the West.


Is Tom Tancredo really thinking about running for Colorado Governor??

From the Denver Post today:

Tancredo, who represented Colorado’s 6th Congressional District from 1999 to 2009, strongly opposes amnesty for anyone in the country illegally, and he advocates for increased border security.

In an op-ed piece for The Christian Post in March,Tancredo wrote that “the problem is that not one congressman or major commentator has called for deporting all 12 million illegal immigrants. Rather, we argue that strict enforcement of employer sanctions and allowing local police to cooperate in immigration enforcement will encourage most illegals to, in Mitt Romney’s words, ‘self-deport.’ ”

Political analyst Floyd Ciruli said a Tancredo run for governor would put him at odds with a national Republican strategy of courting more Latino voters.

“With comprehensive immigration reform being seriously discussed in Washington, Republicans are making a concerted effort to appeal to more Latino voters — a critical and growing demographic in the electorate,” Ciruli said.

Has Tancredo heard the story of the recent Heritage Foundation report, and what happens when a relic from another time tries to make a comeback, only to discover that the world has changed dramatically?  Colorado, in recent months, has passed a state tuition bill for undocumented students and brought a bill allowing immigrants to drive to Governor Hickenlooper’s desk.  And as Kurtis Lee at the Denver Post noted, the national GOP is trying to stay far away from anti-immigrant zealots like Tancredo and ideas like his claim that immigrants are “coming here to kill you, and you, and me, and my grandchildren.”

Tancredo isn’t the only out-of-office anti-immigrant hardliner considering a return to the political scene.  Arizona’s Russell Pearce is suddenly back in the news again too, railing against immigration reform and the Senate Gang of 8 bill more than a year after he was recalled from office.  Neither of them are good news for the GOP or the Party’s plan to rebrand itself with Latino voters.