GOP Dumps Own Candidate, Dan Maes, for Colorado Governor

The Republican Party in Colorado ratcheted up its war with Dan Maes, the businessman who snagged the GOP gubernatorial nomination last month, basically kicking him to the curb after he refused to pull out of the race. And the salvos aren’t limited to the GOP establishment, either: Although Maes rode tea party backing to the nomination, even some of those groups have pulled back after a series of embarrassing miscues culminated with bizarre claims about his police career in Kansas in the 1980s, among other things, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times.

Maes' win over former Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo led to Tancredo’s decision to run as a third-party candidate. The haunting stories about Maes, including his claim likening his undercover police work to that of New York's famed Serpico, spurred a surge in voter support for Tancredo in polls, although both still trail the Democratic candidate.

Former Sen. Hank Brown and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck are among the Republican notables who have cast away Maes, and the Republican Governors Association refuses to help him, the Times reported.

Of course, Maes hasn’t done much to curry favor with the party, recently saying: “People are sick and tired of power brokers and they're sick and tired of the machine.”

The machine appears to be adding, with an exclamation point: It’s sick and tired of Maes. Among other things, the power brokers allege that he’s just not running a professional campaign.