Extended response to The Denver Post -

Editor, The Denver Post:

Re: "GOP can do better than Tom Tancredo," May 27 editorial.

The Post's editorial denigrating my candidacy is more than disappointing. It is hypocritical and dishonest.
Like many others on the Democrat-left side of the political spectrum, The Post always says that they welcome a robust political dialogue. Yet, when leaders or candidates express opinions that challenge political correctness – whether on taxes,"global warming,” gun control, education reform, or immigration—they portrayed as"out of the mainstream” and usually "right-wing."

As evidence of my so-called radicalism, The Post trots out my continued opposition to granting taxpayer-supported benefits to illegal aliens and opposition to amnesty for twelve to thirty million illegal aliens at a time when the Republican Party is trying to court the Latino vote. The Post’s editors apparently did not notice that last week, 150 conservative leaders, ranging from The Heritage Foundation to editors at the National Review, sent a letter to the US Senate calling for the rejection of the"Gang of Eight” amnesty bill. Yes, not only Tom Tancredo but the entire"conservative establishment” is asking Senator Marco Rubio and the Republican party to walk away from a replay of the 1986 amnesty fraud.
The Post ought to be more worried about the leftward slide of the state’s Democrat Party than the line of battle among Republicans. Why hasn’t the Post explored the intriguing question whispered in the halls of the capitol at the end of the 2013 session of the General Assembly: what ever happened to the Governor’s"jobs agenda”? Why has it been replaced by the Michael Bloomberg agenda?

Over the past few weeks, the so-called"centrist Democrat” Governor of this state has seen fit to sign the most extreme legislation passed by the most partisan gang of state lawmakers in living memory. The Governor has given his stamp of approval to the extreme rewriting our election laws, to a $1 billion tax increase to prop up a failed education bureaucracy, and to a bill adding over $800 million to state Medicaid obligations over the next decade. Then to top it off, he blocked the scheduled execution of one of the most vicious murderers in Colorado history. But Tom Tancredo is the"divisive” one?

As for The Post’s obsession over the"Hispanic vote,” has The Post ever explained to its readers that Hispanic voters in Colorado were registered four-to-one Democrat in the year 2000, long before immigration became an issue? The last time I looked at reliable polls of Hispanic citizens, they ranked jobs, education and health care above immigration in importance—the same as other citizens.

Fortunately, the future of the Republican Party in Colorado will be decided by Republican voters, not by the editorial whims and delusions of Obama’s favorite Rocky Mountain oracle.

Sincerely,
Tom Tancredo

P.S. You can make a difference, visit tancredoforgovernor.org and volunteer or donate. Let's start something... again.