Political Pile-Up Slows Tea Party Movement in Its Top State

Colorado has seen a significant political turnaround in the last two years. In 2008, 54 percent of the state’s population voted for Barack Obama; since then, it has become the Tea Party movement’s leading bastion. But Colorado Tea Partiers are having a bad day today. Politicians favorable to their cause have dampened their chances of impacting this year’s general election, or just downright insulted them. First, former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), a mainstay at Tea Party events, dealt what may be a body-blow to hopes of wresting control of the state’s governorship away from the Democrats. He announced today that he will seek the seat for himself on the American Constitution Party line. (While there is already a candidate running as that party’s nominee, he has agreed to step aside for Tancredo.) Tancredo’s announcement effectively guarantees that right-leaning voters will split their support among Tancredo and two Republican candidates. The other nugget of bad news came over the weekend, when The Denver Post and NBC Denver affiliate KUSA reported that after a June 11 campaign stop, a worker from the state Democratic party recorded audio of Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck disparaging birther advocates within the Tea Party movement to a campaign worker. “Will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I’m on the camera?” he said. Buck, who has been the de facto Tea Party candidate in his primary race against former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, apologized for the remark today...more