March 05, 2014 02:21 PM UTC

The Nuge Still Shilling For The Tanc

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• by: Colorado Pols

Media Matters via Mike Littwin at the Colorado Independent:

National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent is fundraising for Republican Colorado gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo weeks after Texas gubernatorial hopeful Greg Abbott caused a firestorm of controversy for campaigning with Nugent after the NRA figurehead made a racist comment about President Obama.

According to a March 4 article in The Colorado Independent, Nugent sent a fundraising e-mail on behalf of Tancredo that asked for donations of $25 or more to be entered into a raffle for an AR-15 assault weapon. In a letter addressed to "Real Americans," Nugent warned that "Barack Obama and his radical America-hating leftist goons are perilously close to taking away our guns and nullifying the Second Amendment." According to Nugent, "Tom Tancredo is running for Governor in one of the most anti-gun states in the union, so he urgently needs our help. That's why we're giving away a free AR-15 to a fellow gung-ho supporter." Nugent praised Tancredo for "opposing President Bush's wasteful spending spree, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and of course, insane infringements to our sacred Second Amendment rights."

An image of Nugent's latest fundraising letter follows. We are a little surprised to see Tom Tancredo still using aging rocker Ted Nugent as a fundraising pitchman, after Nugent very grudgingly apologized for referring to President Barack Obama as a "subhuman mongrel"–an apparent reference to the fact that Obama had a black father and a white mother. If that kind of talk seems more at home in the pre-civil rights era South than a mainstream political campaign in 2014, you're probably not alone.

Nugent's presence on the campaign trial recently caused headaches for a different Republican gubernatorial candidate. In Texas, Greg Abbott received widespread criticism for hosting campaign events with Nugent, who is also a spokesman for the Outdoor Channel, after Nugent recently termed Obama a "subhuman mongrel." Abbott was also widely criticized for campaigning with someone who had made numerous profane and derogatory comments about women, including calling Hillary Clinton a "toxic cunt" and "worthless bitch." Even prominent members of the GOP condemned Nugent, with Arizona Sen. John McCain adding, "That kind of thing is beyond the pale, and I hope that our candidate down there learned a lesson." Nugent eventually offered a disingenuous apology — "not necessarily to the president" — for his "subhuman mongrel" comment and Abbott stated publicly he had no plans to hold future events with Nugent.

Tancredo primary voters are less likely to be troubled. And apparently, so is Tancredo.