May 16, 2014 10:37 AM UTC

Tom Tancredo Knows What He's Doing

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• by: Colorado Pols

As you have read here and elsewhere, a group of Republicans who really don't want to see Tom Tancredo as their Party's nominee for Governor are doing everything they can to try to convince him to exit the race. But the calls, warnings, and threats from Republicans aren't working on Tancredo, who has his own formula for winning a Republican Primary that may just make him the GOP nominee next month.

Tonight Tancredo's campaign is hosting a fundraiser with Dog the Bounty Hunter ("and Beth"), a colorful couple who are longtime supporters of Tancredo. It's easy to make jokes about Tancredo backers such as the "Dog family" and Ted Nugent, but in doing so, it's important to understand that Tancredo knows exactly what he is doing here.

Check out what Tancredo said earlier this week (on the Peter Boyles show) in response to the news that former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was endorsing Republican Bob Beauprez for Governor:

You know, and I told [Beauprez] at the time, ‘Look,’ – because he was saying, ‘You get out of the race. I’ll get in.’ And I said, ‘Bob, I have 7,000 contributors.’ You know what, Peter? It’s now over 10,000 individual contributors to my campaign. [Do] you know what the average is? Sixty-seven dollars. God love these people. I’ll take their endorsement any day over Mitt Romney’s. I’ll tell you that right now.

Tancredo has always had a very dedicated and loyal base behind him, and while it hasn't been enough to propel him to elected office outside of his former Congressional seat, it will surely be formidable in June.

The Tanc has talked before about how a four-way Primary for Governor is not too dissimilar from when he won a close five-way Primary in 1998 for the GOP nomination in CD-6. Forget about the General Election and whether Tancredo can win in November, because what matters first and foremost us getting the Republican nomination — and Tancredo understands that dynamic better than most politicians.

There were just about 410,000 votes cast in the 2010 Primary for U.S. Senate (Ken Buck vs. Jane Norton); Buck won that Primary with 212,000 votes, or about 51% of the GOP vote. But in a four-way Primary, Tancredo needs only a fraction of that total in order to secure the GOP nomination for Governor. That's why Tancredo isn't listening to Republican calls for him to exit the race — he knows the numbers and he knows he can get there. November might be a different story, but that's a different election at a different time for Tancredo.

For all his problems and controversies, Tom Tancredo knows how to win a crowded Republican Primary…and that's why he's still the frontrunner today.