Updated below

Contra my earlier post on Tancredo’s interest in the Colorado Senate seat, Tancredo will be announcing a decision about whether or not he’s running for president today. From the Des Moines Register:

Tancredo said he will decide today whether he will run. No Republican has yet announced intentions to run for the presidential nomination.

Tancredo said his hard-line stance against illegal immigration likely could make fundraising difficult, but while he envisions potential big-name candidates such as Arizona Sen. John McCain and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as battleships, the potential to “slip through to port” exists, likely because of his bold views, he said.

He also said he would be flattered to be compared to Iowa Rep. Steve King, also an outspoken critic against illegal immigration.

Allard is officially not running for reelection, so we shall see what Tancredo decides. The article on Allard included this nugget about his decision (and former congressman and potential senate candidate Bob Schaeffer) to honor term limit pledges.

As time passed, some one-time leaders of the movement, including Rep. Tom Tancredo, and others who signed pledges, such as former Rep. Scott McInnis, abandoned their promises in the name of continuing public service. Others, such as former Rep. Bob Schaffer, lived up to their pledge and went home.

Tancredo broke his promise to Colorado voters on term limits. Will that influence his decision to try to win an office in Colorado or a national office?

Update

Tancredo is encouraging Scott McInnis to run for Allard’s seat, something he’d probably not be doing if he were running for Senate. From the Rocky Mountain News:

Rep. Tom Tancredo on Monday encouraged his former colleague, Rep. Scott McInnis, to run for the U.S. Senate in 2008, appearing to take his name out of the running for the seat that will be vacated by the retiring Sen. Wayne Allard.
…
Afterwards, according to spokesman Carlos Espinosa, Tancredo said: “At the end of the day, I think I’d like to see Scott McInnis run for that (Senate) seat.”

Tancredo was traveling Monday and unavailable for comment. His decision about whether or not to form an exploratory presidential committee was still up in the air but would be made very soon, Espinosa said.

This likely means that Tancredo will run for president. According to Radio Iowa, Tancredo’s reasoning is based around him not seeing a strong anti-immigrant voice in the GOP field (um, Tom: Duncan Hunter?).

Tancredo says he is “closer” to launching a campaign for the White House because the other candidates who are already in the race have failed to adequately address the immigration issue.”The fact is no one up to this point in time, none of the what I call the tall guys with good hair, the ones who are the ’serious candidates’ are addressing it,” Tancredo says. “None of them really want to address it.”

We still may see late-breaking comment from Tancredo’s office about his status (it’s only 4pm in Colorado now). The Rocky Mountain News article was filed around 2pm Mountain Time.

Technorati Tags: Scott McInnis, Tom Tancredo, Wayne Allard

Posted by Matt Browner Hamlin
Monday, January 15, 2007 at 5:36 pm

1 Response to “Tancredo To Decide Today”

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