Maes not in it to win it — just to spark a right-wing revolution

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes said Monday he didn’t stay in the race to the bitter end to win but to help start a conservative revolution within the Grand Old Party. Maes said his candidacy is part of that transformation.

Asked by radio talk show hosts Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman on KHOW’s Caplis and Silverman Show why he continues to stay in the race despite mounting pressure to get out, Maes said he is on a long-term mission.

“Because the purpose of this was to bring the Republican Party back to its conservative roots and that wasn’t necessarily going to happen in an 18-month election cycle or one election cycle,” Maes said of the his continuing candidacy despite the possibility it will get Democrat John Hickenlooper elected. “This is halftime for the conservative revolution of taking things back for the GOP the way it is supposed to be.”

Maes said that he suspects a fair number of people who publicly support other candidates will vote for him today.

Caplis asked how Maes was helping the future of the Republican Party when his candidacy has caused large numbers of Republican voters to jump ship and vote for American Constitution Party candidate Tom Tancredo, a former Republican who got into the race when he deemed Maes unelectable.

“Everybody keeps trying to paint this new reality and the reality hasn’t even passed,” Maes said. “You don’t know until you finish the game.”

Tancredo has been pushing hard since Maes won the primary for the then Tea Party favorite to get out of the race and clear the way for a possible win over Hickenlooper. Tancredo has been polling several points behind Hickenlooper, and Maes has been lingering around 10 percent or less.

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