Tancredo in bottom of insider survey

Romney, Giuliani lead GOP pack

M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 5, 2007 at midnight

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U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo is in the top tier of one new presidential survey - a list of candidates whom Republican insiders "refused to support."

The Los Angeles Times surveyed 133 of the 165 Republican National Committee members about their early picks and pans for the party's 2008 presidential nomination.

The survey showed Tancredo, of Littleton, grouped with others at the bottom of the pack.

Leading were former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Asked their first choice for a nominee, participants gave Tancredo 1 percent. He got another 4 percent when participants named their second choice.

When asked whether there were any candidates they "refused to support," Tancredo got 6 percent of the vote.

In that category, Tancredo was in third place behind Sen. John McCain of Arizona (11 percent) and Sen. John Hagel of Nebraska (7 percent).

All three have been known for bucking the Republican Party establishment at times. Hagel, a vocal critic of the war in Iraq, and Tancredo, who has criticized President Bush on immigration policy, were the only candidates with higher unfavorable ratings than favorable.

Tancredo was one of eight potential GOP presidential candidates at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday. In a straw poll there, he failed to crack the top five. Romney led, narrowly edging Giuliani.

Tancredo dismissed the result on Sunday's CNN's Late Edition. He said the straw poll was stacked by candidates who paid to have people attend the conference.

sprengelmeyerm@shns.com

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