- Rep. Tom Tancredo interpreted his easy victory as vindication
of his fiery anti-immigration rhetoric and as a license for all lawmakers
to speak their minds.
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- Tancredo was cruising to a third term in the 6th Congressional
District despite months of controversy over his call for troops on the
U.S. borders and a crackdown on illegal immigrants elsewhere.
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- "It tells me that the issues that I tried to advance
are issues that should be advanced and that nobody should be afraid of,"
said Tancredo, who has become a polarizing figure in the national immigration
debate.
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- Even Tancredo worried about a backlash, but there were
no signs of it in early returns, which showed him leading Democrat Lance
Wright by a more than 2-to-1 ratio, and Libertarian Adam Katz trailing.
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- Even some Republicans had criticized Tancredo, who clashed
with the White House over immigration and also drew fire after asking federal
officials to investigate the family of an illegal immigrant featured in
a newspaper article.
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- "The party should look at this and say, 'If you
stand for something and stand for principles . . . you don't have to be
afraid,' " Tancredo said. "If I won by 50 percent and one vote,
I'd be speaking my mind. I'm hoping my colleagues in Congress will look
at this and see you can take chances and they will not punish you."
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- Tancredo's south suburban district was considered such
safe Republican territory that pundits predicted he would have to get at
least 60 percent of the vote or else people would wonder if he would be
vulnerable to a primary challenge in 2004.
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- Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats more than
2-to-1 in the district, holding a roughly 99,000 voter registration advantage
in 2002, compared with 43,000 in 2000.
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- Two years ago, Tancredo faced a heavily financed challenge
from Democrat Ken Toltz but still won with 54 percent of the vote.
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- Even Wright conceded that district voters did not seem
too upset with Tancredo, despite the recent barrage of negative headlines.
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- "Some folks felt his approach maybe was too aggressive,
more polarizing than it needed to be, but they weren't too concerned about
it," said Wright, who called for a more "humane" approach
to immigration issues.
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- Tancredo joked that journalists were "part of the
campaign," since their negative stories didn't hurt his re-election
chances. Besides immigration, Tancredo came under fire for announcing that
he was abandoning his long-standing term limits pledge.
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- State Treasurer Mike Coffman predicted that some Republicans
will challenge Tancredo in 2004 over "credibility issues."
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- Tancredo said his showing on Tuesday should send would-be
challengers a message: "It tells them, 'You better think twice.' "
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- http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/election/article/0%
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