In this crazy election year in Colorado, people are asking themselves who they should support in the governor's race. Here's a little perspective on Dan Maes... and a bigger picture.

Dan Maes, a political newbie, won the State Assembly and the primary when he wasn't supposed to win either. First Josh Penry--the favorite to win the nomination and the governor's race--dropped out last November. Tancredo almost got in the race, but decided not to. Then 5-term U.S. Congressman McInnis lost the State Assembly and the primary to Maes.

But the Republican ruling class and power brokers would have nothing of it.

Rather than supporting the Republican nominee elected by Republicans statewide, a number of prominent current and former Republican elected officials decided to endorse minor party candidate Tancredo. Tancredo had decided just weeks before that he did want to run for governor after all, but the law would no longer allow him to do so as a Republican. Not wanting to let something as insignificant as the law get in his way, his solution was to leave his party of 45 years and compete against it. Even State GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams was in on the game of trying to get Dan Maes to withdraw from the race so the Republican establishment could select a "proper" nominee for governor.

After years of the Republican establishment telling Republicans that, after the primary, we should put aside our differences and get behind the nominee (who, in recent years, would then go on to lose), they decided that rule no longer applied. And Tancredo, after telling liberty groups that they shouldn't entertain third parties, decided to run for governor as a third party candidate himself.

It would be easy to think that the Colorado Republican Party was the dysfunctional child within the GOP at the national level. And it is. But it's not the only one.

Arlen Specter bolting the GOP in Pennsylvania. Dede Scozzafava endorsing the Democrat in New York. Charlie Crist bolting the party in Florida. Mike Castle refusing to endorse O'Donnell after she won in Delaware. Lisa Murkowski considering a write-in campaign after she lost to Joe Miller in Alaska. And Tom Tancredo bolting the Republican party in Colorado.

The same show is playing all over the nation... Fresh faces are popping up and the Republican ruling class doesn't like it. And when the Republican ruling class loses at the ballot box, rather than getting behind their nominee as they should, they either endorse the Democrat, bolt the Republican Party to launch an independent bid, or use the weight of the Republican establishment to try to put down the insurgency.

In Colorado, the Republican nominee is being savagely attacked not by his Democrat opponent, but by a former Republican that thinks it's ok to portray a lucid, intelligent, conservative woman to be some helpless elderly victim--and then the candidate approves that message. In the same commercial he implies that he possesses integrity. The politics of personal destruction have nothing to do with integrity and nothing to do with honor, Mr. Tancredo. And since we know Freda Poundstone is not the gullible old lady she plays in that commercial, we also know that campaign has nothing to do with honesty.

Want to vote for someone who hasn't engaged in negative campaigning? Vote for Dan Maes. He hasn't engaged in it.

Want to vote for an outsider? Vote for Dan Maes. Virtually no-one had heard of him a year ago.

Want to vote for someone who isn't a career politician? Vote for Dan Maes. He's never held elected office.

Want to stick it to the political ruling class? Vote for Dan Maes. The ruling class is is against him.

Want to oppose the Republican establishment? Vote for Dan Maes. A lot of the Republican establishment is against him.

Want to vote for a third party? Vote for Dan Maes. According to an opponent, Dan Maes is the third party candidate.

Want to vote Republican? Vote for Dan Maes. He is the Republican candidate.

Want to vote against politics as usual? Vote for Dan Maes. Shake it up a little.

Whether it's Specter, Scozzafava, Crist, Castle, Murkowski, or Tancredo... the game is the same all around the country. The ruling class is not giving up without a fight. And unfortunately it's a fight we must have before we can take back our country. That's why I support Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, Marco Rubio in Florida, Christine O'Donnell in Delaware, and Joe Miller in Alaska.

And it's just one more reason I'm voting for Dan Maes in Colorado.