If that pesky Dan Maes, the Republican nominee for governor, wasn't in the race, Tom Tancredo just might win. The latest poll by Rasmussen Reports shows Tancredo, the American Constitution Party candidate, at 38 percent—within four points of Democrat John Hickenlooper (42 percent). Maes' freefall continues, with his numbers now at 12 percent, while six percent of those surveyed are undecided and two percent prefer lesser-known candidates.

The Denver Post's Mike Littwin, a long-avowed Tancredo doubter, points out that Rasmussen polls tend to lean conservative and that an aggregate of polls shows Hick leading by 10 points. Littwin doesn't believe Tancredo will win because he "doesn't shy away from being Tancredo"—the guy who called President Barack Obama a Marxist and who doesn't run away from his support of the "personhood" amendment, "as, say, Ken Buck has."

Still, Tancredo is full of surprises. Over the weekend, he used the tragic alleged murder of Colorado native David Hartley to launch an argument in favor of legalizing marijuana for adults and increasing penalties for selling drugs to minors. Illegal marijuana brings profits to Mexican drug cartels like the one suspected in the death of Hartley, Tancredo told a roomful of supporters: "Your ally in the opposition to legalization is the drug cartels. I think alcohol is much more harmful to your health and to society" (via the Loveland Reporter-Herald).