Goss clears way for Tancredo, quits gubernatorial run

DENVER — Benjamin Goss submitted his resignation letter Tuesday as the American Constitution Party's candidate for governor to make way for former GOP congressman Tom Tancredo, who plans to run on the party ticket.

Now it's up to the party's board to determine if Tancredo meets the qualifications.

American Constitution Party chairman Clyde Harkins said Tancredo has to agree to support 43 platform requirements if he's going to be the candidate.

Harkins said the vacancy committee will meet in the next few days to review Tancredo's application, but he doesn't think Tancredo will have any problems.

Among other things, the platform requires the candidate to oppose "nation-building" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I know he has been supportive of efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are a nonglobalist party and we don't like all of this intervention," Harkins said.

Tancredo's spokeswoman, Jennifer Raiffie, said Tancredo reached agreements on all the positions before he moved to switch parties and promised to support them.

"They already negotiated that," she said.

The party also opposes government support for the treatment of AIDS.

Harkins said Tancredo had a general idea about the party, but he hadn't read the platform.

Goss said he voluntarily stepped down to make way for Tancredo, who plans to run on the party's ticket. Tancredo switched his party affiliation Monday.

Tancredo said he switched parties because he believes Republican candidates Scott McInnis and Dan Maes have no chance of beating Democrat John Hickenlooper in November.

The party was formed in 1992 as the U.S. Taxpayers Party and changed its name in 1999 to the Constitutionalist Party. Colorado's party renamed itself the American Constitutionalist Party. The national party's founder, Howard Phillips, was on the ballot in 21 states as its first presidential candidate.

The party goal is to support a U.S. Constitution rooted in Biblical law and administered by elected representatives to preserve, protect and defend it.

In 2008, the Constitution Party was on the ballot in 37 states.

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American Constitution Party Platform: http://www.americanconstitutionparty.com/PlatformDetail.html