June 1, 2007 2:09 PM

2010: Tancredo's fallback?

Anyone who wants to run against Sen. Ken Salazar in 2010, please raise your hand...

What's this about?

The first head-to-head debate in Colorado's 2010 U.S. Senate race will have to wait.

For a time on Friday, it looked as if Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Denver, and Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, were destined to square off on a nationally-televised, Sunday morning talk show.

But alas, Salazar will be on CBS News' "Face the Nation" broadcast and Tancredo will not.

Before the joint appearance fell through, the thought of a head-to-head appearance made Tancredo and his staff enthusiastic to say the least.

"He thinks it's a great match-up," Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa said. "I think it's interesting how these two, I'd say they are the bookends for the immigration issue. You've got Tom on one end and the Senator on the other. This is a good match-up for a race we may see in the future... This may be the first of many debates for a potential match-up down the road."

Yes, Tancredo currently is making a long-shot run for president. But there's at least a slim chance he won't win. A future run for the U.S. Senate appears to be his back-up plan.

Espinosa describes a Tancredo-Salazar contest as the congressman's dream match-up.

Salazar, the former Colorado attorney general, was first elected in 2004, beating Republican beer magnate Pete Coors statewide even as President Bush won Colorado's electoral votes. He is up for re-election in 2010.

Tancredo has long expressed an interest in a U.S. Senate seat -- even before he began his decidedly uphill march for the 2008 Republican nomination. But wait. How could Tancredo run for the Senate if he's living in the White House in 2010?

"He'll do what's best for Colorado," Espinosa said, laughing. "If that's what it is, that's what it is."

Espinosa was disappointed later in the day, when informed that CBS would go with a different guest to oppose Salazar.

"If he's going to go on to talk about immigration, he should talk about it with the one person who made it the issue it is today," Espinosa said.

Salazar spokesman Cody Wertz had no comment on Tancredo or a potential 2010 match-up. Pollster Floyd Ciruli said Tancredo would be "the candidate Salazar would most look forward to running against," since Tancredo is so polarizing.

As for Sunday, "I'm not sure Salazar would want to give Tancredo the exposure" of a joint appearance, Ciruli said.

And so, Salazar's appearance on "Face the Nation," when he'll debate immigration with Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., instead of Tancredo, airs in Denver at 9:30 a.m. on CBS4.

Posted by M.E. Sprengelmeyer at 2:09 PM | Comments (6)