According to Chris Cillizza, Scott McInnis's plagiarism scandal has state Republicans ready to boot him:
Sources in Colorado Republican circles say it's likely a matter of when, not if, McInnis will exit the race.
"Almost without exception, they think he is done," said one senior Colorado Republican who spoke on the condition that his name not be used.
"He may be the last one to know it, but he's dead in the water," said another. "It's likely he will resist heavily, but at some point he's got to realize this is a fact of life."
Adding to the problems for McInnis is that "research assistant" he tried to blame this on, Rolly Fischer. TalkLeft's Jeralyn, a Coloradoan, fills in some details:
He's no research assistant, he headed up the Colorado River Water Conservation District for 28 years. Here he is commenting on water at a panel with President Jimmy Carter in 1977. President Carter says, "I might point out that Rolly Fischer is the secretary of engineering of the Colorado Water Conservation District and an acknowledged expert on Western Slope water."
Trying to foist the blame off on such a well-respected figure hasn't helped McInnis one bit. The Colorado primary is August 10, not leaving the Colorado GOP much time to come up with a replacement. Dan Maes, the other declared candidate in the primary, has his campaign finance violation hanging over him, and wasn't a serious candidate before that, having never held public office. He does have the Tea Party behind him, and won the state party convention where the activists took over.
So who does this leave for Colorado Republicans to call on? Pete Coors? Get Jane Norton out of the Senate race to this one? Whoever it is is going to have to pretty much be able to self-fund, and try to motivate the teabaggers who might not be so excited to see their candidate pushed aside.
All pretty good news for Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who doesn't face a primary challenge on the Dem side.