Tancredo picks Pat Miller as running mate

By The AP
Tuesday, August 24, 2010

DENVER — Tom Tancredo has picked former Republican lawmaker Pat Miller to be his running mate in Colorado’s gubernatorial race, citing her legislative experience and her active anti-abortion campaigns.

Tancredo announced his choice on KHOW-AM radio today, the deadline for minor parties to report the results of vacancy committee changes to the Secretary of State.

Tancredo left the Republican Party in July to run for governor as a member of the American Constitution Party. He told party officials he wanted to choose his own running mate, and Doug Campbell, the running mate chosen by the party’s original candidate, agreed to step down.

Miller, 63, ran twice for Congress as a Republican and lost both times to U.S. Rep. David Skaggs, a Boulder Democrat who held office from 1987 to 1999. She served one term in the Colorado House of Representatives from 1990 to 1992 but lost her bid for re-election.

Miller said she knows what it takes to win races, and she also knows what it’s like to lose.

In 1994, she ran against Skaggs and received 43 percent of the vote. In 1996, she ran against him again and was chosen by 35 percent of voters after audiotapes surfaced of Miller bragging at a 1994 campaign rally that patriot groups could count on her support if she was elected to Congress.