The embattled Republican nominee for governor, Dan Maes, will have plenty of chances to show off his debate skills. Maes and the Democratic nominee for the job, John Hickenlooper, have agreed to nine more upcoming debates, and both candidates promise to focus on the issues of 2010, rather than personal attacks. The idea is to “let Colorado voters decide whose vision for the state they prefer,” Maes says in a statement cited by Westword.

Presumably, Tom Tancredo, who is running for the office under the banner of the American Constitution Party, will also participate. But that’s only if his campaign is deemed legal.

A lawsuit, filed in Denver on Tuesday by voters from Highlands Ranch and Golden, challenges the Colorado Secretary of State Office’s certification of Tancredo’s name on the ballot, saying Tancredo switched parties too late to qualify by the ACP’s own rules (via Fox 31). Though ACP bylaws maintain that a candidate must be a member of the party for six months prior to being nominated for office, the party can waive that requirement, says an attorney for Tancredo.

Meanwhile, Hickenlooper is looking good in the polls, as one might expect given all the conservative infighting and backbiting over Maes’ nomination. Even GOP bastion Colorado Springs is warming to Hickenlooper, according to a new poll by Public Opinion Strategies and FM3, in which Hick has 48 percent of the vote statewide and 52 percent of the vote in the Colorado Springs area (via The Gazette).