As far as the governor’s race is going, things look very good at the moment for Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. All he has to do is maintain the ho-hum headlines and be sure not to plagiarize anything or overrepresent his business prowess, as Republicans Scott McInnis and Dan Maes, respectively, allegedly have.

It turns out Hickenlooper’s ace campaigner might be Tom Tancredo, who has thrown his own party into total disarray by issuing a clear ultimatum to the two Republicans. Tancredo says they should step aside due to “an unprecedented situation” that has developed (via 7News).

“The two candidates vying for the Republican nomination have, in my opinion, lost any hope of carrying out a successful campaign,” he adds, saying whoever wins the August party primary should step down so that the Republican Party can come up with a viable appointment to take down the “John Hickenlooper and the Obama-Pelosi smear machine.”

The candidates have until high noon on July 26 to commit to dropping out if polls show they can’t win, Tancredo says. If they don’t, he’ll seek the nomination of the American Constitution Party for governor.

To Dick Wadhams, chairman of the state Republican Party, Tancredo is practically a traitor.

“Let there be no mistake about it,” Wadhams says in a statement (via The Denver Post). “Regardless of who our nominee is for governor after the primary, if Tom Tancredo carries through on his threat to run as a third-party candidate, he will be responsible for the election of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper as governor and for other races that will be imperiled as well.”