Has Sen. John McCain’s campaign written off Colorado?

In a CNNPolitics.com article Monday afternoon, CNN’s chief national correspondent, John King, reported that two top strategists inside the McCain campaign had concluded that their prospects in Colorado were “increasingly bleak.”

King said the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign had made no decision to pull its advertising dollars out of Colorado or to curtail campaign appearances in the state. But according to King, the McCain camp is trying to come up with a plan for an Electoral College victory that does not depend on Colorado and its nine electoral votes.

King did not identify his sources. The only McCain campaign official named in the story was Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, who, according to the unnamed sources, believes Colorado is still winnable.

The last four statewide polls, all conducted since Oct. 10, gave Sen. Barack Obama leads of 4 or 5 percentage points, just outside the statistical margin of error. Most polling and media organizations rate Colorado as a toss-up or leaning toward Obama, the Democratic nominee. But King reported that one of his sources told him that the Obama campaign was better organized in Colorado and that “most of us have a hard time counting on Colorado.”

Instead, the campaign was said to be counting on turning Pennsylvania. .

Interviewed Tuesday by 7News, the ABC affiliate in Denver, McCain was asked about the CNN report. He chuckled and said, “We’re going to be in Denver and in Colorado Springs in the next couple of days. Listen, we’re not only competitive in Colorado, but we’ll win Colorado.”

Contacted by The Gazette, Tom Kise, the campaign’s Colorado spokesman, declined to provide specifics of McCain’s itinerary. But Kise noted that the Arizona senator’s running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, was in Colorado Springs on Monday, and said McCain would be making “multiple stops” in Colorado on Friday.

“If that’s pulling out of a campaign,” Kise said, “then I don’t know what a campaign looks like.”

It is not unknown for campaigns to intentionally send false or conflicting signals in hopes of forcing the opposition to miscalculate. If that’s the case here, the Democrats don’t appear to be biting.

“If the Republicans want to fold up their tent, so be it,” said Matt Farrauto, spokesman for the state Democratic Party. “Democrats will continue to fight for every vote.”

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Contact the writer: 476-1654 or dean.toda@gazettedev.gazette.com

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Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, applauds as he appears at a campaign rally in Bensalem, Pa., Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2008. Photo by (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)