For Tancredo, What other “Major Announcement” Could It Be?

ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf Reports: The presidential campaign of Colorado Congressman and anti-illegal immigration crusader Tom Tancredo may be coming to a close. ‘May be’ because his campaign has scheduled a press conference in Des Moines for Tuesday to make a "major announcement" about his campaign.

Tancredo’s press staff and inner circle were mum on the exact nature of the press conference. But without a significant bounce in the polls and less than a million dollars in fundraising in the last quarter for which candidates reported receipts, Tancredo’s campaign would seem to have stalled. The first primary votes are cast (or in this case voters will caucus) in Iowa on January 3rd.

Really there are only two really "major" announcements about one’s Presidential campaign: that is starting and that it is ending.

Even if he pulls out of the race, Tancredo can claim to have left an indelible mark on the campaign. His bid seemed at points to hit a populist nerve in conservative Republican ranks and as Congress debated comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants earlier this year, Tancredo parlayed his anti-amnesty crusade into millions of dollars in fundraising for his Presidential campaign and his Political Action Committee, which is called Team America.

Tancredo arguably drew the entire Republican field to the right on the issue of immigration. After former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani sparred at the CNN/YouTube debate in Florida over who was tougher on illegal immigration in their moderate Republican in a blue-state or city former lives, Tancredo was able to beam on national television that they were trying to "out Tancredo Tancredo."

But as candidates with more money and traction in the polls moved into his territory on the immigration and amnesty issues, it has left little room for Tancredo to develop more of a following.

Tancredo would become the fourth announced Republican presidential candidate to end his bid for the White House. Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore stepped out of the race even before the summer and has since launched a U.S. Senate bid, former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson ended his bid after a poor showing at the Iowa Straw Poll in August and Sen. Sam Brownback R-Kans., was the last GOPer to end his candidacy.

Two announced Democratic candidates have dropped out of the race — former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh.