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TRENTON — Former Colorado U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo is launching a new campaign aimed at smothering Gov. Chris Christie's possible presidential aspirations while they're still in the cradle.

Tancredo, who ran for president in 2008 before supporting Mitt Romney, has announced he's formed a "Stop Chris Christie" political action committee.

"He is no more a Republican than the man in the moon," Tancredo railed last week to a Denver AM radio host Kris Cook in an little-heard-outside-Denver interview with KLZ 560.

Tancredo represented the state's sixth congressional district from 1999 to 2009, as a Republican, and was the Constitution Party's nominee for governor of Colorado in 2010. Tancredo sparred with Christie publicly over immigration policy, and as a result, as Tancredo put it bluntly, "I have never liked the guy."

But it was Tancredo's most recent run at the Colorado governorship this summer that lead to the exceptionally bad blood with Christie.

The former five term Congressman had been the front-runner in the Colorado governor’s race for most of the summer, but has alleged he was derailed by the Christie-led Republican Governors Association, which he claims attacked him through surrogate organizations.

In late July, The Denver Post reported that the Republican Governors Association, donated money to the Republican Attorneys General Association, which in turn donated funds to third parties that helped fund attacks against Tancredo's gubernatorial candidacy.

Tancredo wound up finishing second in Colorado's June 24 four-way GOP primary for governor, losing out to the GOP's eventual nominee, Bob Beauprez. Beauprez was defeated in Tuesday's general election against incumbent Gov. John Hickenlooper.

In August, Christie declined to address Tancredo's claims that the RGA had "hijacked" the Colorado primary, calling them "ridiculous" but also adding, "what I've found most of the time — especially when I've lost — is it's my fault when I lose. So, candidates who lose elections should not be looking to blame other people. They should just take the responsibility out on themselves."

Christie’s office declined further comment today.

Tancredo clearly isn't interested in letting the healing begin.

In the radio interview, which aired before the election,, Tancredo said that while he didn't "want to do anything that's going to hurt Bob Beauprez or any other Republican in Colorado during-or before this election" he promised to launch his attacks against Christie soon after, saying "when it's over with, I guarantee you, I'm going after him."

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @claudebrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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