Kobe DA Hurlbert seeks state Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Gibbs

The sexual assault case against NBA superstar Kobe Bryant put a white-hot spotlight on Eagle County back in 2003, exposing issues of racism and classism in the working-class town of Eagle 30 miles west of the posh ski resorts…

Wadhams clobbers challengers to win re-election as Colorado GOP chairman

On the heels of thumping losses in last fall’s election, Colorado Republicans decided Saturday to stick with the one that brung ‘em.

State GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams easily won re-election to a second two-year term with 85 percent of the vote at the party’s central committee meeting. Wadhams rebuffed challenges from former Eagle County Commissioner Tom Stone and party activist Christine Tucker, who threw her support to Stone at the end of her nomination speech.

State party showdown: Rush Limbaugh-wannabe vs Rove 2.0

While we’re introducing much of the state to little-known Colorado Republican Party chair candidate Tom Stone it makes sense to revisit our 2007 coverage of Dick Wadhams when he sought to ascend the GOP throne.

Now that Stone has been dubbed “Eagle County’s Rush Limbaugh” by a member of his own party, we’ll see how he matches up to Wadhams, the über-operative not-so-affectionately called “Karl Rove 2.0.”

GOP mayor: State party chairman candidate is Eagle County’s Rush Limbaugh

If you ask Ron Wolfe, the Republican mayor of Avon, Tom Stone has played a major role in marginalizing his party in Eagle County, where there was a Democratic sweep in November and the GOP trails in voter registration for the first time in recent memory.

And as Republicans continue to take stock of their defeats nationally and locally, there’s debate over whether Stone, a Realtor and former county commissioner, would be a better GOP party chairman than Dick Wadhams.

GOP chair candidate Tom Stone put his partisan brand on Eagle County

Before Republican Realtor Tom Stone rode into town in 1998, Eagle County was a largely nonpartisan place, leaning more to the right, but a difficult place to tell the Dems and the members of the GOP apart.

Stone throws in against Wadhams in contest for state GOP chairman

Former Eagle County Commissioner Tom Stone announced Friday morning he plans to challenge Dick Wadhams in next month’s election for chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. Running on a platform to modernize the state GOP and “work smarter and not just harder,” Stone unveiled a campaign Web site with a manifesto proposing to update the party’s message “while not changing our principles.”