Tag: Dick Wadhams

Yes, the Chris Christie press conferences is finally over. The question remains: Is Chris Christie finished, too?

Around midnight on April 2, 2003, five weeks before John Hickenlooper won the first election of his political career, Hick campaign manager Paul Lhevine and other campaign staffers arrived at the Rocky Mountain News printing plant.

Much scarier than Tom Tancredo's Amendment 66 Halloween movie is Tancredo himself. Don't trust me on this. Just ask "Colorado's Karl Rove," Dick Wadhams.

In a year fraught by gun violence across the nation and with the anniversary of the Aurora theater shooting fast approaching, tempers over gun control have flared so high, the issue may invite the state’s first-ever lawmaker-recall votes. The efforts mounted so far have fast made a battleground of Colorado’s local politics, with organizers on both sides accusing each other of harassing petition signers, undermining the democratic process and undercutting hard-won balanced budgets.

Depending on what website you first saw the weekend news about Dick Wadhams’ new job, the former Colorado Republican Party chief is either a genius political puppet master/kingmaker or a bumbling GOP operative who badly botched the last few races in his home state.

In a piece that surveys Republican establishment players on the GOP presidential primary field, which has drawn half-hearted commitments among big donors, the Washington Post says Texas Governor Rick Perry is making a lot of moves that signal he's ready to take the leap. The GOP players Perry has been spending hours calling up tell him the field remains wide open. In the end, though, the Post writers land on former Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams, who is measured in his response. Indeed, after the licks Wadhams took in Tea Party Colorado last year, he sounds almost circumspect.

Former Colorado Springs Senator Dave Schultheis is no longer holding forth on bills on the Senate floor in Denver, but he has continued to exert influence this year as the powerful force behind the conservative Republican Study Committee of Colorado. Now that influence may be waning. This week, a third of the RSCC flock quit the committee, rejecting the would-be radical-right revival.

The feud between outgoing state Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams and state Sen. Ted Harvey, who aims to succeed him, is exploding with revelations about Harvey’s financial history.

On Monday, Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams announced he was ending his bid for reelection. He said he didn't want to lead a party dominated by inflexible Tea Party "nuts" who know little about how politics works. If new survey results are any measure, this may be Wadhams' best political move in a long time. Tom Jensen at Public Policy Polling reports Wednesday that the GOP civil war against "rinos" will kill the elephant in the Centennial state.

In the wake of Dick Wadhams’ exit from GOP leadership, a shootout is erupting over the soul of the state Republican Party. Wadhams this week said he is done with the political sniping – particularly from Tea Party and 9-12 sectors - and is not seeking a third term as party chair.