President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) V. Archuleta
98%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Marshall Dawson
95%
5%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
50%
50%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(D) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank
(D) River Gassen
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) John Fabbricatore
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen
(R) Sergei Matveyuk
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
70%
30%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
November 16, 2010 01:44 AM UTC
21 Comments
If he leaves, who’s going to shove 30 second ads up people’s asses?
The next chair is going to have to shove whosaidyousaid videos and angry tweets up someone’s ass.
It seems “Felix” is running again. He needs his buddy Dick to help the campaign,perhaps?
I also think he has done a fairly good job in very difficult circumstances. But I also know that politics is not a referendum on personal worth and when the quest for a scapegoat is on, one will be found.
I don’t think Wadhams can be blamed for the McInnis meltdown nor for Buck defeating the likely winner, Jane Norton, then blowing the Senate race. But I think given Dick’s overall record, if he steps down as chairman, he won’t be in the unemployment line very long. There are a lot more Ws in his record than Ls, and even Mike Shanahan got fired, only to get a new job in Washington.
So, best of luck in the future, Dick, wherever it takes you.
Reverse psychology aside, Dems know that Wadhams is good at what he does. Who would replace him? Bob F’ing Beauprez?
Wise up. Wadhams knows what he is doing, and he’ll get a better hand dealt to him eventually.
Look, I don’t know Dick from Dick, because I’m not gay (snark).
But I have a particular distaste for those who manipulate the public political discourse into the gutter and contribute to the STUPID polarization of our country, and I think DW is guilt of that.
Who WOULD replace him? Pretty much the full run of “elder statesmen” of the GOP are unpalatable to the base because of stances on Ref C, advocacy for higher ed funding, etc. There aren’t any more rock stars– the closest you could come to a Colorado GOP rock star is Tancredo who couldn’t handle the day to day administrative work, and should really be persona non grata to the rank and file for his defection.
Bad news for the pubs in that the options available seem to be benched former legislators like Penry, who are marking time until another elected office opens up, or actually Bob F’ing Beauprez
Jeff Crank and Tom Wiens say they want to know whether Wadhams is running again before they decide.
http://www.coloradopols.com/sh…
I’ve known Dick Wadhams for over 30 years and you can’t blame him for all of what has happened to the Colorado Republican Party over the past four years for many reasons.
First, the expectations surrounding his return to Colorado were enormous and overblown. Many Republicans thought “if we elect Dick” all will be well, but the reality is the state chairman has almost no power over who runs or over who is nominated. The assumption that Dick Wadhams was making the decisions about who either the local party activist supported or who the national party supported ignores reality because it assumes the person who is chairman has some kind of control over all the Republican activists from the precinct persons to the fundraisers. He never had either the power or the influence to control the party. If he did, the candidates would have been different and perhaps the results also.
Second, his hand was dealt before he ever returned to Colorado. By the time Dick returned the Colorado Republican Party was already dominated by far right radicals who were hell bent on driving the party over the cliff. He had no control over that and had to deal with the situation as it presented itself.
County chairpersons and state chairpersons are always the scapegoat whenever things go wrong no matter how little control they actually have which, based on my experience, is none.
He will and is being blamed and will suffer the consequences but the Colorado Republican Party has far more significant problems than Dick Wadhams. Whether he stays on as chairman or goes, the Colorado Republican Party remains a far right organization committed to unworkable and many times silly positions. That won’t change whether Dick is chairman or goes on to something else.
No one should underestimate his ability as a campaign manager.
…Dick Wadhams is the BEST reason for why the Colorado Republican Party is in its doldrums right now… then you clearly do not know the Colorado GOP very well at all
(I am not going to say anything further)
How often can you find a state party leader whose given name epitomizes the party that he leads? We’ll miss you if you go, Dick Wadhams.
Time to keep the discussion a little more elevated, eh?
My estimation of the GOP (and the poetic fittingness of a Dick Wadhams as its leader in the state) has nothing to do with the election season–it’s a judgment about the policies advanced by the party.
Lots of that in election season, but now the trolls are gone, so it’s time to notch the level up a bit, eh?
He could probably use a gig right about now. He would also probably appeal to the hard right of the party. Or does he have too much baggage from the primary?
After running a scorched-earth campaign on behalf of Jane “Ref C” Norton, including softening up Ken Buck with women voters (which likely made the difference in his loss to Bennet)? Yeah, the hard right will embrace Penry!
Doug Bruce. He should be at the top of everybody’s list to replace Dick.
to see Doug Bruce arrested for his misappropriating funds for his anti-tax and anarchy inducing ballot initiatives, as head of the Colorado Republican party?
I was fearful of Dick when he first appeared… I then learned to love him. Not his parties platform mind you. but Dick’s policies in placing the worst most radical easily defeat-able candidates possible on the GOP ticket. The notion that the GOP chair could be counted upon to select some idiot… made my job easy.
Vetting??? yeah let the Democrats do that…
HAHHAHAHA!
He shares some of the blame for 2010 (and sure has heck for Schaffer ’08), and should own it.
At the same time, he is serving as the scapegoat for legislative leaders who could have picked off several more seats if they did a better job at recruitment.
But the fact remains that Wadhams has seen it as his role to directly intervene in primaries, and when you set that next to the disasters that have resulted, he doesn’t have the credibility necessary to turn the CO GOP around.
I’m not saying there is anyone who can. Who can build a feasible coalition between the Owens/Norton Country Club Class and the Me So Angry UN-Reads My Mind Tea Party Class? (Class warfare is never pretty, and this one can’t be blamed on the unions.)
But after the Bob Schaffer trainwreck, Dick’s meltdown on the radio with Tancredo, his mucking around in Penry versus McInnis (and losing), mucking around in Norton versus Buck (and losing), mucking around in all those primaries, and then his willingness to destroy his own gubernatorial nominee (he could have just gone into “no comment” mode for the duration), and his post-election memo shows that Dick Wadhams long ago jumped the shark.