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March 26, 2011 08:02 PM UTC

So Long, Dick Wadhams

  • 50 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #2: For those of you who have never heard of newly-elected Colorado Republican Party chairman Ryan Call, from a post of ours last December:

Call in particular is probably a choice that Democrats would prefer the GOP not make, being a smart guy with a good understanding of the role of ‘independent’ groups, and the party’s place in the political landscape–meaning he’d be a better opponent to the Democrats than Wadhams.

On the other hand, Call’s role in organizing much of the ‘independent’ capacity that does exist on the Republican side would make the lines between the party and these groups even hazier if he were to become party chairman–a further vector for scandal? Let’s make sure to get an opinion on that from Secretary of State Scott Gessler right away…

—–

UPDATE: GOP attorney Ryan Call–unexpected first-ballot winner. Says Lynn Bartels, “OMG.”

—–

The election process at the GOP Central Committee meeting for a new chair to replace the outgoing Dick Wadhams has begun, and we’re monitoring the Tweets from Lynn Bartels of the Denver paper just like you:

And a bonus, Wadhams’ exit interview with Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute, freshly posted.

We’ll update when we have a winner.

Comments

50 thoughts on “So Long, Dick Wadhams

    1. Seriously though, I work with some ex-Newsers and I’ve heard stories about her that ensured I will never denigrate her reporting skills, no matter how mediocre a Twitter comedian she may be. She’s got layers. Like onions and ogres.  

        1. Frankly, I don’t read the Toast anymore, I get my political news here and my other news from BBC and Al-Jazeera English and sometimes CNN. I wouldn’t have seen them. So I could be wrong, but it strikes me that her Republican groupie Twitter feed has about as much relevance to her reporting as my Democratic not-groupie-but-big-fan feed has to the reportage that’s floatin’ somewhere around the Library of Congress’s “to-archive” list with my name on it.  

            1. Not OR. Cause I’ll admit to hitting on some Democrats once in a while on here and Twitter (on here mostly when Nancy’s around… she’s a bad influence I tell ya!) but you know I can get plenty mad at a Democrat when I want to, and I don’t even have an obligation to report accurately and in an unbiased manner. So I don’t think it’s impossible for a biased Repub to be a reporter, at all.  

      1. …in yesterday’s online column about Ken Buck was just embarrassing. And not just for her. I’m glad I’m not Ken (for a number of reasons, but that — whatever it was — written by Lynn would be the latest).

        Writing columns and tweets that just ooze all over (Tea) Partiers is high school reporting, plain and simple. So if you heard stories about Lynn to the contrary in some point in the past, then it appears Lynn has currently decided that her career depends less on reporting and more on cheerleading.

        1. Lynn writes with heart and emotion – that’s a good thing – you’re all reading way too much into what are meant to be easygoing articles

          And congrats to Ryan – back when everyone was touting Harvey, I said Harvey would lose in a landslide (which he did – thank you) – unfortunately for us Democrats, the GOP picked the right guy

          1. FORTUNATE for us Democrats that the GOP picked the right guy!

            You have to remember… we are already Democrats, so we will already have the better candidate. The question is, how do we make each Democrat be the best they can be? Few will voluntarily work harder than they need to in order to win… that means strong, smart opponents are what we WANT. They make our candidates work harder!

            Glad to hear you think Ryan was the right guy. That means he’ll push Democrats to work harder and work smarter. The best elections and best candidates in CO are always in years when both parties are working hard.

              1. GOOD RIDDANCE to bad rubbish and I hope he butts out of politics altogether!

                If there’s one thing I can’t stand in either party, it’s a lousy talent spotter.

          2. Lynn is welcome to her opinions.

            Unfortunately, someone who is strongly opinionated is subject to question as an unbiased reporter.

            If Bartels wants to be taken seriously, she needs to stop tweeting as a groupie.

            To understand where I am coming from, see Harmon, Gary.

            1. The only folks I believe should be in any way censored in their political expression are judges and other workers in the justice system. (And they are–my neighbor works for a federal judge and won’t even come to my housewarming party because there might be active Democrats there, talking loudly about Democratic things, perhaps even consuming beverages and snacks that have a well known liberal bias.)

              Seriously, this is like the tenth time this week I’ve had to defend either a Republican or someone I just plain don’t like here! This is getting on my nerves! Can someone please pick on someone I like so I can have a GOOD time arguing with you? Anybody wanna trash Perlmutter? Is Beej around? And whatever happened to that Religion of Peace guy and his racist crap? Did he finally get banned?

              Oh, wait, we still have plenty of mayoral shill accounts… they’ll do.

              1. then reported it to look like a big shot.

                Or just saw it and reported it before it became an issue. The whole time praising the fire fighters.

                He’s such a pig! #youowemenow

                1. Drive past the fire and ignore it until it spread to 1200 acres, since reporting it might look like attention seeking to some nobody on the Internet????? #righteousoutrage

                  I’ll have you know, Ed Perlmutter is a fine man and the firefighters love him because of it, and they’d pose for pictures with him any time, so it’s not like he was angling for some photo op he couldn’t otherwise get! For your information, they drove a fire truck around Arvada with his sign on it on Election Day, 2010. In a wildfire prone state, I am thankful to have an alert Congressman who understands the danger of even a small fire!

                  …AHHHHHHHHHHH that felt good. Totally owe you  one.

              2. They should be writing on the op-ed page, not the news pages.

                You don’t HAVE to defend Bartels.  You would better spend your time writing to the Post and suggesting that if she wants to have opinions, she shouldn’t be having them on the news pages.

                1. Last time I suggested that, you told me her Twitter feed was enough to render her a groupie. Now you’re just upset about her having opinions on the news pages. Well, if she’s doing so, where and when? I’ve yet to see it, but I’ll gladly stop defending her if you can prove your claim.

                    1. Can’t edit posts here, so I couldn’t fix it, but you know what I mean. I’m looking up some stuff in a non-English language in the other tab, so my grasp on English sentence construction is temporarily not at full capacity.

                      In any case, I won’t attribute the making of reasonable suggestions to you without evidence if you don’t attribute atrocious journalistic misconduct to Bartels without evidence 🙂

        2. She tends to cover his news pretty passionately. And she had it right on the one bill this year that got under my skin, and wrote about that, with, as Ali says, heart and emotion.

          It’s just her style. I welcome a good journalist who loves politics, even if she’s a Republican. You’re letting your opinion of her viewpoints color your opinion of her writing. Besides, she’s a blogger (like all of us here) as much as she is a straight reporter. Good for her for trying to keep up with where communication is going.

        3. She tends to cover his news pretty passionately. And she had it right on the one bill this year that got under my skin, and wrote about that, with, as Ali says, heart and emotion.

          It’s just her style. I welcome a good journalist who loves politics, even if she’s a Republican. You’re letting your opinion of her viewpoints color your opinion of her writing. Besides, she’s a blogger (like all of us here) as much as she is a straight reporter. Good for her for trying to keep up with where communication is going.

  1. Honestly, I don’t know anything about him. Anyone know someplace thats got a good biography?

    Also, was he elected on a secret ballot? I’d be interested in seeing where his votes came from.  

    1. From Lynn Bartels on twitter:

      “Just talked to Ted Harvey, Matt Arnold. Both surprised at their vote totals, said people who said they would vote for them didn’t.”

      Post loss spinning, or did some politics go down?

    2. and legal counsel for the state party. He is extremely well known within the party. And considering he’s the Wadhams replacement, this comes as no surprise (Wadhams got 80% of the vote in 09 after the GOP’s wonderful streak in 08)

      It is a secret ballot. There was a debated amendment to reverse that policy for vacancy committees that failed.

  2. Wadhams claims he wasn’t involved in pushing candidates in the primaries, but at the same time admits he pushed Penry. No wonder Maes supporters are furious.

    1. with themselves, for backing the worst candidate in recent Republican history. Perhaps they are embarrassed. They should be.

      And considering how many crap candidates the Colorado Republican Party has backed, that’s saying quite a lot.  

  3. Ryan Call around 160 I believe

    Ted Harvey in the 70s

    Leondray Gholston in the high 20s

    Matt Arnold in the teens

    Bart Baron 2 (that’s the only number I distinctly remember lol)

    Also John Wagner dropped out and endorsed Ytterberg since he had been deployed for the last two months and didn’t actually have time to campaign (he announced right before he was deployed)

    Perry Buck got around 140-50 while Jeremy Goodall got in the 60s for the Secretary Race.  

  4. Call ran a excellent campaign (he has a LLB and a MBA) but Harvey’s and Arnold’s po’ing of Wadhams were stupid campaigning gaffes.   Deliberately challenge a pit bull that strikes, hard?

    Then Mike Coffman nominates/endorses Ytterberg!

    Can’t take a pill for stupid

  5. Ryan has been legal counsel for the GOP for years now and has spent the last few going all over the state, advising different central committees – he’s known for returning all calls and providing free legal advice to all GOP activists

    Harvey, as I pointed out before, was one of few GOP elected officials who never reached out to me in 2008, despite the fact that I was running a great race in HD56 – many GOPers called to help, but Harvey couldn’t be bothered (this was back when I was a GOPer, of course)

    In all, for this race, I’m sure Ryan called every single voting member – but Harvey? I’m sure Harvey felt that making such calls would be ‘beneath’ him

    1. Here’s hoping Harvey is the first of many schmucks to realize they should have beat me to starting the Club, and then they might still have a guy like the above Polster intheir party.

      But I do have to wonder… how many GOP activists needed free legal advice, and on what sort of legal matters? I mean, if that’s a benefit in high enough demand to net a fella a state party chair… kind of makes me wonder about the Republicans… wonder more, I mean 🙂

        1. Wait, so you’re telling me Dan Maes had a FREE lawyer at his disposal and STILL managed to mess up his campaign financing that badly?

          (I’ll stop, I know you like him, and honestly so do I, no beef with Dan here, but really, that’s funny!)

          I got around that complexity when I “managed” a “campaign” by not accepting any donations. Nobody was offering anyway and the “campaign” was entirely intended as a complex way to get on Tancredo’s nerves anyway, which is always free of charge. Fun times.  

          1. Caught Tancredo on Aaron Harber’s TV show with Sen. Mike Johnston saying that “Irish anchor babies” in the U.S. are disadvantaged by college affirmative action programs aimed at “people of color.”

            So is Tancredo in favor of granting white anchor babies in-sate college tuition, but not brown one’s?  (His racism is so transparent.)

            Of course, Mike Johnston was quick to offer to add wording in his bill that would satisfy Tancredo’s concern in exchange for his support. Caught off guard, Tancredo put his head down and mumbled, “Maybe, we’ll see,” but later recanted.

    2. Ytterberg’s campaign for vice chair puzzled me.

      In his run for state senate in 08, his platform was ambiguous, speechs oft time segued off message, and his stategy was inconsistent.

      Campaigning for vice chair, he showed up throughout most of Colorado, clearly defined his role of vice chair, created an very  acceptable platform and (from what I heard)stayed clearly on topic. All this when his opponent(s) (Wagner) did not or could not appear.

      Throw in the phone bank and it was a very  sophisticated machine. What changed and who guided him?

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