June 18, 2007 06:32 PM UTC

Wadhams: GOP Will NOT Regain Majority in 2008

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• by: Colorado Pols

The second half of the Grand Junction Sentinel’s weekend political coverage:

Republicans are unlikely to seize control of either house of the Legislature next year, but could get one house back in 2010, the new chairman of the Colorado Republican Party said…

Wadhams shepherded Republicans Wayne Allard to the U.S. Senate and Bill Owens to the governorship and ousted Democrat Tom Daschle of South Dakota from the Senate, only to see his most recent client, Virginia Sen. George Allen, crash last year to Democrat James Webb.

Republicans can make gains in certain Colorado legislative districts, he said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Sentinel, but can’t wrest back control in 2008…

Far down the political road, Wadhams pointed to state Sen. Josh Penry of Fruita and state Reps. Steve King of Grand Junction, Cory Gardner of Yuma, Rob Witwer of Evergreen and Frank McNulty of Highlands Ranch as providing the party with an eventual advantage over Democrats.

Update: we’ve spent the last couple of hours running through all the various theories why Colorado GOP uber-strategist and chairman Dick Wadhams would publicly concede defeat to the Democrats sixteen months before the election, and…nope. Sorry. Wadhams stepped on his Dick, folks.

Rationalize it as you like, this has absolutely no upshot in terms of energizing the Republican base, where additional bad news is of no help. It won’t make the Democrats complacent, not in a Senate and presidential election year. And it won’t help Wadhams save face pre-emptively. No matter how bad internal polls may look, or whatever it is Wadhams is basing this statement on, he should never have told the press that the game, at least for 2008, is already over.

If this is the kind of strategy he’s getting $160,000 a year to put together, the GOP needs to find a better way to spend that money real fast. Maybe on somebody who believes they can, you know, win an election.