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June 25, 2007 04:04 PM UTC

Lowering of GOP 2008 Expectations Continues

  • 43 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams’ reverse psychology strategy (some call it a job-protection strategy) to purposefully talk down expectations of Republican success in 2008 rolls on, as the Denver Post’s Karen Crummy reports:

Nearly three years after losing both chambers of the legislature to the Democrats, Colorado Republicans are plotting a comeback – but not until 2010.

Divisive primaries, campaign-finance reform and the inability to financially keep pace with Democrats have seriously weakened the party’s muscle, GOP leaders say. And that can’t be fixed in time for next year’s election.

“It’s a challenge to win back either the House or Senate next year,” state GOP chairman Dick Wadhams said. “We hope to make inroads in 2008, but we’ve been on a four-year plan.”

Still, Wadhams confidently predicted that Bob Schaffer, currently the only Republican running for U.S. Senate, would win against Democrat Mark Udall, and that the eventual Republican presidential nominee will carry the state. Both Udall and the Democrats’ nominee will be “too liberal” to win Colorado, he said…

With the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver and Wadhams’ predictions for less-than- stellar state elections, some Republicans quietly have voiced concerns over whether the state party can raise the cash it needs to help state candidates and get out the vote for federal contenders. [Pols emphasis]

The issue that has particularly “re-galvanized the party,” said state Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, is the mill-levy tax plan that allows school districts to keep an extra $64 million a year by freezing property-tax rates.

Republicans are trying to portray that as a Ritter idea, even though it was originally proposed by Republicans when that party controlled the legislature before the 2004 elections….

While Wadhams is obviously trying to temper expectations, he’s also being realistic. There just aren’t enough vulnerable seats for the GOP to take over a chamber in the legislature in 2008.

Comments

43 thoughts on “Lowering of GOP 2008 Expectations Continues

  1. Down and dirty

    House GOP lawmakers will be knocking heads for a good cause in July when they hold a flag football fundraiser at Invesco Field at Mile High. The effort is aimed at regaining the majority. Democrats currently control both the House and the Senate.

    Hosting the event will be Colorado House Minority Leader Mike May and other House Republicans. Individual/family tickets are going for $1,000 and sponsorship levels run from $5,000 to $15,000. http://www.denverpos


    I remember reading a story last about this event where one american flag-lapel wearing republican represenative who didn’t know the words to the national anthem!

  2. Vote Republican – we want to take money away from your schools…

    Are these guys trying to see how many more seats they can lose? This isn’t a lower taxes issue, this is take away money schools are presently getting – it will hurt them bad.

  3. The tax freeze originated with Republicans?

    So…Republicans were FOR it before they were AGAINST it?

    Hmm…no wonder they keep losing races…

    1. If you didn’t want to touch TABOR, and you didn’t want to be responsible for declaring the state bankrupt, and you were too politically astute to go hacking and slashing at programs that really affected people, you had to do something.

      The mill levy freeze was something they could do that they could explain away as “not raising taxes” – which, of course, is exactly the opposite of what they say about it now.

  4. Being hired at a high salary and then almost immediately going into your boss and saying, “You know, I’m not going to be able to do what you hired me for for another three years.  Just letting you know…..”?

    1. I’m no fan of the Dickwad, however what he was hired to do doesn’t take place until 2012 (redistricting), and 2010 is the point where he’d better get it done or else as far as his party is concerned.

      Remember when W coined the term “the soft bigotry of low expectations?”

      Dickwad is now the poster boy.

    1. The service cuts the state is facing are huge.  tax cuts exacerbate these problems  Ignoring the budget problems is foolish.  perhaps the GOP needs a new symbol: the Ostrich.

              1. What stings, Plato, is that my four year old is more technologically sophisticated than her 20-something dad.  It’s not like I’m 60.  I should be able to do this stuff.

                1. Use <> not []. I’m not looking at your comment right now but I think that was all that was wrong.

                  But don’t bother using that stale old image of the Clintons now – all it shows is that they didn’t have access to the best stylists 25 years ago which was true of most Americans then.

                    1. I didn’t think that the code would go all blue on me without the <>.

                      Try that again…

                      It should look like this:

                      img src=”http://static.flickr

                      but with <> on either end. Right click on the link and copy the address, then paste it between the set of quotation marks.

                    1. Okay.  I’m going to try this again. I think along the lines of HL Mencken: “If at first you don’t succeed, try again.  Then stop.  No use being a damn fool about it.”

      1. Rio should have been around when Dobby first appeared. Or back when the state supreme court ruled that the immigration amendment couldn’t be on the ballot for that matter.

        1. We should start a useless flamewar diary.  Sub-threads to be, at least:

          Republican vs. Democrat
          Government good vs. government bad
          Abortion vs. anti-abortion
          Global warming vs. no climate crisis
          Evolution vs. Creation
          Pirates vs. Ninjas
          Apple vs. Microsoft
          Emacs vs. Vi (okay – that’s probably not appropriate in this forum; neither is Nikon vs. Canon…)

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