January 13, 2010 08:54 PM UTC

Wadhams Hit Again With Norton Favoritism Allegations

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• by: Colorado Pols

We’ve been clear from the beginning in our belief that, despite insistence to the contrary, Colorado Republican Party chairman Dick Wadhams was intimately involved in maneuverings last fall to clear the GOP Senate primary field of potential challengers to Jane Norton.

Now, our public discussion of that belief reportedly upset Wadhams greatly–he’s repeatedly, angrily denied any involvement in the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s decision to help Norton during the primary, even invoking this blog by name with a fair amount of profanity (so we’ve heard anyway). Not to worry, we don’t take it personally–after all we’re much easier for Wadhams to single out than the conservative blogs who were saying the same thing.

But we do hope that Wadhams divvies up the cussing a little better in the future–especially after a conservative blogger connected the dots between Norton and Wadhams yesterday with better detail than we ever did. From the “Tony’s Rants” blog:

Back in August, the Republican National Senatorial Committee (RNSC) registered domain names for then-potential U.S. Senate candidate Jane Norton.  Colorado conservatives immediately raised a red flag and accused the national committee of interfering in Colorado’s choice to pick its own nominee to take on Senator Michael Bennet.

State GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams at the time seemed incensed about the moves telling the Denver Post, “I fully intend to let them know that Colorado Republicans expect to select their nominee themselves without the endorsement of outside groups.”

Now, with a bit of news that came out in recent days, one has to wonder if Wadhams was simply faking that indignation and perhaps may have reason to favor Jane Norton himself.

As reported in the Denver Post last Wednesday, Wadhams announced his engagement to Wendy Evans.  The Colorado GOP Chair proposed to her on Christmas Eve after having dated for several years.  Evans is very involved in Republican politics having run both of former U.S. Senator Wayne Allard’s campaigns and worked in the Department of Education under President George W. Bush.

This should be a happy moment but many conservatives in the state are starting to see a major problem – Evans is a senior staff member of candidate Jane Norton… [original emphasis]

“Tony” goes on to describe subtle ways he believes Wadhams is tilting the field toward Norton:

Wadhams has also said that no candidate that goes outside the caucus process will be allowed to speak at the state nominating assemblies.  Some candidates have indicated that may be the route they would take to a nomination because they may have no choice if Norton is the annointed one.  Wadhams actions effectively lock them out…

He has said he met with all of the 9.12 organizations and Tea Party group leaders and that simply is not the case.  Wadhams has continually done nothing but annoy and in some cases infuriate these groups ensuring a significant portion of Colorado conservatives remain alienated from the state GOP.

Whispers of Wadhams personally orchestrating the field of candidates are nothing new but these revelations put some bite to them…

Definitely can’t argue with that last statement: Wayne Wolf, Ryan Frazier, even Scott McInnis himself have all felt the sweaty back hand of Dick Wadhams, batting them away from his favored candidates. After Colorado rank-and-file Republicans have watched Wadhams ruthlessly manipulate primaries and starve out unwanted opponents over and over again, he has no credibility to assert he doesn’t do it. Not to mention that after managing the Senate campaigns of Wayne Allard, John Thune, George Allen, and Bob Schaffer, there is arguably no national GOP entity Wadhams is closer to than the NRSC. The idea that Wadhams didn’t know exactly what the NRSC was up to with Norton…folks, it’s ridiculous. It’s an insult to your intelligence.

Frankly, Wadhams’ demonstrable record of shutting down primaries was enough to convince us in the fall–the fact that his fiancee is a top Norton staffer? In your face, Dick says with a grin.