January 18, 2011 11:42 PM UTC

Wadhams Rides Again?

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Colorado Statesman’s Ernest Luning reports:

“I want to serve as state chairman during the 2012 election cycle because of the extraordinary opportunities Colorado Republicans have to dramatically impact our state and nation,” Wadhams said in a lengthy e-mail to state Republicans.

Republicans will pick a party chair in March, but lingering discontent among party faithful could make a bid for another two-year term difficult for Wadhams, who cruised to re-election two years ago with 85 percent of the vote against two little-known challengers…

The only announced candidates opposing Wadhams so far are John Wagner, who ran the hapless campaign of Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Cleve Tidwell, and recent Colorado transplant Bart Baron, who ran for Congress in Michigan. But conservatives and Tea Party supporters have promised to field a challenger up to the task of knocking down Wadhams, a fixture in state politics for decades.

There is Tom Wiens, Luning continues, and late last month there was some talk of Denver GOP attorney Ryan Call taking a shot at the well-paid position. We haven’t heard about any more about Call one way or the other, but we still think he would make a formidable chairman of the state Republican party–certainly more so than Wadhams, who, as we’ve discussed in this space repeatedly, could be the most underperforming (relative to the opportunity) and divisive chairman of the Colorado Republican Party who has ever held the job. The numbers speak for themselves, as we wrote after the November election:

The Chair of the State Republican Party will complete his fourth year in the position in early 2011. Here’s how Republicans have fared during his watch:

Governor: 0-for-1

U.S. Senate: 0-for-2

Congressional Races: 6-for-14 (CD5 & CD6 twice, CD3 and CD4 once)

Treasurer, Attorney General, Secretary of State: 3-for-3

State Senate Control: 0-for-2

State House Control: 1-for-2 (by a one-vote margin)

Those numbers are all the more interesting given the historic Republican advantage that GOP candidates enjoyed in 2010. All things being equal, Wadhams record isn’t very good; when you consider that Republicans had a very real natural advantage in 2010, that record looks even worse.

On the other hand, it’s just as likely that for all his flaws, Wadhams has the whole thing sewn up backroom-style, and that’s why he’s willing to announce his intention to “run” to begin with. Wadhams hasn’t forecast well in Colorado of late, but we find it hard to believe that he’d run for re-election without having a pretty good idea of the outcome.