Dick Wadhams Gets a Job!

14 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

Michigan Republicans are getting a harder sell from candidates who want the opportunity to take on Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra may be the front-runner at the moment; the Holland Republican lost his bid for the gubernatorial nomination in 2010, but his time in office has given him a solid fundraising and political base.

Before he gets a clean shot at Stabenow, Hoekstra must get through a host of other Republicans. The one who will give Hoekstra the most trouble: Former state Board of Education president Clark Durant…

In the Michigan U.S. Senate primary, Clark Durant is the hard-charging conservative versus the “establishment” Pete Hoekstra–though Hotline notes that Durant has plenty of establishment support of his own, such as friend of Wadhams Saul Anuzis.

Still, it’s a bit of a role-reversal (publicly, anyway) for former Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams to run Durant’s campaign, after declining to seek re-election for Colorado GOP chair under a cloud of accusations of meddling in primaries spanning two election cycles–muscling primary candidates around on the way to losing general elections to Democrats. Between Bob Schaffer and Jane Norton, Wadhams has overseen both sides of the primary coin recently, that is the winning and the losing. And while once he got to the general election it’s been more about losing in recent years, statistically that means he’s up for a win. Right?

All told, we do think a sharp-elbowed GOP Senate primary is exactly what Wadhams is best at, so it’s a good hire–he just wasn’t very good at admitting this while he was GOP chairman.

14 thoughts on “Dick Wadhams Gets a Job!”

RedGreen says:

September 25, 2011 at 8:12 pm

Schaffer had a primary? Others wanted to run, and then didn’t, but that’s not the same as a primary.

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1. JeffcoBlue says:
  
  September 25, 2011 at 8:21 pm
  
  To see Wayne Wolf consigned to the dustbin of history.
  
  http://coloradopols.com/showDi…
  
  I don’t think McInnis actually declared himself a candidate though so you’re right about one of Schaffer’s would be challengers. I believe they both blamed Wadhams for short circuiting their campaigns though. “I would have beat Udall” and so forth.
  
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  1. JeffcoBlue says:
    
    September 25, 2011 at 8:31 pm
    
    It looks like McInnis was officially in the 2008 Senate race for slightly less than one month. I had forgotten about that.
    
    http://coloradopols.com/showDi…
    
    to
    
    http://coloradopols.com/showDi…
    
    Love that search box.
    
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  2. RedGreen says:
    
    September 25, 2011 at 8:31 pm
    
    is a better comparison, Wadhams was on the winning side of that contentious primary. Then Wadhams could have been on both sides of the primary coin, and there was a Norton on either side too!
    
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    1. JeffcoBlue says:
      
      September 25, 2011 at 8:56 pm
      
      “It’s a Norton sandwich!” No.
      
      “You’ve got Norton coming and going!” No
      
      “Wadhams has experienced Nortons both ways!” NO
      
      It’s probably good that I don’t write the headlines around here.
      
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Ellie says:

September 25, 2011 at 9:39 pm

He has a very tight group of friends and confidants (follow the yellow brick road to US Senator Armstrong and Gov. Owens).

They generally pick their favorite candidate(s)for key offices and work to insure their success (last year it was Penry & Norton).

He was a complete and utter failure as party chair with multiple candidates. It’s not in him to stay neutral in a primary battle.

He’ll do better as a campaign strategist/manager.

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1. Ralphie says:
  
  September 25, 2011 at 10:26 pm
  
  Let’s all wish him well. As well as he did in Virginia.
  
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  1. Ellie says:
    
    September 25, 2011 at 11:56 pm
    
    n/t
    
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DavidThi808 says:

September 26, 2011 at 12:19 am

And while once he got to the general election it’s been more about losing in recent years, statistically that means he’s up for a win. Right?

Actually if someone consistently loses then odds are he’s going to lose again. If running enough was sufficient to eventually win the Harold Stassen would have been president.

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BlueCat says:

September 26, 2011 at 3:43 am

He will be sorely missed here in Colorado. And by “us” of course I mean Democrats. God speed, Dick. Your job is done here. Spread that magic touch around.

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1. Gray in Mountains says:
  
  September 26, 2011 at 5:07 pm
  
  will include a new bride
  
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  1. BlueCat says:
    
    September 26, 2011 at 6:34 pm
    
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    1. Gray in Mountains says:
      
      September 26, 2011 at 7:31 pm
      
      but the female descendant’s of the Ford family should be watchful
      
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Craig says:

September 28, 2011 at 12:11 am

They’ll be the next state after Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, Florida, Virginia and Colorado to run him out of town on a rail. How long before people figure out that this guy is a has-been who can’t run a campaign using today’s modern media and equipment. Ugh.

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