President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Kamala Harris

(R) Donald Trump

80%↑

20%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(R) V. Archuleta

98%

2%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Marshall Dawson

95%

5%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Hurd

(D) Adam Frisch

50%

50%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(D) Trisha Calvarese

90%

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank

(D) River Gassen

80%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) John Fabbricatore

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen

(R) Sergei Matveyuk

90%

10%

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

52%↑

48%↓

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
January 23, 2012 10:58 PM UTC

Wadhams: Newt "Dealt Forcefully" With Affair Questions

  • 24 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Noted in yesterday’s Pueblo Chieftain:

“Yes, character issues are still important to voters,” said Dick Wadhams, veteran GOP campaign strategist and former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. “But this information about Newt isn’t new. Everyone knows he’s on his third marriage and they’ve already figured that into their thinking about him as a candidate.

“In my experience, voters are reluctant to give much weight to last-minute revelations [Pols emphasis] like those made this week,” Wadhams said. “From my perspective, he dealt with it forcefully in the debate and if he wins in South Carolina, he will have done so in the glare of this information.”

Fair enough, but we’ve got to wonder–how “last-minute” do the revelations need to be in order to hurt a candidate? Examples that ex-Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams will be (very) familiar with include the revelations of gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis’ alleged plagiarism. That story broke on the evening of July 13th, about three weeks before the primary McInnis lost. In retrospect, we think that proved lethal to McInnis about five seconds after the average voter heard it. It’s not really a situation where timing would have mattered, except possibly that fewer people might have heard about it had it come out later.

In that respect, Newt Gingrich’s problems with new, unsavory allegations made by his second wife might indeed have not had time to penetrate (awful pun) into common knowledge, simply because they came so late ahead of the South Carolina primary. If that’s true, the worst could be yet to come for Gingrich–particularly if his numbers are being boosted by a sympathetic, but as Herman Cain discovered, short-lived defensive reflex from hypocritical conservatives.

Because sooner or later, voters will recall Newt’s fixation with a certain President’s sex life.

Comments

24 thoughts on “Wadhams: Newt “Dealt Forcefully” With Affair Questions

  1. We froze the tape when Newt was doing his blame the media/play the victim number, and looked at audience reactions.  Men were applauding, women not so much.  CNN’s numbers also showed about a 5 percent gender gap, with member consistently voting more for newt while his marjority among women was less so.

     Likewise, CNN had a florida focus group during their speeches, victory or otherwise, divided by gender.  Again, the blue line was consistently much higher than the pink for Newt.  

      Yeah, you get a one time pass by bullying John King.  But that wears off and as time goes on, the unpopularity Newt has among women is going to hurt him.  

      1. Cain was mostly unknown to voters, and his adulterous past was completely unknown when it started to emerge. Gingrich’s affairs and caddish reputation have been part of his public persona for more than a decade.

        1. Also lied, at least that was the judgment of the voters.  I think the Gingrich situation is very different.  I don’t think this will get much play because Gingrich has already innoculated himself by years of apologies and self-loathing and “going to

          God.”  Will certainly hurt in the general election, but probably not in the Republican primaries.

          1. You say voters decided Cain lied, but Gingrich’s “situation is very different.” Do you mean by “very different” that you think Republicans, including Republican women, will think that Gingrich is not still lying when he denies the current charges? That would be, of course, hope over experience.

        2. Yeah, Cain being undefined it hurt him more.  But there is a persistent 5 point gender gap re Gingrich among REPUBLICAN women.  Some are obviously turned off by his trashy behavior.  In contrast, show me the pro-adultery bloc.  It doesn’t exist.  Plus the thought of Helmet-headed, Botox satiated, plastic surgery face Callista as first lady is gagging.  I can just see explaining to my granddaughter how a woman who was admittedly Newt’s mistress for eight years is supposed to be a role model.  

          1. Helmet-headed, Botox satiated, plastic surgery face Callista

            would make a fine First Lady, but whether Marianne’s “news” (which has been out there for years) would affect the race the same way as the revelations by Cain’s paramours. But, seriously, attacking Callista for her grooming secrets is one way to create a protective backlash around her and maybe close that gender gap.

            1. If you mean triggering a national hair spray shortage, I guess you can call it grooming secrets.  You ought to hear my wife take off on the helmut head!

      2. The direct polling I saw was that the sexual harassment stuff helped him with Republicans. His poll drop came from two things:

        1) the inevitable drop all the not-Romneys had after a couple weeks, and

        2) the fact that he gave bad answers to questions and got slightly offended by Rick Perry’s “Niggerhead” adventures.

  2. I had expected to find Pols dancing on Romney’s grave today. It’s good to see you’ve still got a realistic bone in your collective body.

    Florida is the firewall for Mitt Romney, and I believe, as Pols says, that Gingrich’s baggage simply hasn’t come home to roost yet. I am confident it will before it’s too late. Republicans with any sense understand that Gingrich cannot defeat Obama. Only Romney can do that, and we need to unify around the man who can win.

      1. What he means is that he is part of the establishment of the “Republican” party who is obligated to defend Mitt.  It also means that he is in a panic because Newt has just threatened to take these guys on.  He is also somewhat bewildered because he can’t yet see that the inmates have taken over the asylum and now control the “Republican” party and this means that he may not be receiving his talking points each day and may not be counted on to be the  “Republican” shill on this site.

        Doesn’t mean Romney may not win it in the end, but with his air of inevitability gone, makes it a whole lot less likely than it was on Friday.

      2. that is what he is being told to say . . . please stop trying to confuse the issue, or the reporting BOT with questions you know he can’t, and isn’t being paid to, answer.  

    1. being surprised by the fact that we don’t all read from the same script as your team does. No matter how often or how many times you see it, you’re always surprised.  I’d get checked for early stage dementia if I were you.

  3. I thought we had finally run DickWad out of this state and we didn’t have to talk about him anymore.  Can’t we just let him go off into retirement without dredging up every bad memory we have of him again?  Please????

    1. even hinting that the serial adulterer has only had affairs wit the women we know about is absurd.  

      It’s like suggesting tat the only time anyone has ever exceeded the speed limit was when they got tickets.

      Or the only time a money manager has been a fraud is when his name is Madoff.

      Or the only evolution that has ever occurred was that which we actually observed.

      If it mattered, I’m sure the women would come out of the woodwork wherever women attracted to Newt would come from.

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

79 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!