November 23, 2008 03:46 PM UTC

Dick Wadhams Prepares For Glorious Victory

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Not exactly the victory he took the job to produce, of course–or is it? As the Colorado Statesman entertainingly reports:

Dick Wadhams is good at attracting publicity, but speculation that he would hold a press conference to announce his bid for re-election as chairman of the Colorado Republican Party turned out to be a bit exaggerated.

“I’m not doing anything that grandiose,” Wadhams said with a laugh, clearly enjoying the prospect.

Instead, his re-election bid will be delivered in a letter to more than 700 members of the state’s Republican Party Central Committee, the group that elected him in 2007. He’s asking them to review the strides made under his leadership and consider giving him another two years. The committee will elect the party chair in March.

“We have money in the bank!” exclaimed Wadhams. “I’ll be able to do much more in 2009 to help the party and our candidates.”

Which is a damn good thing, since

In the dust storm after the Nov. 4 election, several names were swirling as potential replacements for Wadhams as GOP chair.

In addition to [Mike] Hesse, the list included Republican National Committeeman Mark Hillman; former U.S. Senators Bill Armstrong and Hank Brown; Denver County GOP Chair Mary Smith; El Paso County GOP Chair Greg Garcia; Sean Duffy, former deputy communications director for Gov. Bill Owens; and Tom Minnery, a Focus on the Family executive and former El Paso County GOP vice chair.

Hesse, Smith, Garcia and Duffy have said they won’t challenge Wadhams…

Notice how several names on that list apparently haven’t commented? We did.

Returning to the matter of the party’s fundraising sustainability, it’s reassuring to note that some things haven’t changed at all since the election. Dick Wadhams, for example, still thinks you’re stupid:

When reminded of recent reports on an online political site saying the party’s debt had been paid by the California Republican Party, Wadhams declared, “That’s absolute bullshit!”

He said the Republican National Committee had deposited funds from California into the Colorado GOP’s “victory” account, but the money was transferred to other state parties.

“We didn’t keep a dime of that money,” said Wadhams. “It wasn’t even ours. It belonged to the RNC.”

Yeah, $2 million to cover expenses in the critical last two weeks of the election didn’t help him squirrel away the $580,000 he needed to pay off the party’s debts a bit. “Absolute bullshit” is right–we have more than one bank account too, Dick.

And as for the likelihood that the GOP will be back in the red again before you can say “$165,000 salary,” just as we predicted?

Raising money for the 2010 election cycle will continue to be a challenge for Republicans admitted Wadhams, who complained that the Democrats had developed a slick network of committees funded by heavy hitters.

Translation: (most) challengers muscled out of the way, the lowering of expectations from Wadhams is free to begin. But as erstwhile opponent for the job Mike Hesse ends the Statesman’s report, a signal that all is not yet Kumbaya and slumber parties:

“There’s a real hunger to do things differently,” said Hesse. “It’s a question of Dick’s vision for the future.

“We’ve got until March.”

A poll follows.

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