WILL WADHAMS WALK — OR WON’T HE?Now we can dish and what’s a hotter topic than the upcoming race for Republican State Chairman? Will two-term incumbent Dick Wadhams run for reelection in March, or will he walk from the party post after a controversial term that produced mostly favorable results — but not entirely.

UPDATED JAN. 18: WADHAMS TO RUN FOR A THIRD TERM AS GOP STATE CHAIRMAN

That’s the question everyone wants answered, including supporters of former state senator Tom Wiens, who are hoping to make him the next state chairman. Of course, they insist, whether or not Wadhams runs makes no difference to them — they plan to get Wiens into the race no matter what Wadhams decides.

We’ve been hearing all different kinds of scenarios concerning Wadhams’ political plans. The latest one had to do with Wadhams going to work for Saul Anuzis in Washington had the former Michigan Republican Chairman won the chairmanship of the RNC on Friday. Wadhams supported Anuzis the last time he ran in 2009, and was also a strong supporter this year, but it was not to be. After seven ballots, Reince Priebus, the state party chairman in Wisconsin, garnered 97 votes, 12 more than were needed in the multi-candidate race to succeed embattled Chairman Michael Steele, who was also in the race but forced to drop out after a couple rounds of balloting because of dwindling support.

But Wadhams, late in the week, pooh poohed any such notion that he was headed back to D.C. “I’ve worked five times in Washington,” Wadhams said, “and I have no desire to work there.”

Priebus, by the way, is going to be a fine national chairman, Wadhams says. “I know him very well and I’m perfectly happy.”

So, what will Wadhams do? We’ll know by Wednesday, he promised. Try as we might, we couldn’t get him to drop a hint about his plans. But stay tuned, we’ll all know soon.

NEW TEAM PLANS TO REPLACE CHAIR OF COLORADO GOPJohn Wagner, former campaign director for Senate hopeful Cleve Tidwell, and Jeremy Goodall, a self-described political operative based in Colorado Springs and also formerly of Tidwell’s campaign, have announced that they are seeking to replace Dick Wadhams’ team at the top of the GOP party.

‘’We are running on a platform to return the respect of candidates on the GOP ticket,’’ said Wagner, who is the one eyeing the chairman’s post. He added, “2010 was the year for the GOP. Most of those races were ours to lose — unfortunately; we did where we should not have. We want to bring the Colorado GOP into the 21st century, and maintain the momentum we began in 2010 to ALL races across Colorado.’’

Wagner, who says he’s a decorated Iraq veteran and entrepreneur, feels that much more can be done to bring the newer conservative groups along as well.

“We are an inclusive party — we are an American party. We want to uphold and enhance the capability of all candidates that run for office under the GOP ticket in Colorado. We want to advance and help find more and better candidates, and help them starting at the local, county level. We need to grow this capability better. We feel the the current leadership has not understood how politics has changed since 2008,’’ said Goodall.

The two are running on the platform of “Elect Respect in 2011.”

PENRY COMES TO WADHAMS’ DEFENSEWith some of the controversy about GOP?State Chairman Dick Wadhams’ tenure centered on the imploding governor’s race — first with charges that frontrunner Scott McInnis plagiarized a series of water articles, then with standard bearer Dan Maes’ major lies and other gaffes — some GOP critics think the debacle actually began when state Sen. Josh Penry unexpectedly dropped out of the race shortly after he got in it.

Had Penry stayed in the race, many people theorize, the governorship could have gone the way of the Republicans in 2010. Wadhams and other party higher-ups have been blamed in some circles for forcing Penry out.

But in an interview with Penry last month, the Grand Junction Republican dispelled the idea that he had somehow been pushed out of the race. In fact, Penry explained, Wadhams “encouraged me to be methodical and make sure I thought it was the right choice because he thought I had an excellent chance of winning the nomination,” Penry said. “He wanted to make sure that (leaving the race) wasn’t something I would regret.

“This notion, this urban legend that (Wadhams) pushed or nudged me, is so unfair to Dick,” he said.

And one more thing, Penry added. “I hate to break the news to Pat Waak and the cottage industry of Wadhams ankle biters, but Colorado Republicans did send two incumbent Democratic congressmen to early retirement, and grab control of the state House of Representatives. It wasn’t a grand slam home run, to be sure, but it was a stand up triple. As Ronald Reagan once said, ‘all in all, not bad, not bad at all.’

“If they’re being intellectually honest, the people who want to give Dick all the blame for the ones that got away should also tip their hat to him for these three enormous victories on his watch as state chair,” Penry said.

BACA MAKES IT OFFICIAL IN BID FOR DEM STATE CHAIRAs mentioned in last week’s issue, former state Sen. Polly Baca is running for Democratic State Chair and earlier in the week officially announced for the post. Three term incumbent Chair Pat Waak decided late last month not to seek a fourth term when elections are held the beginning of March.

Baca is well entrenched in party politics. She has filled a number of roles within the Democratic Party, from precinct committee woman to Vice-Chair of the Democratic National Committee. She has worked on a number of local and national campaigns over the years, including those of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and most recently on Andrew Romanoff’s campaign for the U.S. Senate, where she fought the White House’s involvement on behalf of Michael Bennet in the primary contest.

Baca said she plans to prioritize voter registration and outreach, volunteer recruitment programming, and expand the party’s base of small donors.

Also in the running are former Larimer County Democratic Chair Adam Bowen and longtime legislative aide Rick Palacio.

PEACE IN POLITICSAs long as we’re on the subject of Dem state chairs and the retiring Ms. Waak, we’ll fill you in on some of her plans. Waaks hinted to us in an InnerView after the November election that she might want to devote some time writing about the legacy of the Peace Corps and its 50th anniversary this year, and more specifically about her days serving as a volunteer in Brazil (as well as other Coloradans who have been associated with the do-good governmental organization over the years.)

As Pat explained in an email this week, she has been interviewing various Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) and there are some very distinguished ones from Colorado. Supreme Court Justice Greg Hobbs, for instance, is a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Latin America. You’ll recognize the names of some others too:

Former First Lady Jeannie Ritter was a volunteer in Tunisia; Stuart Conway, the International Director of Trees, Water & People, is a RPCV and recent recipient of the Shriver Award. Local RPCVs are involved in an innovative project for Guatemala; Judge Dan Taubman was a volunteer in Peru; Senator Mark Udall’s mother was a volunteer to Nepal; Colorado College President Dick Celeste was a director of the Peace Corps and has his own wonderful stories; local businesswoman Juana Bordas, was a volunteer to Chile; Sharon Hwang, who runs a wellness clinic and is the recent organizer of the new progressive women’s group in Denver, was a volunteer to Nepal.

A pretty heady group, and those are only some of the distinguished people from the area who have been volunteers.

To honor the past 50 years of the Peace Corps and to celebrate its future, the RPCVs are holding a special weekend of activities March 4-6. On Friday night there will be dinners at a variety of local ethnic restaurants and the screening of “Shriver: An American Idealist” at the Denver Film Society’s Colfax Film Center.

The following day will feature panel discussions on the Peace Corps and politics, how the Peace Corps changed the lives of volunteers, plus the future of the Peace Corps, among other topics. And that evening is the Celebrating the Journey Gala, and musical guests will be Brazilian Samba/Bossa Nova/Villa Lobos band led by Thais Nicolau, and the Lamont Steel Drum Ensemble.

On Sunday, there will be meditations on peace with a non-denominational service at DU, followed by a brunch.

More details in the coming weeks…

COLORADO DEMS’ JJ DINNER ALSO TO BE HELD ON MARCH 5Outgoing Democratic State Chair Pat Waak sure will be busy that first weekend in March as you can see from the item about all the Peace Corps activities scheduled in Denver. It also happens to be the big weekend for Colorado Dems whose annual Jefferson Jackson Day Dinner falls on Saturday, March 5. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick will be the keynote speaker.

Governor Patrick was re-elected to a second term in 2010. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School. He served under President Clinton as an Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. He is the first African-American governor in Massachusetts history and the first African American to ever be elected to a second term as Governor in United States history.

The dinner is at the Colorado Convention Center and tickets can be obtained by going to the party website, www.coloradodems.org

BEG PARDON #1Before we plunge into Gossip we have a slight clarification to make. In our recent story on the election of Jean White to Senate District 8, we noted that some people had complained that the vacancy call did not go out until Dec. 28. However, Phil Vaughan, chair of the vacancy committee, sent the call out on Dec. 21.

We noted in our story that White and fellow Republican Bob McConnell had filed as candidates on the 23rd, which would indicate the call went out well before the 28th.

BEG PARDON #2A second item also needs some explaining… chalk this one up to the editor’s exhaustion at press time last week, but nevermind the excuses, we got the i.d. of a former state official wrong and we missed correcting it by just a few minutes before the paper hit the presses.

We were also duly alerted to said mistake by local historian and PR whiz Eric Sondermann, who probably has more knowledge of Colorado politics than just about anyone. If I ever appear on a trivia bowl and the topic is politics of the past, Eric would be who I’d want as my game partner. Anyway, here’s the note from Sondermann which will set the record straight…

“Per your ‘Those were the Days’ feature in your most recent edition: I might have been the youngster of the Lamm administration, but I remember who held what job. And while your pic is indeed that of Dick Lamm and Sam Brown, Sam was not the Lt. Governor. That position was held for Lamm’s first term by former State Senator George Brown. Sam Brown, who came out of the anti-Vietnam War movement, was elected in that watershed year of 1974 as State Treasurer, a post in which he served until 1977 when left to become Jimmy Carter’s first director of ACTION (umbrella agency for Peace Corps, Vista, etc.). Upon his resignation as State Treasurer, that post was filled by the appointment of Roy Romer. (Whatever became of him?)”

So thanks Eric, and sorry to our readers for getting the first name wrong…