dick wadhams

Republican and Democratic strategists still trying to understand Trump’s victory

Jan 30, 2017

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Peter Marcus

Two top Colorado political strategists – one a Republican, the other a Democrat – agree on at least one thing: that the recent election in which Donald Trump won left them in shock. “It was a very strange campaign. I don’t know that the campaign put us in a place where hope was something that survived,” said…
YESTERYEAR: Supreme Court affirms Legislature’s gambling acts, Wadham’s wins GOP by acclamation

Jan 5, 2017

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Rachael Wright, Special to Colorado Politics

Twenty Years Ago This Week in The Colorado Statesman … The Colorado Supreme Court had been mulling over the Legislature’s gambling restrictions on elected officials, passed six years earlier, and they had reached their conclusion. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, declared constitutional a law prohibiting elected, municipal officials of Central City, Black Hawk and Cripple Creek as…
Mail ballots credited for Colorado’s top spot in national voter turnout

Dec 1, 2016

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Mike McKibbin

Colorado voters turned out at higher rates than all but two other states in the Nov. 8 general election, with most credit given to mail-in ballots. The 2016 general election was the first presidential election year with mail-in ballots used across Colorado, which had more than 71 percent of voters mark and return their ballots.…
YESTERYEAR: Hart, Strickland discuss terrorism in wake of 9/11 attacks

Oct 20, 2016

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Ernest Luning

Fifteen Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … Former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart and Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Tom Strickland discussed the changing face of terrorism at a forum sponsored by the Colorado Young Democrats on the Auraria campus. “The events of Sept. 11, in my judgment, completely blurred the line between war…
Hickenlooper faces repeat of 2013 as Soros, Steyer pour cash into Democratic legislative races

Oct 10, 2016

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Valerie Richardson

If progressive mega-donors George Soros and Tom Steyer really wanted to help Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, they might consider funneling a few bucks to legislative Republicans. Instead, the big-spending liberals are sinking hundreds of thousands of dollars into flipping control of the state Legislature to Democrats, targeting the three most competitive state Senate races in an attempt to…
Talking GOP politics in a smoke-filled bar: Inside the 4th Annual Senate Majority Fund Reception

Oct 6, 2016

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Mike McKibbin

A smoky haze filled the air inside Churchill’s Restaurant & Bar in downtown Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel, which may have signified the outlook by Republicans gathered about a month before the general election. This certainly was not the first time Colorado politicos have converged on Churchill’s to fundraise, strategize or otherwise just chat – nor…
Glenn rejects ‘pivoting toward center’ as he moves past GOP Senate primary

Jul 15, 2016

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Ernest Luning

In an unpredictable political year and on the heels of his upset win in last month’s primary, Republican Darryl Glenn is counting on the same mix of straight talk and shoe leather that propelled him from underdog status to U.S. Senate nominee to help him topple Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. It’ll be a tough…
BARTELS: Howard Gelt was the go-to guy, the unsung force – 1943-2016

Jul 11, 2016

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LYNN BARTELS Special to Colorado Politics

Howard Gelt, the kid who got kicked out of military school and continued a rebellious streak for years, left his mark on Colorado in a number of ways, from politics to transportation to the arts. A pioneer for women’s rights, he helped found the Colorado NARAL chapter. At 6-foot-5, he appeared like a giant when…
BARTELS: Former Sen. Bill Armstrong: The guy who went from saying “no” to saying “maybe”

Jul 6, 2016

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LYNN BARTELS Special to Colorado Politics

As Congress was fighting the debt ceiling in 2013, Dick Wadhams, Colorado’s political historian, passed on a New York Times story he knew I would enjoy: a 1983 feature on U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong and his brand of conservatism. “In one sense the Senator is a missionary, preaching the gospel of fiscal rectitude to…
Bill Armstrong: ‘He will be remembered’

Jul 6, 2016

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Ernest Luning

On Friday night, thousands who were gathered at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver paused for a few moments to share a tribute to Bill Armstrong, the father of the modern Republican Party in Colorado, whose civic work across six decades has inspired multitudes and established Armstrong as a role model for the modern conservative.…