wayne allard

Nearly a dozen Republicans pack primary to replace Colorado’s Ken Buck | COVER STORY

Feb 20, 2024

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Ernest Luning

With just weeks until precinct caucuses and less than a month to go before nominating petitions are due, it’s crunch time in the Republican primary for Colorado’s safest GOP-held congressional seat. At last count, 11 candidates are vying for the chance to replace Republican Ken Buck, the former state GOP chairman who said in early…
TRAIL MIX | Prognosticators from across political spectrum weigh in on 2022 election in Colorado

Dec 17, 2021

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Ernest Luning

Heading into the 2022 election year, it’s important to keep in mind a couple of indisputable political realities: Colorado tends to really like its governors, and Democrat Michael Bennet is one of the luckiest politicians on the planet. Those were among the nuggets dispensed by a tripartisan trio of veteran strategists who convened for a…
Q&A with Sandra Hagen Solin | A Capitol insider talks transportation, #MeToo

Jun 25, 2018

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DAN NJEGOMIR Colorado Politics

Sandra Hagen Solin is among those lobbyists who are pretty much at the top of their game at the Capitol and beyond – having recently brought the 25-year-old firm she founded and owns, Capitol Solutions, under the umbrella of the national law firm Kutak Rock to head up and build its government-relations practice. “I have the…
Q&A with Dick Wadhams | The political grand master channels Walt Klein: ‘Voters have to like you before they’ll listen to you’

Mar 26, 2018

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DAN NJEGOMIR Colorado Politics

For once, Dick Wadhams had a wound that wasn’t inflicted by his adversaries. The legendary Republican political strategist, two-time Colorado GOP state chair, decades-long veteran of campaign combat and, when needed, bare-knuckled brawler was taking his usual walk along a lake near his house the other day when he slipped on some ice. He fell…
Trail Mix: The road to Colorado’s 2018 election, Feb. 18 edition

Feb 18, 2018

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Ernest Luning

THEY GRABBED A CLIPBOARD … It looks like a lot of Coloradans took the advice of a certain soon-to-be-former president. In his farewell address, delivered just over a week before leaving office, President Barack Obama said an oft-quoted line – “If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run…
Doug Benevento appointed Region 8 administrator for Environmental Protection Agency

Oct 5, 2017

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Ernest Luning

President Donald Trump appointed Doug Benevento as Environment Protection Agency administrator for Region 8, which includes Colorado and five other western states. The former chief of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is currently an executive at Xcel Energy and was an elected member of the Douglas County School Board until he resigned that…
Primary opponent, GOP strategist warn past clients could haunt Democrat Jason Crow

Aug 7, 2017

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Ernest Luning

Will voters care if Democratic congressional candidate Jason Crow represented some unsavory characters early in his career as an attorney? It’s a serious vulnerability, says one of his primary opponents, and a veteran Republican strategist who won two statewide races in Colorado thanks to similar attacks on another Democrat agrees. Crow’s campaign team, however, says…
YESTERYEAR: Nicholson draws fire from pro-lifers

May 18, 2017

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Rachael Wright

Twenty Years Ago this Week in The Colorado Statesman … Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson came under fire by an unlikely group of pro-life Republicans who compared his actions to those of Adolf Hitler. Nicholson, who considered himself pro-life, came under attack in early May 1997 by the American Constitution Party, the Colorado affiliate of the…
Political veteran Dick Wadhams outlines ‘redprint’ for Republican victory in Colorado elections

Apr 6, 2017

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Ernest Luning

Dick Wadhams, who chaired the state Republican Party for two terms and had a hand in electing the statewide officials who set the tone for the Colorado GOP across three decades, has a message for the party: Republicans have never had it easy in Colorado. “This has always been a competitive state; this has never…
YESTERYEAR: Colorado represented in national party leadership, albeit controversially

Jan 19, 2017

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Rachael Wright

Different times, they were, but so much the same … Twenty Years Ago This Week in the Colorado Statesman … Coloradans were in a proud position. The state’s very own were to head both of the nation’s major political parties. Gov. Roy Romer acknowledged that his new post as general chairman of the Democratic National Committee –…