January 9 articles in The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News about GOP strategist Dick Wadhams' announcement that he will run for Colorado GOP chairman in March recounted his campaign experience. But both articles (the Post version appeared online January 8) failed to note that Wadhams has become notorious for using negative campaign strategies to achieve some of his notable successes. An Associated Press article by Steven K. Paulson in the Boulder Daily Camera, in the Longmont Daily Times-Call, and on KCNC CBS4's website made the same omission. Further, the articles neglected to mention that political insiders surveyed by National Journal voted Wadhams' 2006 campaign for Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) “the worst campaign in the country” in terms of effectiveness.

Collectively, the newspaper articles -- credited to “The Denver Post Staff,” Lynn Bartels, and the Associated Press, respectively -- noted that Wadhams had successfully managed races for Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO), Gov. Bill Owens (R-CO), Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), and Sen. John Thune (R-SD) before failing in Allen's re-election bid last November. However, none of the papers mentioned the tactics Wadhams used in those races.

In contrast, the weblog Colorado Confidential on January 9 posted an item reviewing what it called Wadhams' “brutal slash-and-burn tactics against political journalists” and noting a variety of national reports documenting his track record. Also, a separate online DenverPost.com article dated January 8 included one sentence noting, “Wadhams is politically brutal enough to be considered a Republican hitman and smart enough to be recently dubbed 'Rove 2.0' by Washington Monthly.”

In the September 2006 Washington Monthly article (“Rove 2.0: Dick Wadhams is the next Republican maestro of cutthroat campaigning. Can Democrats figure out how to stop him?”), Wadhams unabashedly proclaimed his inclination for negative campaigning, stating, “Going negative gets a bad rap.” The article provided examples of Wadhams' approach:

From Conrad Burns' 2000 Senate race: When Montana Republican Conrad Burns was running for reelection to the U.S. Senate and tanked in a debate with Democratic challenger Brian Schweitzer, Wadhams told an AP scribe that Schweitzer had performed like a “smart-ass thug.” Media coverage of the debate was dominated by the comment, not Burns's lackluster showing.

From John Thune's 2004 Senate race: In 2004, when Wadhams was helping Republican John Thune to unseat South Dakota Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, every weapon in the arsenal was unfurled. There were damaging storylines: Daschle was a “pathological liar,” a farm-boy turned effete Michael Moore groupie who had reliably “emboldened Saddam Hussein.” There was base-riling: At many of the state's churches, packages arrived filled with bumper stickers carrying the slogan “Vote Daschle, Vote for Sodomy.” (Wadhams was careful to distance himself personally from those deliveries -- but happy to discuss them.) And there was Wadhams as one-man campaign wrecking ball: When Daschle communications director Dan Pfeiffer tried to squeeze in a media hit after an election-related courthouse faceoff, Wadhams stood just off-camera bellowing “Bullshit! Bullshit!” like an outraged baseball fan cat-calling a major-league ump.

From George Allen's 2006 Senate race: This spring, former combat Marine, one-time Reagan Navy secretary, and first-time candidate James Webb surprised political experts by entering the Democratic Senate primary in Virginia at the last minute -- and winning. Three days later, Webb shocked Washington again by pulling within five points of the heavy-spending incumbent, Republican George Allen, despite a cash crunch that had kept Webb off the air for weeks. Legendary Virginia pundit Larry Sabato gave an ominous reading of the situation: The state's voters didn't yet know much about Webb, so the close numbers reflected “a judgment on George Allen.” Damaging headlines loomed.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the front page. The poll results had barely gone public before Allen's chief campaign strategist, Dick Wadhams, went on the offensive. Sabato was a “biased” source, Wadhams sniffed to reporters from the Newport News, Va.-based Daily Press, and The Wall Street Journal poll carried out by establishment pollster John Zogby was “a joke.” Moreover, said Wadhams, Zogby had “long ago been discredited.”

A livid Zogby took the bait. “Frankly, I have never heard of Dick Wadhams and I may never hear from him again since he obviously is delusional,” the pollster sputtered in a letter to the Virginia paper. “The race is close, and ... Wadhams is obviously not up to the task.”

Actually, thanks to Zogby's angry reaction, Wadhams had just earned his paycheck. Bloggers and political observers zeroed in on the showdown -- particularly the scorn aimed at Sabato, a Virginia institution with a reputation for nonpartisanship. (“CHARLOTTESVILLE BRAWL” screamed one headline.) Obscured by the theatrics were the implications of the poll itself: why was Allen, a one-time shoo-in for reelection and a purported leader in the 2008 presidential pack, polling miserably against an almost unknown opponent? What's more, Sabato and Zogby had now been cast, however unwillingly, into partisan roles. Forget politics as bloodsport; this was negative campaigning raised to a fine art.

A June 10, 2005, profile (“Dick Wadhams: Karl Rove's Heir Apparent”) in the online magazine Slate also cited examples bearing out Wadhams' belief in his proclamation, quoted in the article, that "[t]here's nothing wrong with going negative":

From Wayne Allard's 1996 and 2002 Senate races: When Wadhams worked for Allard in 1996 and 2002, his two-time opponent Democrat Tom Strickland was widely regarded as the smarter candidate. But Wadhams successfully cast Strickland as an untrustworthy “lawyer-lobbyist” and Allard as a likable, low-key country vet. When it turned out Strickland had made a tidy profit from the IPO of Global Crossing -- a company that figured prominently in the corporate scandals of 2002 -- Wadhams was well-positioned to pounce. Strickland was “up to his mustache in corporate scandal,” he proclaimed, and “probably the dirtiest candidate in America.”

From John Thune's 2004 Senate race: In South Dakota he honed his slash-and-burn reputation, relentlessly attacking Daschle about his Washington, D.C., home, luxury car, and lobbyist wife. At one point, Wadhams accused the former minority leader of having “emboldened Saddam Hussein.” Thune won, by a slim margin, and gratefully dubbed his campaign manager “the best pit bull out there.”

[...]

In the South Dakota race, it was Wadhams who relentlessly portrayed Daschle as a former prairie boy who had morphed into an East Coast yuppie. He “is deathly afraid someone will expose his record of saying one thing from his $3 million mansion in Washington, D.C. and saying another thing when he visits South Dakota,” Wadhams told the New York Times Magazine. Asked if he'd feel comfortable levying that line, Thune acknowledged he wouldn't. “But that's why I hired Dick,” he said.

Furthermore, while the Colorado newspaper and AP reports mentioned Allen's failed campaign, none of the articles gave a sense of how poorly Wadhams reportedly performed in that race. As CNSNews.com -- whose parent organization is the right-wing Media Research Center -- noted in an October 30, 2006, article (“Allen's Campaign Is Nation's Worst, Insiders Say”), a National Journal survey of political professionals released October 28, 2006, found that Allen was “running the worst campaign in the country”:

Sen. George Allen of Virginia is running the worst campaign in the country, political insiders said in a poll released Saturday by the National Journal.

Fifty-three percent of Republican and 66 percent of Democratic “insiders” think George Allen's campaign is the sloppiest of the 2006 season, according to the survey of 138 political experts with campaign experience, insider knowledge and ties to key voting blocs.

Allen has suffered “numerous self-inflicted wounds,” one Republican respondent said. “This onetime presidential wannabe has ushered himself off the national stage, and he will be lucky to win re-election.”

A Democratic respondent said the race “should never have been in play. But Allen's ineptness and, frankly, stupidity, as well as the campaign's inability to dig itself out of the mess the candidate makes has been a textbook case of how not to run.”

The same article noted the Allen campaign's response to the now-infamous “macaca” incident:

Allen, the former governor of Virginia, has been locked in a tight race with Democratic challenger Jim Webb, a former Navy Secretary who quit the Republican Party several years ago. After enjoying an early lead against Webb, Allen has seen his support fade to within various polls' margins of error. His slide began with charges of racism after Allen called a Webb staffer a “macaca.”

Allen on Thursday criticized some sexually graphic excerpts of Webb's novels. Webb has called the criticism a “smear.” It is not yet clear what, if any, impact Webb's fiction writing will have on his chances of unseating Allen.

As The Washington Post reported on August 15, 2006, in response to questions raised over Allen's use of the term “macaca,” Wadhams “dismissed the issue with an expletive and insisted the senator has 'nothing to apologize for.' ” In an August 19, 2006, campaign memo, Wadhams accused “the Webb campaign and the news media” of "[l]iterally putting words into Senator Allen's mouth that he did not say (by speculating, defining and attributing meanings and motives that simply are not true)."

From the article “Wadhams looks to lead GOP in state and get paid for it” in the January 9 edition of The Denver Post:

Republican political strategist Dick Wadhams announced Monday that he is running for state GOP chairman in an effort “to get things back on track.”

Wadhams, who has run successful state and federal campaigns in Colorado, Montana and South Dakota, said he was working out details with the GOP so his position would be full time and paid.

[...]

Wadhams just finished running former Virginia Sen. George Allen's failed re-election campaign. He ran successful campaigns for Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Gov. Bill Owens.

From Lynn Bartels' article, “Wadhams hopes to run state GOP,” in the January 9 edition of the Rocky Mountain News:

GOP strategist Dick Wadhams announced Monday that he plans to run for chairman of the Colorado Republican Party in March.

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Wadhams lived in South Dakota in 2004, managing John Thune's successful U.S. Senate race. Then he lived in the D.C.-Virginia area for two years while working for Sen. George Allen, R-Va. Allen lost his re-election bid in November.

Republicans in Colorado and nationwide took a thumping in 2006, but Wadhams said that's not going to happen in 2008.

“Republicans are going to win,” he predicted.

Wadhams managed U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard's successful campaigns in 1996 and 2002.

He also ran Bill Owens' campaign for governor in 1998. Owens leaves office today.

From the Associated Press article “Wadhams to run for state GOP chairman” as published in the January 9 edition of the Boulder Daily Camera:

Former Colorado campaign manager Dick Wadhams said Monday he will run for state Republican Party chairman in an effort to help the GOP rebuild after two straight election-year losses.

Wadhams ran successful GOP campaigns in Colorado, Montana and South Dakota, but last year he managed the failed campaign of Virginia Sen. George Allen, a potential presidential contender who blew a comfortable lead in the polls and lost his re-election bid.

State Republican legislative leaders said they asked Wadhams to run for the Colorado chairmanship when it comes open in March. House Minority Leader Mike May of Parker and Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany of Colorado Springs said the party needs a strong leader after losing a U.S. Senate seat, two U.S. House seats, the governor's office and control of the Legislature.

[...]

Wadhams managed successful campaigns for Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard in 1996 and 2002 and Gov. Bill Owens in 1998, when Owens became the first Republican elected governor of the state in 24 years.

In 2000, he managed Montana Sen. Conrad Burns' successful campaign and turned it into a victory.

In South Dakota, he was credited with engineering the defeat of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in 2004.

In Virginia, Allen was comfortably ahead in polls until August, when he referred to the son of Indian immigrants as “Macaca,” regarded by some as a racial slur. The incident, caught on videotape, became international news.