Dick Wadhams Asked To Head Colorado GOP

Political whiz and effective campaigner Dick Wadhams has been asked to rebuild Colorado's floundering state GOP:

Colorado Republican Party leaders have asked Dick Wadhams, who helped engineer the defeat of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota, to return to Colorado to run for state party chairman in March, The Associated Press has learned.

Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany said today he began recruiting Wadhams shortly after the November election, when Republicans lost control of the governorship, giving Democrats control of that office and both houses of the Legislature for the first time since the 1960s.

"I've been recruiting him as hard as I can," McElhany said.

Wadhams managed Wayne Allard's successful 1996 and 2002 senatorial campaigns in Colorado and was campaign manager for Bill Owens, who in 1998 became the first Republican to win the state's governorship in 24 years.

McElhany said it hasn't been determined whether the party's central committee would ask the current party chairman, Bob Martinez, to step down, saying "that's all up in the air." Wadhams would still have to run for the post at the state party central meeting in March.

Wadhams said he will return to Colorado after he closes down the Burns campaign office, and he would only say that he is considering several offers.

"I don't know what I'm going to do yet," Wadhams said.