While attacking Dems for "rotten" politics, Chieftain columnist omitted Wadhams' history of negative campaigning

Summary: Tom McAvoy of The Pueblo Chieftain in a March 1 column praised Colorado Republican Party chairman Dick Wadhams for taking on "power brokers" in the Democratic Party and suggested that the Democrats engaged in "rotten" politics. But McAvoy failed to mention Wadhams' documented history of negative campaigning. Additionally, McAvoy wrote that Wadhams is taking "a more personal interest in [Bob] Schaffer's campaign for the Senate" -- but media reports indicate that Wadhams has taken an active role, even becoming Schaffer's "de facto campaign manager," according to one account.

In a March 1 column praising Colorado Republican Party chairman Dick Wadhams for "taking on" Democratic "power brokers" who engage in what he suggested was "rotten" politics, Tom McAvoy of The Pueblo Chieftain omitted Wadhams' history of negative campaigning. Further, McAvoy stated that Wadhams is "taking perhaps a more personal interest in [Bob] Schaffer's campaign for the Senate," but failed to mention widespread reporting that Wadhams plays a significant role in the campaign, and by one account appears to be "the de facto campaign manager."

McAvoy, who is the Chieftain's editorial research director, also declared that a group of wealthy Democratic donors, whom he dubbed the "Gang of Four" -- Pat Stryker, Tim Gill, Jared Polis, and Rutt Bridges -- "flew under the radar screen of the Republican Party in the past" and that they "will not go unnoticed or unchallenged by Wadhams." In fact, as the Rocky Mountain News reported in a September 5, 2006, article about "527" political committees, following the group's successful support of Democratic candidates in 2004, "every GOP operative in the state knows who they are."

As the News further reported, "In response to the four millionaires, Republicans set up their own 527, the Trailhead Group." As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Trailhead's founders included Republican former Gov. Bill Owens, oil multimillionaire and former Colorado Republican Party chairman Bruce Benson, and multimillionaire and former Republican U.S. Senate candidate Pete Coors of the Coors Brewing Company family. In 2006 Trailhead targeted state Democrats with attack ads criticized for using misleading or distorted claims.

(Colorado Media Matters' funders include organizations backed by Gill and Stryker.)

McAvoy referenced a February 29 Denver Post article reporting that Wadhams and state Republicans "are vowing 'extraordinary scrutiny' " of Democratic donors Stryker and Gill. The Post further reported that "the threat that Republicans plan to attack left-wing donors directly ... may be an effort to raise the pain threshold for Stryker and others as they consider whether to pour millions into key campaigns through independent expenditure groups."

From Tom McAvoy's March 1 column in The Pueblo Chieftain, "GOP's Dick Wadhams taking on Democratic power brokers":

According to a Denver Post report Friday, Wadhams is taking on two of the Democrats' biggest power brokers, Fort Collins billionaire Pat Stryker and multimillionaire Tim Gill, whose money contributed heavily to the Democratic takeover in Colorado.

These donors, Wadhams said, aren't "going to get away with hiding in the shadows in this election."

He referred, of course, to the stealth used in 2004 to funnel "Gang of Four" money into Democratic campaigns long before anyone on the outside knew it came from Stryker, Gill and fellow millionaires Jared Polis and Rutt Bridges.

This year, Polis is devoting a chunk of his dot.com fortune to his own campaign for Congress in Boulder, while Bridges seems to have retired to the political sidelines after making a big splash in the first half of this decade.

But Stryker, heiress to a medical products fortune, and Gill, the software entrepreneur and gay rights advocate, are still in the game.

There's a leaked memo, addressed to Stryker's political adviser Al Yates, proposing a $7.8 million "foot on the throat" ad campaign against U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer and U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, both Republicans running in Colorado this year.

Yes, that Al Yates. He's the former Colorado State University president respected for academic erudition but now publicly tied to the seedy realm of "foot on the throat" politics. If not dirty, it smells of something rotten.

The Gang of Four flew under the radar screen of the Republican Party in the past. What's left of the gang, however, will not go unnoticed or unchallenged by Wadhams.

As party chairman, Wadhams certainly will do his part for Rep. Musgrave's re-election in Colorado's 4th Congressional District. He's taking perhaps a more personal interest in Schaffer's campaign for the Senate.

For one thing, his late wife, Susan Wadhams, served as Schaffer's congressional chief of staff from 1996-99 during the time Schaffer represented the 4th District. Not only that, Wadhams cut his political teeth on the staff of former U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong, long known as Mr. Colorado Republican. Armstrong is a major supporter of Schaffer's Senate run.

Republicans cannot find a more battle-tested warrior to meet "throat to the neck" tactics head-on. If the Democrats want a fight, Wadhams will give them one.

McAvoy's description of Wadhams as "battle-tested warrior" failed to point out that "Wadhams is politically brutal enough to be considered a Republican hitman," as the Post reported in January 2007. As Colorado Media Matters has noted, in a September 2006 profile of Wadhams, The Washington Monthly provided a litany of examples in which Wadhams has "taken ... low blows to new heights, combining blistering verbal assaults, nasty wedge issues, and general loud-mouthing in an astonishingly effective manner," further noting that "Wadhams's most effective innovations involved media manipulation."

Moreover, in characterizing Yates as being tied to "the seedy realm of 'foot on the throat' politics," McAvoy echoed an attack that Wadhams has made, as Colorado Media Matters also has noted. A January 29 News article that reported Wadhams describing the memo addressed to Yates as "character assassination" also noted the observation from Democrats "that Schaffer has served as a board member for various Republican 527s, political groups named for a section of the tax code that regulates them. Such groups typically engage in negative campaigning." Similarly, the Post article to which McAvoy referred also noted that "Schaffer is closely linked with -- and has benefited from -- exactly the kinds of groups Wadhams is attacking":

But Wadhams' comments could end up creating difficulties for the party and its candidates later. Republican-oriented independent groups are also expected to pour millions into Colorado races in 2008, and Schaffer is closely linked with -- and has benefited from -- exactly the kinds of groups Wadhams is attacking.

During Schaffer's cash-strapped 2004 primary campaign, many of the TV ads attacking his opponent were paid for by a so-called "527" independent advocacy group run by Bill Armstrong, a longtime Schaffer ally.

Schaffer himself was listed as the secretary/treasurer of a 527 advocacy group called Coloradans for Change that targeted Democrat state candidates in 2006.

In addition, widespread media accounts have reported that Wadhams' has taken more than a "personal interest in Schaffer's campaign" for U.S. Senate. According to a February 22 Post article, "Republican Bob Schaffer's senatorial campaign is hiring a trigger man: Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams." The article continued:

Although Wadhams will remain party chairman, he will also advise Schaffer on things such as his campaign strategy and his message.

"I can do anything I want," said Wadhams, noting that there are no rules barring a dual role. "This is a marquee race and a lot is riding on it. There should always have been a presumption that I would be involved."

Wadhams is expected to be paid for his work on the Schaffer campaign.

[...]

Wadhams, considered politically shrewd and brutal, has been a top adviser on a number of high-profile campaigns.

Similarly, the News reported on February 22 that "Republican Party state chairman Dick Wadhams said Thursday he has been 'advising' Bob Schaffer's U.S. Senate campaign for months, but Democrats charge that Wadhams actually is running the show." The article quoted Jennifer Duffy, editor of The Cook Political Report, as saying, "It would seem Dick Wadhams is the de facto campaign manager" for Schaffer.

—E.B.