Udall-Schaffer Reps Duke It Out in Press Over Recess Vote

"U-Turn" Udall v. "Macaca" Schaffer
Face The State Staff Report

The James Carville of Colorado’s Republican Party is at it again. Dick Wadhams, spokesman for Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer, capitalized on a huge mistake by Democrat candidate Mark Udall last week. Now Udall's camp is fighting mad.

Udall, currently representing Colorado's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House, had pledged during the taping of a televised debate to keep Congress in session until an energy bill could be passed. He missed an initial vote Wednesday that would have prevented Congress from adjourning prior to the passage of such legislation. According to Udall representative Tara Trujillo, Udall was on his way from the airport to the Capitol when he learned that a vote had been called. After unsuccessfully lobbying for a delay, he missed the vote as he ran up the steps of the Capitol.

UdallFTS Staff Photo

Wadhams pounced on the misstep Thursday, sending out a press release where he coined the phrase “U-turn Udall”. Things got complicated, however, when Udall got a second chance to vote Friday as the House conducted its final vote, thus mandating that the chamber stay in session.

Wadhams remained unapologetic after the second vote, telling the Rocky Mountain News Saturday that Udall missed the vote because "He was screwing around in Colorado raising money for his campaign...He's not going to get away with it. We're going to shove a bunch of 30-second ads up his a-- on this issue over the course of the campaign. This guy was fundraising in Colorado and missing votes. That is reprehensible."

Trujillo shot back at Wadhams, attacking Schaffer for his position as an executive with a major energy producer. "What is reprehensible is when oil and gas executives like Bob Schaffer vote to give billions in tax breaks to one of the richest industries in the world, while Coloradans struggle to put gas in their cars and food on their tables," she told Bartels.

In an interview today with Face The State, Wadhams questioned the political savvy behind attempting to vilify oil companies. "Their approach is to beat up on oil companies and hope that the people like it," he said. "This type of thinking is understandable when you come from the leftist enclave of Boulder. [Udall] doesn't understand that real people want more drilling, more exploration, and they understand that we need a broad approach to energy that includes domestic oil production for a least the next decade to 20 years."

According to Wadhams, more Democrats are coming around to supporting domestic exploration. "Even Barack Obama has done an about face, saying he might support offshore drilling." When asked whether he though Udall might change his positions on energy policy, Wadhams retorted, "His problem is that if he did, his wife,[environmental lobbyist] Maggie Fox would probably kick him out of the club."

Not to be outdone, national Democrats quickly injected themselves into the debate today, with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sending out a press release titled, "Schaffer Campaign Suffers a Macaca Meltdown with Campaign Manager's Vulgar Outburst."

The release began: "Long-suffering Colorado Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer suffered another setback Saturday when his campaign manager Dick Wadhams – who earned national fame for guiding former Senator George Allen from a presidential frontrunner to a national laughingstock – suffered his own 'macaca meltdown,' [based on his comments to Bartels]."

While the DSCC has attempted to discount Schaffer's viability, recent national polls show that the contest between Udall and Schaffer now stand neck and neck. While Schaffer suffered a late Spring slump, national polls now show the difference in support for the rivals within the margin of error.

Wadhams gained national fame in 1996 when he coined the phrase “lawyer-lobbyist” to describe the charismatic Tom Strickland, the Democrat who ran against the soft-spoken Wayne Allard. The label helped Allard capture an essential seat for Republicans that year, and the label haunted Strickland once again in 2002, when in a rematch against Allard, he fell short, unable to shake the undesirable moniker.