STARTING IN THUNE
Dick Wadhams, who in past years successfully
steered the initial campaigns of Colorado Sen. Wayne
Allard and Gov. Bill Owens, jumped on
board the South Dakota Senate campaign of former Rep. John
Thune on Monday, in what may be a pivotal race for
Republicans.
Thune, in announcing his decision to challenge the troubled
sitting Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, said
he could not take the easy way out and run for a winnable seat in
the House of Representatives, when a historic opportunity awaited
him in a Senate run that could tip the scales more solidly for
Republicans.
The former congressman is starting from scratch, which
apparently is just fine with Wadhams, who joked with South Dakota
reporters: “What do you call it when the minority leader has $3
million in the bank and a staff of 30 running against a former
congressman with no money in the bank and a staff of two people? I
call that a fair fight.”
Currently Thune’s staff consists of Wadhams and John
Wood, who worked for Allard.
Wadhams has become a thorn in the sides of Democrats, and has
built a reputation for winning tight fights, which is what the
Thune-Daschle race is expected to be. Recall that neither Allard
nor Owens was given much of a shot of victory in his initial
venture, and each pulled off a strong.
Rep. George Nethercutt, who is running for the
Senate in Washington state had wanted Wadhams for his campaign, was
disappointed to learn Wadhams had chosen Thune. A staffer on the
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee crowed about Nethercutt’s
loss, telling reporters that Wadhams had bypassed Nethercutt
because he wanted to work on a winning campaign and not a losing
one.
“I don’t know who should be more insulted, Nethercutt or
Daschle,” says a staffer on the Republican Senatorial Campaign
Committee. “But it’s good to see Thune is already running so strong
among Democrats.”
PLUGGED IN
Reporters on Monday afternoon dialed into a conference call they
thought would be with former Vermont Gov. Howie
Dean, who wanted to rail against President Bush’s “No
Child Left Behind” program.
Instead, upon being hooked in, reporters were treated to a
conference call being held by senior Dean campaign staffers.
“We gave out the time and pass code for the conference call, but
didn’t realize it would be the same line our staff would be using,
so some reporters signing on early got the inside dope,” says a
Dean staffer.
There were no bombshells, though one interesting tidbit involved
a Dean campaign phone survey from the weekend in Iowa that
indicated voters perceived Dean as “indecisive.” The Dean team
agreed that former Senator Bill Bradley’s remarks
in New Hampshire on Tuesday would be targeted toward dispelling
that notion.
Dean’s staffers cut short the conversation when another reporter
signed on and asked whether he was on the right conference
call.
MISSIONS IMPOSSIBLE
Now that Al Gore and Bill Bradley
have apparently bought into the Howie Dean vision
for America, they have received their marching orders.
Gore has scheduled trips to Iowa in the coming days, as well as
South Carolina, where Dean is attempting to buttress support and
stem momentum his staff believes both Rep. Dick
Gephardt and Sen. John Edwards are
gaining there.
Meanwhile Bradley has several New Hampshire appearances
scheduled, and will also visit Missouri (the state of his birth and
where he remains popular). “We’re also going to use him heavily in
the New York area for media appearances in the next two weeks,”
says a Dean staffer. Which makes sense, given Dollar Bill’s renown
as a former New York Knick and Princeton All-American and senator
from New Jersey.
SMOOTH LANDING
Jim Jordan, who was fired from his campaign
manager’s position by Sen. John Kerry so that the Massachusetts
Mumbler could show he had leadership skills, has landed on his
feet. While the name of his firm is not yet known, Jordan is
setting up a political policy communications shop that has already
been hired by the large, union-backed 527s operated by former
Clinton chief of staff Harold Ickes and Service
Employees International Union boss Steven
Rosenthal.
STRIP CHATTER
While it wasn’t an endorsement, Hillary Clinton
says we can thank her and her husband for Howard
Dean’s presidential run. In an interview in Las Vegas last
weekend, the New York Senator alleged that she and hubby Bill
encouraged Dean to run for president and implied they’ve been
offering him advice ever since. Again, more evidence that she’s
been mapping out her run for 2008 all along.
