The Virginia Daily Press profiles two campaign mangers in the Virginia Senate race who have South Dakota connections: Dick Wadhams, of course, was Senator Thune's campaign manager during the 2004 race and Steve Jarding (who recently wrote this book) is a native of Mitchell. Excerpt:
In the Virginia U.S. Senate race, two central figures have dished out the juiciest, nastiest quotes of a campaign that has already taken voters from Mysterious Craney Island to the Land of Macaca.
Voters won't find them anywhere on the ballot.
Meet Dick Wadhams, 50, who is managing the re-election bid of Republican Sen. George Allen, and Steve Jarding, 48, a strategist for Democrat James Webb.
Although diametrically opposed, they might have more in common than either would admit. Both scored notable election wins a few years ago. Both like to mix it up.
After all, Wadhams has been described as "the best pit bull out there." Jarding writes this in a recent book he co-authored: "When someone attacks your character with a bazooka, you attack his with a nuclear weapon."
They are not the only behind-the-scenes players in this campaign by any stretch, but they've been almost as visible as the candidates themselves at times. Expect to hear more from these two, with no punches pulled, when the pace picks up after Labor Day.
Jarding is a South Dakota native who has a 16-year-old daughter and twin 14-year-old boys. He has adopted Virginia as his home state, and that makes him look at campaigns in the Old Dominion differently, he said.
"For me, this is personal," he said in a recent interview. "There are people out there whose lives are absolutely affected by people we put into office."
Wadhams got his start in Republican politics in the early 1970s when the party was in its darkest days, during the Watergate scandal. But he saw something in the GOP back then, he said. It was the party of opportunity and limited government while the Democrats, he said, depended on government intrusion.
"The two parties really do stand for something," he said. "I have many, many Democratic friends. They have a different view of the world than I do."
Check out the whole article.
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