With Republican leaders across the country worried that John McCain's presidential chances are slipping, Colorado GOP Chair Dick Wadhams has urged McCain to highlight Democratic nominee Barack Obama's ties to controversial figures Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, the New York Times is reporting.

Wadhams told the Times that he was surprised McCain didn't mention either name during last week's presidential debate.

"I actually do think he should raise as an issue Senator Obama's association with Ayers and Reverend Wright," he told the Times. "I think those are legitimate insights into who Senator Obama is. I do not think it is irrelevant to this election."

Wright, Obama's former pastor, received national attention this spring for, among other things, saying "God damn America" and claiming the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks because of its own "terrorism."

Obama also has had a passing connection with Ayers, a founder of the radical-left terrorist group The Weathermen that conducting several bombings in the 1960s and 1970s.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has invoked Ayers' name frequently in recent speeches, and McCain's campaign press aides have sent out numerous releases about Obama's connection with Ayers. But McCain himself has been reluctant to directly link Obama to Ayers in public.

Many Republicans agree with McCain's discretion - including New Hampshire Republican Party Chair Fergus Cullen.

"I don't think he should be giving into elements of the base who have been asking him to be going after, using Wright, using Ayres," Mr. Cullen said to the Times. "Think about it as an undecided persuadable voter."