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Sunday, July 25, 2010
031 - Upbeat candidates face 4-way dead heat for top office
So, voters, what shall it be?
A new young governor and for the first time in a long, long while, we will have school-age kids in the governor’s mansion?
How about a woman governor? Seems to work well all over the country. Heck, Wyoming tried it first with Nellie Tayloe Ross. But that was back in the distant past.
Or should we turn over the executive branch to the older, more seasoned Ag leader who likes things the way they used to be – sure sounds good, doesn’t it? Especially to tea partiers, who have more clout today than ever.
Besides the formal political positions that have been taken by the leading candidates for governor in 2010, voters are also pondering just what “kind” of person they want to lead this state.
A look at past governors really does not give us a clear road map in predicting what voters in Wyoming will do today.
Seems we elected the right person at the right time in most instances.
In just about every case, our governors grew tremendously in stature once they got into office. And most became pretty darned good speakers, too.
But when you are going through the audition process – current Gov. Dave Freudenthal always told voters during his campaigns that he was “applying for the job of governor.” Made sense then and it makes sense today.
Although this guy or gal will become the state’s chief executive, he or she also has get enough of their future constituents to pick them at election time.
The leading candidates have done a remarkable job of sailing through the storm seas of a Wyoming primary without getting shipwrecked.
Rancher Ron Micheli of Fort Bridger, former U. S. Attorney Matt Mead of Cheyenne, State Auditor Rita Meyer of Cheyenne and Speaker of the Wyoming House Colin Simpson of Cody have all run spirited and up-to-now, pretty clean campaigns.
I keep looking for some terrible faux paus that might derail any of these folks, but they are reaching the stage where they have all become very good politicians.
And while you expect them to seem tired and totally beat up from a collective 300,000 road miles among the group, in fact, what you see is the opposite. They seem fresh and fired up.
Rita Meyer was described as “bubbly,” the other day but a crusty old member of our coffee group. Bubbly? Although perhaps that sounds sexist (doubt we could call Micheli “bubbly,” this was meant as a compliment to reflect her upbeat nature.)
Colin Simpson walked some laps during the Lander Relay for Life event a week. He was engaging and exuded self-confidence.
Matt Mead wowed the local men’s GOP outfit with an early morning speech.
Ron Micheli was working his Ag friends very hard and released a report showing he’d raised a mountain of money.
Leslie Petersen has been tireless, of late.
Pete Gosar has been bombarding the Internet with news releases.
Seven months ago, most observers could tell this was going to be a pretty unique governor’s race. The only one similar to it was back in 1974 when four prominent Republican men split the vote up so evenly it was amazing.
An outstanding field was in the race that included the late Roy Peck, a newspaperman from Riverton, recently retiring U. S. Federal Judge Bud Brimmer of Rawlins, Legislator Dick Jones of Powell and Sheridan rancher (and future U. S. Senator) Malcolm Wallop.
The candidates worked hard but in the end, the candidate who probably had the worst statewide general election base emerged the victor. Dick Jones had a strong archconservative following, which got him narrowly through the primary but did not offer him the strength to win the general against another legislator, Ed Herschler of Kemmerer.
Although this race was 36 years ago and Wyoming’s population was somewhat lower (though, there were a lot more Democrats), a look at how that race turned out is very interesting. For example:
Jones – 15,502 (26.5%)
Wallop – 14,688 (25%)
Peck – 14,217 (24.5 %)
Brimmer – 14,014 (24 %)
Mr. Jones was defeated in the general by Democrat Herschler by 71,741 votes to 56,645, a pretty decisive loss for the Repubs.
That 1974 doomsday scenario was repeated over and over in the minds of Republican leaders as they have seen Democrats win the governor’s race in the general election seven of the last nine times.
This year’s race with four candidates running very close races could end up with a similar close primary race result.
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