Wednesday, April 12, 2006
617 Loneliness of being a candidate
“I got a call from my grandkids. They wanted me to watch a video with them. I had to tell them no, because I was on the campaign trail. Yes, I shed a tear over that.” – Debbie Hunkins, wife of GOP gubernatorial candidate.
An expert on statewide campaigning said it best to me back in 2001: “This will be the greatest experience of your life. Some of the highest highs and the lowest lows you will ever experience will occur out on the campaign trail.”
My younger brother Ron has worked on many campaigns but he was specifically recalling the late John Vinich’s gubernatorial run against incumbent Jim Geringer in 1998. He recalled all the endless miles of driving across our state and the myriad list of events that a statewide candidate can find himself attending.
State Sen. John Barasso (R-Casper) talked about his statewide campaign for U. S. Senate in 1996. “It gets away from you. Pretty soon you are not in control of your schedule. It controls you. There are so many parades, party events and must-attend forums, that it just becomes a whirlwind.”
He laughed when he recalled driving all the way to Meeteetse for an event where the candidates outnumbered the people in the audience.
During the 2002 governor’s race, our group of Goobers had an event in Riverton where seven candidates showed up and there were exactly seven Wyoming voters in the room. At least we had one apiece, if things worked out fairly.
Mr. Vinich lost his race to Mr. Geringer. And Sen. Barasso lost his primary race to Mike Enzi. And of course, I was one of the losing candidates four years ago. But what an experience. It is truly wonderful and truly terrifying.
I remember the late Dave Nicholas of Laramie talking about how frustrated he was in 1986 when he described criss-crossing the state was like “chasing my tail.” He said he spent $250,000 of his own money in the primary. And his polls showed he could beat Mike Sullivan, but they also showed he could not beat Pete Simpson in the GOP primary.
And his polls turned out right. He did not beat Pete in the primary and Mike defeated Pete in the general.
My main theme of this is how lonely running a statewide campaign can be. You are like an athlete. There are people working for you and you can always count on your family to be there for you. But in the end, it is just you.
And you are not allowed bad days. And you find out things about yourself that you did not know. I found out that when I talked with audiences of people who knew me well, it often was much more difficult, at least at first. You want to be governor? You imagine these folks as liking you but seriously having doubts.
Then I found myself delivering great speeches to crowds of total strangers.
Other candidates had just the opposite experience. They could function well with crowds of friends and be paralyzed in front of people they did not know.
Our Wyoming candidates are now in full campaign mode.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal launched his campaign April 3 with campaign stops in Thermopolis, Casper and Cheyenne. He and his crew drove to those stops. No doubt he sure missed that state jet.
He had good crowds topped by more than 200 in Cheyenne.
His GOP rival Ray Hunkins of Wheatland showed up in Lander with his moustache shaved off. First time in 15 years. Perhaps he is aware that Wyoming has not elected a governor with facial hair in more than 50 years.
Mr. Hunkins endured some typically unusual questions from several of our Fremont County arch-conservative Republicans, like, “You need to do something about our state’s tourism web site. I won’t use it. It mentions Brokeback Mountain.”
Or another one critical of Laramie’s smoke free ordinance. This person said the state was infringing on the individual’s responsibility. Another wanted to totally reform the Game and Fish Commission.
To Mr. Hunkins’ credit, he attempted to answer them, but frankly admitted; some of these questions had not been anticipated. He also said that in reference to a question about stopping illegal immigrants from crossing the Mexican border.
And then there are other statewide races.
Rita Meyer, a GOP candidate for State Auditor, got around the Rotary Club’s prohibition of giving political speeches by talking to our club about her experience in Afghanistan as a Colonel.
Great talk, by the way.
Former House Speaker Fred Parady of Rock Springs is running for State Treasurer against Secretary of State Joe Meyer. Mr. Parady is keeping track of the doors he has knocked on – 770 so far. He also has put 8,400 miles on his car.
While on the campaign trail, I always thought of the title of an old movie (which I never saw) called “The loneliness of the long distance runner.” Felt it applied to a statewide political race in Wyoming, too.
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