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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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Sunday, July 18, 2010
030 - Will governor candidates go negative with their campaigns?
Up to now, most of the candidates for governor have avoided what is called “going negative” during the 2010 political campaign.
This is commendable but it might just mean that a candidate that could have won will not win because of two much niceness.
Probably the best examples of recent statewide campaigns that succeeded that did not go negative were the two recent victories by Gov. Dave Freudenthal in 2002 and 2006.
In both cases, his campaign crew resisted the urge to go negative and pulled off an upset in 2002 and a landslide in 2006.
In a situation like his, I would contend he did not have to go negative. The media was picking apart his opponents in both races.
And, of course, the best strategy of all is to win. Period. If you can do it without going negative, that is the best of all.
But going negative does not mean smearing your opponent. It can mean a hard-hitting message campaign explaining why your plan is better than your opponents.
It can also elevate your candidacy because you are taking serious stands on serious issues and pointing out how your opponent(s) is dodging such issues.
At this point in the governor’s race, it is easy to praise the four main Republican candidates and the two main Democrats.
They are working mighty hard and have raised (and spent) a lot of money. They have put 250,000 miles on their cars criss-crossing this vast state of high altitudes and low multitudes.
With a little more than three weeks left, here are some observations:
• Ron Micheli of Fort Bridger has been critical of state spending and wants to cut it big-time. He blames lame duck Gov. Dave Freudenthal, but the GOP-controlled legislature is who approved all these expenditure growths.
This puts him at odds with many progressive representatives.
A nice guy with a great family, my worry of Ron is that he looks at Wyoming’s future through a rear view mirror. He wants to turn the clock back, which always sounds good but is almost impossible to do.
If he wins the primary, he could be the most vulnerable to a Democrat in the general.
• Rita Meyer was first to call for a “nice” campaign and recently published her donor list.
Although she started the campaign with a silly comment of possibly using the National Guard to fend off federal intrusions (which she quickly corrected), she has been doing well since.
I am surprised at the extent of her support across all political persuasions and across the state, which is considerable.
Rita’s humble beginnings sure are impressive in the one TV ad that I saw about her.
Could she pull this off? Don’t bet against her.
• Colin Simpson has the most Facebook supporters in Wyoming (over 2,000) and does a wonderful job of one-on-one campaigning.
For a man of his political experience and expertise, Simpson has reportedly stumbled a couple of times while giving major speeches. I would caution voters to not hold that against him.
We need leaders and most of our governors evolve into tremendous speakers after being in office for a while.
Simpson seemed to be the front-runner to me from day one, but this election is a crazy one.
He needs something to push him ahead. Some stroke of momentum, it would seem to me.
• Not sure why I am listing Matt Mead last on this list, but perhaps it is because he is slightly younger than Simpson.
He has run a strong and consistent campaign. He landed a huge endorsement from Gene Bryan, the godfather of Wyoming’s tourism industry (the state’s number-two business).
Most observers thought Mead might be running this time to get his feet wet for a later more serious try. Not so. He is in this to win and so far has not faltered.
• Democrat Leslie Petersen is the assumed front-runner for her party’s nomination, although Pete Gosar is offering a fresh face and pure Wyoming boy approach.
Leslie suffered an ugly black eye during our Pioneer Days parade in Lander on July 4, but managed to finish the parade before going to the emergency room. Showed true Wyoming spunk.
Errant fireworks caused her horse to buck and dive. Her face went down when her horse’s head went up . . . smack!
Time is running out for all these candidates. The next three weeks should be very exciting political times in Wyoming. I can’t wait.
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
029 - Colorado greed fuels Wyoming water heist
In the West, whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting.
Mark Twain.
Because I have a boat on Flaming Gorge Reservoir, it makes sense to oppose piping 250,000 acre-feet of Wyoming water per year from the Green River to the Front Range.
And although there are small numbers of folks banding together to fight this Colorado-based project, the reason the project will be defeated is not because of a quality decline of my future aquatic adventures.
No, it will be because good science will show this is the wrong project coming at the wrong time in the wrong place.
The Million Conservation Group of Fort Collins wants to spend $3 billion to pump water from the Green and my favorite reservoir so new houses and new industry can be built on the east side of the Colorado Rockies.
Their project expects to pump 81.4 billion gallons per year, a staggering amount. The pipeline is 560 miles long.
Here is why plans like these are destined for the dustbin of history:
• Despite the fact that a compact signed by four states would indicate Colorado owns unused shares of its water in the Green River and the Gorge, Colorado’s own experts say the water is not there. The most knowledgeable people on the subject say the Colorado River is already over-committed. There is no water left to be put into a trans-basin diversion pipe.
• Wiser heads will prevail and realize that the secret for good economic health for the Front Range is conservation when it comes to its water usage. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter said, “Conservation has to become an ethic of the West,” at the 2009 Western Governors Conference
• Much of the West is still in a drought and the worst place in the country this past year is the aptly-named Sweetwater County in SW Wyoming, where all this water will come from. This area gets just 8 inches of precipitation per year.
• Colorado law can be nasty when it comes to how it treats entrepreneurs who are playing fast and loose when peddling water rights. Could be a big hurdle for this outfit.
• Wyoming law says water in our state, even when it is allegedly signed away by a 60-year compact, still cannot be moved out of state without approval of the legislature. Good luck to these greedy Coloradoans on that.
• The headwaters of the Green River are in the massive Wind River Mountain Range. The glaciers in that range have declined dramatically in the past ten years to where most are in danger of disappearing. Prominent Western Wyoming College professor Charlie Love has documented this.
• The Endangered Species Act will come into play, as it will be proven that pumping the water out of these locations will kill off important native species. It will also negatively affect plants and land animals. There is also the opposite problem of this pipeline providing a way for invasive species to travel from one part of the country to another.
• One of Wyoming’s best attorneys, Ford Bussart of Rock Springs, predicts lawsuits on this project will extend for decades.
These are just a few of the more obvious reasons why such a project is going to fail. Those of us who are trying to stop this project need the help of eastern Wyoming communities that are wasting their valuable money seeing if they can catch a few drops of this water as it races on by to Colorado.
Besides Million, another effort sponsored by Colorado water districts, has signed up several Wyoming cities and towns to help explore such an effort. A waste of money and a not too friendly gesture toward their fellow citizens in Southwest Wyoming.
So despite the best efforts of the Denver Post editorial writers to promote the project, plus the support of big money by Front Range entrepreneurs, this newly constituted border war is a lost cause.
Its private enterprise promoter, Aaron Million, should follow his own advice and “stick a fork in it” now before too much more time and money is wasted on this ill-fated venture. And Frank Jaeger of Parker, CO., who is promoting the other venture involving water districts, should call it a day, too.
Disclosure: this writer’s company was recently hired to compile a list of talking points concerning this project by the Communities Protecting the Green River Committee. This column, however, is the writer’s personal point-of-view and was written before this occurred.
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Tuesday, July 6, 2010
028 - Wanted: skinny, wiry fellows. Orphans preferred.
Although we think we live in a constantly changing world today, the arrival of the trans-continental railroad in the late 1860’s, marked the most amazing change in American lives, imaginable.
A year earlier, it took about four months to cross the continental United States. After the transcontinental railroad completion, it took four days. Amazing.
The vast size of America was always a problem for our young country.
And enterprising people were always trying to figure out ways to shorten up the amount of time it took for folks to connect with each other.
The telegraph helped a lot with at least providing a way to get messages across parts of the country. Very limited, though. And very expensive.
One of those attempts to tie the country together was the famous Pony Express. And it followed a familiar cross-country route through a part of America that 30 years later would become the state of Wyoming.
That noble experiment was the true forerunner of the famous motto of today’s Federal Express “If It Absolutely, Positively Has To Be There . . .”
By using hundreds of horses and young men (including 16-year old Buffalo Bill Cody), this service provided a way to send a package or a letter across the country, some 1,966 miles, in just ten days. Because trains were already in existence in the eastern part of the USA, the route traveled from St. Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA.
It was considered almost a miracle back in those times and was a service that was used extensively and loved by those using it for about a year and a half.
This year is the 150th anniversary of the Pony Express and Wyoming is home to 39 of those Pony Express “stations,” as they were called. Some had colorful names like Bed Tick, Needle Rock, Rocky Ridge, Big Sandy, Little Sandy and Dry Sandy. There were 157 stations across the West.
Most have totally disappeared although you can re-live some of the experience of spending time in locations such as Split Rock which is between Muddy Gap and Lander near the town of Jeffrey City. Farther west is a marker at Pacific Springs on the top of South Pass. It was called that because to many of the Oregon Trail travelers, this was the first water they saw on the west side of the Continental Divide, hence, headed toward the Pacific Ocean.
There are good markers at Fort Laramie, Fort Bridger, Devil’s Gate, Independence Rock and Granger, too.
The service was only in place for about 18 months and some 183 young men were known to have ridden the route. The service started a century and a half ago and ran day and night, summer and winter. It stopped in 1861 when its backers were $200,000 in the hole, because a government contract did not come through and the Civil War started.
Historian Phil Roberts of Laramie says the telegraph, which was completed cross-country in an astonishingly quick time of four months in 1861, also helped finish off the Pony Express.
Want ads in California newspapers read: "Wanted. Young, skinny, wiry fellows. Not over 18. Must be expert riders. Willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred."
Most riders were around 20. Youngest was 11. Oldest was mid-40s. Not many were orphans. Typical rider weighed around 120 pounds. They were paid $100 per month, a small fortune to these boys.
The horses traveled 10 miles per hour and a new horse was provided every 10 to 15 miles. The riders traveled 75 to 100 miles during their shift.
The most famous ride was by young Buffalo Bill who exchanged horses at Split Rock and rode, in record time, from Red Buttes Station to Rocky Ridge. He was forced to go extra legs because of the death of another rider. Cody ultimately covered 322 miles in 21 hours using 21 horses.
The route pretty much followed the historical trails route, encompassing the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail, plus a number of other early trails.
More than 350,000 people traveled those trails by walking, wagon train or handcart as they followed the young country’s claim of Manifest Destiny as they moved west.
The smallest part of all this was the Pony Express, but it may have been the most colorful.
A re-enactment of the Pony Express rides was just completed the end of last month, which included riders participating across Wyoming, visiting most of those colorful “stations.”
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Thursday, July 1, 2010
027 - The unwinnable war in Afghanistan - bring our troops home
No matter how much I praise our troops but complain about the war in Afghanistan, there are folks who really get ticked off at me for doing the latter.
For that I am regretful, but two events recently got me thinking about all this one more time.
First was a wonderful “welcome home” celebration of more than 100 National Guardsmen who work out of our unit here in Lander.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal, U. S. Sen. John Barrasso and U. S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis were all here for that event, plus local officials.
Perhaps the biggest applause was when Mayor Mick Wolfe reminded them that back during their send-off celebration 13 months ago he requested that they all come home safe, and they did!
When you think of the sacrifices these men and women have gone through in their service to their country, it is impressive and sobering. You cannot help but be proud of them.
They are among our finest citizens.
What in the devil are we doing sending them to a place like Afghanistan?
The second event was a national one when President Barack Obama fired the general leading out troops in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, after disparaging remarks were published in Rolling Stone Magazine.
There are some almost unbelievable conclusions occurring with our Mideast policy.
It will be amazingly ironic if Iraq ends up being our success story in the Middle East with Afghanistan being our second Vietnam.
Simple reason for this is that like Japan, Korea and Germany, Iraq has a middle class.
To nation-build, you need a middle class.
Afghanistan has no middle class, just tribes plus bureaucratic lackeys, drug growers and the worst Islamic fundamentalists ever seen – the Taliban.
Twenty years from now, it is possible that Iraq will be a bastion of economic stability and freedom while, God help us, Afghanistan will still be what it is now – a money pit, the like of which the world has only seen a few times before.
Just ask the Russians. They killed one million Afghans but lost their war and their worldwide empire, too.
The only warrior to ever win in Afghanistan was Genghis Khan and he, well, by today’s standards did not fight fair.
If there is an X-factor in this war, it is the recent disclosure that there may be vast amounts of rare minerals to be mined there, which puts the USA back in the position of fighting a war for selfish economic reasons (sort of like, oil?) rather than its original noble purpose.
The Rolling Stone story had a number of astonishing quotes and comments. Here are a few:
• “COIN (counter-insurgency) calls for sending huge numbers of ground troops . . . to live among the civilian population and slowly rebuild . . . another nation’s government.
“The theory essentially rebrands the military, expanding its authority (and its funding) to encompass the diplomatic and political sides of warfare: Think the Green Berets as an armed Peace Corps.”
• “But even if he somehow manages to succeed, after years of bloody fighting with Afghan kids who pose no threat to the U.S. homeland, the war will do little to shut down Al Qaeda, which has shifted its operations to Pakistan.
“Dispatching 150,000 troops to build new schools, roads, mosques and water-treatment facilities around Kandahar is like trying to stop the drug war in Mexico by occupying Arkansas and building Baptist churches in Little Rock.”
• “Rhetoric that just a few years ago they would have mocked. "They are trying to manipulate perceptions because there is no definition of victory – because victory is not even defined or recognizable," says Celeste Ward, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation.”
• "It`s all very cynical, politically," says Marc Sageman, a former CIA case officer who has extensive experience in the region. "Afghanistan is not in our vital interest – there`s nothing for us there."
• “After nine years of war, the Taliban simply remains too strongly entrenched for the U.S. military to openly attack. The very people that COIN seeks to win over – the Afghan people – do not want us there. Our supposed ally, President Karzai, used his influence to delay the offensive . . .”
• "Throwing money at the problem exacerbates the problem," says Andrew Wilder, an expert at Tufts University. "A tsunami of cash fuels corruption, delegitimizes the government and creates an environment where we`re picking winners and losers" – a process that fuels resentment and hostility among the civilian population.”
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