Here during a time of political lame ducks, it just seems like finally a time to write a column about ducks.  All kinds of ducks.  So many ducks, it may make you really sick of ducks.

         You see, we do not have a dog any more. We also do not have a cat.  No, we have no goldfish.  No, no monkeys, snakes, worm farms or lizards.

         But, my friends will acknowledge that Bill and Nancy have ducks. Lots of ducks.

Or as I like to call them Ducheneaux (a French name for Ducks?) or my shorthand on Facebook is just plain Dux.

         The USA presently has lots of political lame ducks.  Like about 60 members of the U. S. House of Representatives after the Republican rout of the Dems a few weeks ago.

         Here in Wyoming, our two-term governor Dave Freudenthal is a duck – a lame duck, as the saying goes.

         He managed to postpone his normal lame duck limitations in 2010 by not disclosing if he would run for a third term a not.  It worked.  He held lots of sway during the legislative session earlier this year because he forestalled that lame duck moniker.

         Did I say my wife Nancy and I have lots of pet ducks?

         As last count, we have 18 pet ducks on our property.  Plus lots of wild ones who stop by to dine at Nancy’s corn convenience store enroute to destinations unknown.

         For the longest time, we had four males (Pearl and Whitey, the Aflac Brothers, Greenhead and Blackhead) and a lone female, nicknamed T. P. which stood for the old expression Town Pump about the town’s easiest female.

         Then one day, she laid a nest full of eggs and became a “sitting duck.”  That was the end of her.  All we found were some feathers and broken eggshells. Truth be known, she was probably too exhausted to flee her attacker.

         Then a fifth male who had been driven away by the others returned home.  His name is Studley and he now gets along fine with the other boys because there were no ducks of female persuasion to fight over.

         Having five male ducks was perplexing. Just did not seem right. 

         We finally located some folks who had some extra ducks.  But when we said we wanted four females, they laughed and said, “You can have 14 ducks.”  So we took them.

         They also threw in a rooster, that is, a male chicken.  We seem to attract males.

         We have four ponds and a creek on our property.  The ducks seem to be able to fend off predators (unless they are sitting ducks) but this did not help the rooster.  All we found were some feathers. He was only on the job three days.

         Having all these ducks has caused me to pay attention to how many “duck expressions” we use in normal conversation.

         For example, these ducks really do have a “pecking order.”

         Now I understand the expression “having your ducks in a row.”   We also have several “odd ducks.”

         Not sure why a bad doctor is called a quack but I think I now know where the expression “like a wounded duck” came from.

         During a recent snowstorm the expression “nice weather for ducks” came to mind, that is for sure.

         Biggest problem is that Nancy insists on feeding them corn.  They love that stuff.  I call it duck candy.

         When I start out the door with a 50-pound bag of corn over my shoulder, they come running.  Did you know that only female ducks quack?  A very demanding quack, at that.  The guys? Well, they just mutter a lot.  Just like home.

         The ducks are terrific fertilizers.  Nancy calls them “quacking crappers.”

         The following note came from an old friend who previewed this column: “I found your column just ducky. You certainly didn`t duck your responsibilities to put out a great piece, nothing fowl in any of it (or maybe fowl in all of it!) signed: Jeff (Quacker) Wacker.

         My sister in law Tamara offers the following: There was a duck that went in the store to buy some chapstick.

The storekeeper said, “That will be $2.”

The duck, said, “That`s ok. Just put it on my bill." Groan.

         As I write this, there is a big storm predicted from over the mountains. Not sure how the ducks will handle it.

         Probably the snow (or rain) will just fall off a duck’s back.

         For the first time in history, the occupants of Wyoming’s governor’s mansion will be able to serve their guests an official homegrown whiskey in the very near future.

         Governor-elect Matt Mead’s brother Brad of Jackson Hole is the principal owner of the new distillery north of Thermopolis where they are making a brew called Wyoming Whiskey.

         Their master distiller has already created the first batch (over 1,000 barrels) and the whiskey is aging in wood casks up there in the little town of Kirby. 

         Sometime around the middle of Gov. Matt’s first term, it could be expected that a toast or two will be made by the new governor with Wyoming’s newest whiskey.

         Here’s to you . . .

         WHAT’S DDT? - The governor-elect was joined by current Gov. Dave Freudenthal and former governors Jim Geringer and Mike Sullivan at a forum in Sheridan recently, which was organized in the name of former U. S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop.

         The two-hour program, which was filmed on Wyoming PBS and moderated by Geoff O’Gara, was a fascinating discussion of Wyoming, past, present and future.

         But one acronym was used that everyone there seemed to be familiar with, but was new to me. It was “Wyoming’s DDT.”         Gov. Dave used that term to describe how different Wyoming is from other states and how difficult it sometimes is to get things done here.

         “We call it DDT,” he said, “Demographics, Distance and Terrain.”

         Although our low population is an advantage some times, it also makes it hard to do projects in Wyoming at the same low per-capita cost that they are being done elsewhere. Hence, demographics.

         Distance comes into play here, too, he said. Again, it is often hard to get folks together. We have very high highway construction costs, for example, because of our long distances.

         And terrain refers to our mountains and our deserts and our canyons and rivers. Wyoming’s topography has a few more bumps on it, than say, Ohio.

         WEATHER - Readers of this column know how I complained about that endless winter we had last year. It lasted eight months here in Lander and started with a 20-inch snowfall in October and ended with a big snowfall in May. Whew, it was tiring.

         Well, this year you will not hear me complain at all.

         We had 34 more days of fall this year than we did last year, according to my coffee pal Garve Chapman.

         No matter how bad it gets from now on, we can rejoice in the fact that we enjoyed an extra month of Indian Summer over the previous year.

         WRITE- IN’S - In an earlier column, I predicted that independent Taylor Haynes would get 5 percent of the vote in the 2010 Wyoming governor’s election.    

         He ended up with 13,795 votes, which amounted to 7 percent of the vote. He got almost three times as many votes at Libertarian Mike Wheeler.

         Haynes was the Tea Party candidate and by gathering that many votes through write-in’s, well, it’s pretty impressive.

         His hard working crew of volunteers around the state deserves credit for their diligence.

         WASTE - Wyoming’s “Big Al” Simpson was back in the news recently with the release of the conclusions of the famous Deficit Commission, appointed by President Barack Obama.

         Former U. S. Senator Simpson of Cody and former President Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles headed the commission. Those two will headline the Wyoming Business Alliance annual meeting Dec. 7 in Cheyenne.

         The report apparently accomplished its purpose – nobody seems to totally like its conclusions. Good. The only way this country can pull itself out this debt mess is by universal sacrifice.

         A lot of mainstream media did a knee-jerk reaction to the report by criticizing it. Actually, it contains a lot of good ideas, which spread the pain around pretty evenly.

         However, a few serious deficit worriers wondered why the commission did not suggest even more aggressive cuts in our defense budget?

         If we cut out a third of our defense spending, they argue, the USA would still be the largest military power in the world by a factor of two. Critics contend there are lots of fluff and fat in there for a serious commission to tackle.

         It is quite a coup for Bill Schilling and the Business Alliance to get these men out of DC and to Wyoming to talk to us about how they came to their conclusions.

       Is Wyoming the exception to other states when it comes to politicians who lose in statewide elections on their first try?

       In most places, candidates will often run and lose one or more times before finally running and winning. The record of many major national politicians shows a history of losing first and then winning later.

       Most oft-repeated story of this type is Abe Lincoln, who lost at just about everything, before being elected president.

       The late John Vinich of Hudson sort of represented this type of politician. He lost the U. S. Senate race by an eyelash to Malcolm Wallop of Bighorn and then got clobbered by the late Craig Thomas of Cody for Dick Cheney’s House seat. His third loss occurred when Jim Geringer of Wheatland defeated him in the 1998 governor’s race.

       In Wyoming, conventional wisdom says that often if you don’t win the first time, you just pack it up and never run again. “I coulda been a contender” is a familiar refrain from these folks. But do they run again? Nope.

       This column is limited to somewhat recent governor and the federal offices.

       In most states the conventional political wisdom is that you should run a race as a way to get statewide name recognition and to develop a group of workers and donors. These folks come in handy in case you run again later on.

       For some reason in Wyoming, you did not see Pete Simpson, Laramie, running again, after losing to Mike Sullivan of Casper in the 1988 governor’s race. You didn’t see Charles Scott, Casper or John Perry, Buffalo, or Dave Nicholas, Laramie, running again after losing. Same for Phil Roberts of Laramie, Tom Stroock, Casper, John Ostlund of Gillette, Warren Morton of Casper, Mary Mead of Jackson and others who lost in their first try,

       U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin became our longest-serving U. S. House member when she won in 2006. In 2004, Cale Case, Lander, Bruce Asay, Cheyenne, and Marv Applequist, Farson, ran against her in the primary and Ted Ladd, Wilson, and John Henley, Casper, ran in the Democratic primary for that race. None of them ran again. At least, not yet. Why not?

       In Wyoming, I guess if you lose once, you often just stop there.

       In that vein, I want to form the “One-Time, Big-Time Political Contenders One & Done Also Ran’s Club.”   I will serve as chairman and vice-chairman is Gus Fleischli of Cheyenne. He ran for governor in 1978 and never ran again, either.

       One of the few Wyoming exceptions to this rule is the late Sen. Thomas, who lost in some early races but bounced back and served well as U. S. Senator. Wallop lost the governor’s race but came back to win the U. S. Senate seat.

       So what about that cast of characters that I ran with back in 2002 in the Wyoming governor race? Only that fine gentlemen Ray Hunkins of Wheatland ran again, losing in 2006. Eli Bebout, Riverton; Paul Hickey of Cheyenne; Steve Watt of Rock Springs; Ken Casner of Elk Mountain and Toby Simpson of Greybull never ran again. 

       Others who fit this club include Rodger McDaniel, Cheyenne; Russ Donley and Bill Kidd of Casper; John Patton, Sheridan; Bill Budd of Big Piney: Dick Jones of Powell; Bill Bagley of Cheyenne; Clarence Brimmer of Rawlins; Nels Smith of Sundance; Bob Schuster of Jackson; Mark Gordon of Buffalo; and Cale Case, Dale Groutage, Crosby Allen and Paul Petzoldt of Lander.

       A few more notable members of this group include Nick Carter of Gillette; Chris Rothfuss, Laramie; Dino Wenino, Scott Farris, Kevin Meenan, Nimi McConiglery, Worth Christie, Ron Akin, and John Swett of Casper; Larry Herdt and Leonard Munker, Cheyenne; Bill Taliaferro and Joyce Corcoran of Rock Springs; and Kathleen Jachowski of Cody.

       After the 2010 campaigns, we welcome Colin Simpson, Cody; Ron Micheli, Fort Bridger; Leslie Petersen, Wilson; David Wendt of Jackson; and Pete Gosar of Laramie to the “One-Time, Big-Time Political, One & Done Club.”

       Perhaps I am looking at this wrongly. This list really shows a terrific number of loyal citizens who ran for state office to try to make a difference and to help the people of Wyoming. Now that sounds pretty noble to me.

       With that said, whoever runs in the future, they no doubt are aware of this famous Wyoming “One & Done” curse. If you lose, you may just be done for good. Welcome to the club.

           This next week, the days will seem noticeably shorter as darkness descends quickly each day with the end of Daylight Savings Time. But to folks in far off California and New York, darkness is already covering our country in the wake of the political earthquake that occurred Tuesday.

The brief and tumultuous “second Camelot” of a Barack Obama presidency, in partnership with a Democrat-controlled Congress, has ended.

Most folks in Wyoming are cheering this development, including this writer. But it is easy to worry about what is on the horizon.

Our country is facing terrible financial obstacles. There are other negative shoes getting ready to drop when it comes to the national economy. Biggest ones are the gigantic national debt, the new healthcare crisis and the national pension crisis.

         Amidst the hoopla and celebration surrounding Tuesday’s election results, the reality will soon creep in that our country is broken in a lot of ways and somebody has to fix it.

         My personal fear is that we will endure two years of fighting and posturing with little being accomplished because of even more gridlock in Washington.

         But here in Wyoming, hopefully we will limp through the next two years in pretty good shape.

         Two big economic indicators for Wyoming are that prices are either up or stable for our two largest exports, coal and natural gas.

         Plus ther e also appears to be a real boom in oil drilling in SE Wyoming with the discoveries there.

         We are lucky that our state banking community is generally a conservative lot, which makes for safe and solid financial practices from one end of the state to the other.

         On the political front, nationally, the Republicans have captured the House and made big inroads in the Senate. 

Perhaps it is time we talked about what happened here in Wyoming on election night. Our state offices came through Tuesday’s election with few surprises. 

Wyoming now has one of the youngest governors in the country in Matt Mead. 

Matt is a smart guy with extremely high ideals. I recall him wandering around at a statewide Wyoming Business Alliance forum a few years ago. He came up to me and he really had a deer in the headlights look on his face. He had never run a political campaign before and he wanted to ask for some advice about running for governor.

         He was so serious and so thoughtful, you could see right there that what was driving him was not the glory of the office or reclaiming some lost sense of family pride. He was driven by the desire to do something important for the state that he loves.

         I had earlier been impressed by his good work as U. S. Attorney. But this time, it was easy to see a lot of his grandfather in him. Was this how Cliff Hansen acted as a young man?

         The late Hansen was a Teton County Commissioner, a Governor and a U. S. Senator. He provided a tremendous life of service for Wyoming. 

         At Mead’s youthful 48, it would be easy to predict that here we go again – and I say that with relish. 

         Wyoming is in great hands with our new governor. We should count ourselves very lucky in the wake of Tuesday’s election.

         Give Mead credit for two big themes that he was able to omit from his campaign, one positive and one negative.

         You could assume that it would be a political positive for him to talk about his grandfather Cliff. But it rarely came up. Mead ran as his own man.

         A political negative is that he comes from the most beautiful and most expensive part of our state, Teton County. 

According to his campaign, Mead and his wife Carol have built a life for themselves in SE Wyoming. The people of Wyoming embraced him, when he reminded them he lived in Cheyenne and had a ranch in Carbon County and a farm in Goshen County.

What appeared to be the most contested race of all ended up being a runaway. Cindy Hill demolished Mike Massie in what most pundits would like to call an upset.

But that race typified what happened in Wyoming was also happening across the country. Wyoming’s Democrat legislators got clobbered. Out of 90, are we down to 14? Lowest total in our state’s history, perhaps.

         And finally, let’s give a hand to all those folks who ran and lost. We really appreciate them jumping into the ring.

By my reckoning, the 2010 governor election in Wyoming pretty much ended at 9:39 p.m. on primary election night back on Aug. 17.

         That was the moment statewide media announced that Ron Micheli of Fort Bridger had lost the lead he held momentarily in the GOP primary. Had Micheli gone on to win, the current general election campaign would have been a lot more interesting and the upcoming election night would have been downright exciting.

         But, alas, Micheli did not win, disappointing a whole bunch of Tea Partiers across the state. State Auditor Rita Meyer surged back into the lead and then was overtaken by ultimate winner Matt Mead. The margin was tight. Had 360 voters switched from Mead to Meyer, she would have been winner.

         A Micheli-Petersen general election campaign could have been decided by middle of the road voters, due to Micheli’s right tilt. But Mead offers a solid appeal to the middle and should win with over 60 percent of the vote in the final general election tally. 

         Mead and his crew have run a solid campaign and have given his opponent no openings to capitalize on to improve her standing.

         If elected, Mead will be one of the youngest governors ever. Interesting that age has never been an issue in this campaign. The youthful-looking Petersen is old enough to be Mead’s mother.

         Write-in candidate Taylor Haynes of Cheyenne has generated some excitement. I see him possibly getting 5 percent of the vote.

         The biggest though quiet influence over the 2010 governor’s race is from the current governor, Dave Freudenthal.

         Democrat Petersen has tried to run as a “Freudenthal Democrat.” But she seems to have difficulty getting any traction against Mead, who has even stronger credentials as a Freudenthal protégé’.

         Thus, Petersen’s efforts to portray herself as a clone to the current governor have stalled. That strategy is a good idea since Freudenthal has been recognized as the most popular governor in the country.

It is hard to elect Democrats in Wyoming, but we have seen three of them in Ed Herschler, Mike Sullivan and Dave Freudenthal. All were very conservative and welcomed by state Republicans.

         But Mead has really close ties to Freudenthal. He followed the current governor as U. S. Attorney and the two men have a very high regard for each other. 

I think it would not be surprising to see Mead, if elected, attempt to retain a number of Freudenthal’s staff.

         • The most exciting statewide race is Cindy Hill versus Mike Massie for State Supt. of Public Instruction.

         Lately, Republicans have been jumping onto the Massie bandwagon. The endorsement of Massie by the very conservative State Sen. Hank Coe of Cody, current chairman of the Senate Education Committee, could provide the impetus Massie needs to win this election. 

         Staunch Republicans like Jim and Mary Hicks of Buffalo even hosted a reception for Massie this past week.

Massie’s endorsements by the Cheyenne Tribune-Eagle and the Casper Star-Tribune provide big boosts, too. Editors of the Cheyenne paper said it best: “Massie’s depth outweighs Hill’s passion.”

         Although Republicans could be expected to vote in a knee-jerk fashion for Hill, there are huge questions about her ability to run an operation as complex at the Department of Education. Plus many folks view her as a wild card on state boards. 

Give her and her staff credit, though. They have piled on the miles and covered Wyoming end-to-end.

         Massie has lots of good experience but would have had an uphill battle against just about any Republican. Having Hill to run against provides him the opening that incumbent Jim McBride (whom Hill beat in the primary) may not have provided. The biggest question in this entire election race is will enough Republicans vote for a Democrat in this race so that Massie could win? I think they will. Massie 51%, Hill 49%.

         • Secretary of State Max Maxfield and State Treasurer Joe Meyer will win reelection.  

         • Democrat David Wendt of Jackson has failed to generate the excitement he needed in his race to oust incumbent U. S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis. This could go 60-40 for Lummis.

         Not sure why Wendt wasn’t able to generate more fire. He is a good candidate and Cynthia would seem to be vulnerable in some ways. In others, she appears to be as unbeatable as Barb Cubin, the gal she replaced.
 

         • Riverton will get a new mayor and it probably will be Ron Warpness, a very capable individual. In Lander, two-term mayor Mick Wolfe is facing opposition from Dan Hahn. Voters will see no reason to replace the popular Wolfe.

         Incumbents State Sen. Cale Case will win reelection as will State Reps Pat Goggles and Del McOmie.

         We hope voters will renew the lodging tax. This tax is paid for by travelers passing through. Literally every place the USA where you travel will charge you a lodging tax. It is appropriate for us to charge travelers coming here. Money raised is used to boost our growing tourist industry.

         The true test of the level of optimism of these times will be whether the CWC bond issue will pass. It appears to be a good project but the mood of voters is hard to determine these days.

         You could expect the Riverton school facilities project to pass in a close vote.

         The Meadowlark Cottages project will probably fail. We have no argument with Riverton having a new nursing home and the folks behind it are great community leaders. But we also agree with those folks who think it is not fair for 38,000 county people to pay precious sales taxes for the next two years to benefit just 48 people occupying a nursing home that will ultimately be owned by the city of Riverton.