Thursday, January 14, 2010
2010 - 04 The vast political landscape of Wyoming
The state’s politicians were out in force at the annual meeting of the Wyoming Press Association last week in Casper.
Besides Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who always holds a Meet the Press event, the group also enjoyed the company of newly-announced gubernatorial candidate Rita Meyer (the current state auditor), U. S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis who is up for reelection and U. S. Sen. John Barrasso and others.
Wyoming has many smart editors, reporters and publishers and they love to talk about politicians.
The big talk was the speculation about Gov. Dave running again and our two-term leader stoked that fire big-time. It now looks like he is running and nothing he said or did at the press conference would change my mind.
He sounded more like a candidate than a governor, both seriously and jokingly reminding the press of all the great accomplishments of the past seven years.
He again expressed his thanks for the Golden Age, which started the same time he attained the office. He also re-told the story of how fellow governor candidate Sniffin was predicting Wyoming’s upcoming boom during the 2002 campaign while everyone other candidate was worrying about raising taxes. Thanks, Guv.
He pulled a huge slip of the tongue at the end of the Meet the Press event, though, when he waved and smiled broadly (like a candidate) and said: “See you all next year.”
Oops. Only way he will be there next year is if he runs again and wins.
Later he was coy about it and said it was a slip of the tongue. Yeah, a Freudian Slip or should we call it a Freudenthalian Slip?
His best line during the event, though, was when he constantly being asked by Casper Star-Tribune reporter Pete Nickeas of whether he favored dipping into the rainy day account to help out cities and towns?
Those entities are crying the blues and feel the state should tap into that $800 million account during times when “it is raining,” which they think it now.
The governor disagreed and reminded how state government implemented across the board 10 percent cuts a year ago and he wondered how many cities and towns did that, in anticipation of the upcoming shortfall? He said:
“I do not print money. This is not the federal government. I do not borrow money. This is not California.”
Rita Meyer attended the Friday night banquet and was well received. The publishers I talked with feel very comfortable with her and a few were openly skeptical about other governor candidates, such as House Speaker Colin Simpson (R-Cody) and former Ag Commissioner Ron Micheli, Fort Bridger, as “being too far to the right.” I reminded them that being too far to the right might not play well with some members of the Wyoming press, but it usually works well in a Wyoming GOP primary.
A fourth GOP candidate, former U. S. Attorney Matt Mead recently named his brother Brad of Jackson to run his campaign. There appears to be lots of money in the Mead family. Matt is the late Sen. Cliff Hansen’s grandson and the son of former governor candidate, the late Mary Mead. Tapping into those family funds may be needed to launch a viable campaign.
Mr. Mead is the only one of the four who has not run for elective office before and that can provide a steep learning curve. Matt is a worthy candidate and would be a good governor. But he needs to get some traction on getting statewide recognition.
Perhaps the biggest factor going into the 2010 statewide campaigns and elections is the apparent dysfunction within the state Republican Party.
When I ran for governor in the GOP primary back in 2002, I was totally impressed by how effective this organization worked. Lately, they seem fractured.
Most recently, they fired their newly hired state director Randy O’Hara, who just moved his family to Casper from Salt Lake City. Did he even work three months?
Former U. S. Sen. Al Simpson always talked about the importance of Wyoming Republicans having “a big tent” which seemed to work back in the day.
But today?
Hard to imagine that Wyoming Democrats (a pretty normally dysfunctional group) seem to be better organized than our dominant Republican party.
This could all have a big effect on who runs for and who wins the governor’s office. Doubt it will have much effect on other races, but from a reporter’s perspective, it has been an interesting turn of events.
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