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Saturday, August 21, 2010
035 - Some special fodder for Wyoming`s political junkies
Although the average Wyoming citizen gets tired of all the political activities that occur every two years, to a special breed of junkies, well, we just cannot get enough.
Perhaps today’s column can provide more insights on the recent primary. Let’s talk about money, endorsements, gaffes and ads.
Reasons that former U. S. Attorney Matt Mead, Cheyenne, won the GOP gubernatorial primary were spending a mountain of money, avoiding big mistakes and being a credible candidate from day one.
For example:
• Does putting lots of personal money make a difference in Wyoming?
Some of Wyoming’s all-time big spenders lost their races. Examples include Jackson’s Bob Schuster’s 1994 million-dollar campaign against Barbara Cubin, Casper, for U. S. Representative. Mark Gordon, Buffalo, spent a million-plus two years ago and lost against eventual winner Cynthia Lummis of Cheyenne. In 1992, Sheridan’s Jon Herschler spent a ton losing in a U. S. Representative race.
Perhaps that losing trend is now over.
Big spenders did very well this year, even besides the governor race.
Cynthia Cloud of Cody used $80,000 of her money to narrowly beat expected front-runner, Bruce Brown of Devils Tower, for State Auditor on the GOP ticket.
Cindy Hill of Cheyenne used a pretty good pile of her family’s money ($55,000) to run away with the Republican nomination for State Superintendent of Schools.
The big Kahuna of spending was Mead, winner of the GOP governor primary. He put almost $1 million of his money into a nail-biter victory over Rita Meyer and Ron Micheli.
In the 2002 GOP governor primary, Ray Hunkins of Wheatland, this writer and eventual primary winner Eli Bebout of Riverton each spent about $10 per vote. Mead spent over $40 per vote in 2010. Wow, times have sure changed.
• Do endorsements help?
The two largest newspapers in the state endorsed winner Mead.
Gene Bryan, the most respected old dog of the state’s number-two industry, tourism, also endorsed him.
Meanwhile, second place finisher Meyer was endorsed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Meyer did not seek it, but hard to tell if it had staying power. Meyer was endorsed by another old tourism dog, Pat Sweeney. (Note: congrats to Pat for getting the Casper Parkway Plaza back.)
Former President George H. W. Bush endorsed former House Speaker Colin Simpson, Cody. Not much traction in that, although one Cheyenne media outlet reported it was the more recent President Bush.
Micheli of Fort Bridger seemed to have the endorsement of the Tea Party folks, was endorsed by Wyoming Right to Life and had the support of many LDS Church members in Wyoming, but still fell slightly short.
• I would count three major gaffes in the governor primary, none by Mead, interestingly.
Meyer got off on the wrong foot by some silly statement about using Wyoming’s National Guard to fend off the feds. She retracted it but could it have cost her the election? If just 360 voters switched from Mead to her, it would have given her the nod,
Micheli wrote a letter of support for a convicted rapist. Most thought it was an okay thing to do. But someone running for governor should probably not do that.
Simpson sent out a mailer on election eve portraying Meyer as “flip flopper” on Obamacare. Many people were incensed by that action and changed their votes.
• Not only do I feel sorry for the losing candidates, but their staffs, too.
Campaign Chairmen Bill Cubin (Micheli), Joe Milczewski (Simpson), and Travis Deti (Meyer) must have hated seeing those images of a smug Bill Novotny (Mead) on the front page of a daily newspaper and on Casper TV stations dancing around with a drink in his hand on election night.
Give Novotny credit – he was blamed by many of Mark Gordon’s friends for losing that election two years ago. He got his revenge by steering Mead to a 700-vote victory.
It was nice that he had an extra million bucks to use to garner that victory, though.
• Best TV ad of the campaign was the “long loop” by Mead followed closely by Meyer’s “a Wyoming life.”
Micheli’s ads were great vistas of a genuine Wyoming cowboy on a horse. But him saying he was the only true businessman was viewed as untrue and unfair. Actually worked against him.
In this new age, they all had great Facebook pages. Simpson had perhaps the best, ironically.
And now – on to the general election.
Ah, what a great time for politics in Wyoming!
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