In the end, an election that looked like the craziest in
Wyoming history ended up right where it started – front runner State Treasurer
Mark Gordon, Buffalo, won going away.
But what
happened on Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018, in the GOP gubernatorial primary was unprecedented
in the state’s 128-year history.
A record
number of voters, some 140,000 in the total primary and almost 118,000 in the
GOP primary, rocked the preconceived notions of pundits and the plans of
candidates.
Gordon
withstood a withering assault of anonymous nasty mailers plus complaints by
fellow candidate Harriet Hageman of Cheyenne to notch the win.
Three
unprecedented things happened in this race: vast sums of money were spent, an
endorsement by a sitting president occurred and record numbers of “crossover”
voters became Republicans.
First, biggest
change in this race compared to past ones was the huge sum of money expended.
Gordon, Hageman, Foster Friess of Jackson and Sam Galeotos of Cheyenne may have
each spent nearly $2 million or more. Most ever spent prior to this was eight
years ago when Gov. Matt Mead spent $1.3 million to win a hotly contested
primary.
Second, President
Donald Trump endorsed Friess on the morning of Election Day. Never have we had a sitting president endorse
a candidate in a Wyoming primary campaign.
Third, arguably,
the most unique story of this campaign will be the final tally of people
changing parties at the polls. It may
have been as high as 9,000 voters as Democrats and Independents became
Republicans. Most of the crossovers appeared to support Gordon for his seemingly
moderate political stances or to vote against
Friess, because of Trump connections and his strong pro-life beliefs. Spirited
local races also caused crossovers registrations.
Some Democrats
demurred when told the theory about crossovers.
But good for them. If what they
did was intentional, it was legal under current Wyoming law and was a doggoned
good strategy.
Republican
mega-donor Friess entered the race late, just 119 days before primary day. He started with less than 1 percent name
recognition and was sixth in the polls at the end of April. On Election Day, he
finished second. A week before the election he was one point ahead of Gordon in
a poll by a national firm, making the race look much closer than it ended up
being.
During the GOP
primary campaign, it always seemed that it benefitted Friess if the other
candidates (Gordon, Hageman, Galeotos) stayed bunched up during the last months
of campaigning. Then Friess could leap-frog them at the end. Didn’t happen.
Gordon’s lead was too big on Aug. 21.
On primary
election day, the statewide crossover vote sure seemed to increase Gordon’s
victory. Plus the surprising drop in
votes for Galeotos meant somebody was going to get his lost votes.
My totally unscientific projected
totals would have seen Gordon and Friess finishing tied with 30,000 votes each.
That estimate was obviously incorrect.
At his rally
Tuesday night Friess said he reached out to Gordon and offered to help in any
way. He encouraged everyone to help Gordon, too. He also said he and Lynn plan
to stay involved in Wyoming issues.
The campaign
pace was frenetic for all the candidates. It helped that Friess had his own
plane. For example, he made 17 campaign stops in cities and towns during the
last 72 hours of the campaign: Sheridan,
Laramie, Cheyenne, Rawlins, Casper, Douglas, Rawlins, Casper, Gillette, Pinedale,
Cheyenne, Evanston, Gillette, Casper, Jackson, Gillette, and finally Casper.
Even with a
plane, that schedule could wear you out.
And then there
were the other races:
I was
surprised to see Curt Meier of Torrington knock off Leland Christensen of Alta for
State Treasurer. Seemed like Leland had
the momentum. Meier spent a lot of money on ads and had Newcastle ad guru Bob
Bonnar in his corner, a big plus.
Nathan Winters
of Thermopolis sure seemed like he had a chance to defeat Kristi Racines of Cheyenne
for State Auditor, but it was not even close.
If Kristi wins the general I hope she will open the state’s books for
Wyoming citizens.
U. S. Sen.
John Barrasso of Casper easily turned back Dave Dodson of Jackson, who spent a
boatload of money in a furious challenge. Now Barrasso will take on Gary
Trauner of Wilson in the general.
This primary took
on the feel of an athletic contest with everyone cheering on their teams. Now, I am ready to cheer on the Cowboys and
Broncos!
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