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Jim Roscoe, builder and outdoorsman.

We’ve all been suffering from election fatigue. But imagine you’re state legislative candidate Jim Roscoe, and after eight months of tireless campaigning, knocking on just about every door in a district nearly the size of Connecticut, you’re sentenced to two more weeks.

I’m going to throw a Brett Favre pass downfield here for all those who were part of Barack Obama’s movement for change, either by making phone calls to swing voters or urging their friends to register. With Tuesday’s revote in Alpine approaching, now is the time to step up and gain the final yard on behalf of Roscoe, for we will never achieve the change Obama represents if we don’t start at the local level.

Have friends or co-workers in Alpine? Give them a shout, and make sure they cast absentee ballots before leaving town for Thanksgiving. Contact the Teton Dems (or Joe Albright at 730-0403) for a list of voters and phone numbers. Better yet, volunteer to go door to door in Alpine by contacting Jim directly at (307) 733-5389.

We’ve seen already that this race will be decided by a handful of votes, and if ever you were looking to make a difference, here is the opportunity. One volunteer, one vote, could tip the outcome.

After the jump is an account of my wild and woolly trip to Alpine.

I’ve been to Cheyenne to cover the Wyoming Legislature and have witnessed firsthand how our government operates. Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than a two-to-one margin. Republican lawmakers meet in secret at the Cheyenne Country Club to set their agenda, while the Democrats hold essentially a brown-bag luncheon open to the public. Legislators do the bidding of power brokers in industry, and loyalty to the GOP trumps the best interest of citizens.

Jim Roscoe is the owner of a construction business in Wilson and a small ranch near Daniel. He has lived in the district for 35 years and has ties to all three counties represented (Teton, Sublette and Lincoln). His opponent, Charles Stough, moved to Pinedale two years ago and is a banker and a consultant for oil and gas companies.

Roscoe won this election Nov. 4 by four votes. Now he has to win it again, only this time with the Wyoming Republican Party and the oil and gas industry throwing considerable resources against him.

Knocking on doors in Alpine can be an exhilarating experience, for anyone wishing to be a hero. The following is an account of my trip to the Greys River country before the first election, when I met all types and was surprised by how open people were to talking about the race.

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Two years ago, on Election Night 2006, as the crowd spilled out of the Hard Drive Cafe and Democrats celebrated nationwide congressional victories, Jim Roscoe came slowly shuffling toward the door. I asked him what he had been up to, and he explained that he had been going door to door for Gary Trauner — in Pinedale.

Wow, I thought, what a good foot soldier, a Democrat walking some of the reddest streets in one of the reddest states. When Jim announced his candidacy for the legislature this spring, I decided I would do the same for him.

I drove to Alpine on a sunny Indian summer afternoon, shortly after a vicious attack letter by Marti Halverson of Star Valley had been printed in the newspapers. Halverson is a hack GOP operative, a true believer who would take a shotgun blast from Dick Cheney just to fall at his feet. Among other Googled fabrications, she accused Jim of being a “radical.” If Jim Roscoe is a radical, then I am indeed the quarterback of the New York Jets.

I first came to know this easygoing Irishman and former ski patroller about 10 years ago when I was the sports editor of the Jackson Hole News. Jim was a consummate soccer and hockey dad, ferrying sons Will and Wyatt across the state with his wife, Jane. He also coached, all while kicking my butt in the annual Pole Pedal Paddle, which he completed solo or in the family class.

I arrived in Alpine in the thick of hunting season. On the way down I had asked Jim the extent of his experience: 30 years, for elk, deer and antelope.

The first person I approached was a cowboy working in his garage, which was festooned with hunting paraphernalia. I told him how Jim was an avid hunter, and the man responded, “That’s all I need to know,” as he gladly took a brochure and yellow refrigerator magnet.

Then he leaned forward and said in a lower voice, “I thought about going door to door for Obama — you know, nigger knockin’.”

I must have done a poor job of concealing my horror, for the man seemed a bit ashamed as we parted. He didn’t mean any harm, I thought, and just airing that attempt at humor brought latent racism to the surface. Perhaps there was some benefit in that, I figured, as I tried to put the incident behind me.

The man’s neighbor was very receptive, and I was 2-for-2 and on a roll. In the next driveway I approached, a man told me he was not voting. “Not voting?” I said, with a look of utter disbelief.

“Many years ago,” the man said softly, “I gave my vote to Jesus.” Any person we elect to office would be imperfect, he explained, and Jesus did not get involved in politics. (Had I been thinking quicker, I would have told him that today Jesus would be a Democrat, but I was too dumbfounded to speak much.)

Ah, Alpine.

Around the new suburban subdivisions I went. There are far more houses on the bench above the Greys River than many people realize. The sound of a dog barking sent me treading carefully, mindful that Jim already had been bitten twice while going door to door. ATVs, horse trailers and other motorized toys littered yards or driveways. If ever I saw a mountain bike or drift boat, my spirits lifted. At one point, I was 7-for-9 in positive receptions for Roscoe, and feeling like I had scored a touchdown.

A pattern emerged as darkness approached: workers hurrying home to feed their families. Big, shiny trucks were parked in front of modest homes, and I wondered whether people were struggling to make payments. There was a sense of urgency to this working-class enclave that one doesn’t see as much in the recreational la-la land of Jackson Hole. I began to feel like I was in a Barack Obama infomercial.

Sometimes people asked about Jim’s stance on the issues: lowering property taxes, protecting the Wyoming Range and preserving our outdoor and ranching heritage. But mainly I tried to convey what I knew best: that Jim is as fine and decent a man as we could send to Cheyenne to represent us. That resonated with people.

And the most compelling argument was the fact that no one was paying me or even had asked me to do this, that I had volunteered on my own because Jim was a deserving candidate.

After dark my friend Neil and I retired first to Gunnar’s Pizza and then the Bull Moose Saloon, two Alpine institutions where Roscoe received friendly receptions. I listened as Jim Blittersdorf, owner of the Bull Moose, ranted about the resistance he has faced in his battle to hold topless dancing, by far the most popular and profitable entertainment at the bar.

Whether you like what Blittersdorf is doing or not, you have to admit that he has a compelling argument. People are not forced to visit the bar on nights when there is nude wrestling in cages or whatever; they can come some other night when there is music, he explained. He is embroiled in a bitter legal fight that has gone to one of the highest courts in the state.

Blittersdorf told me one prominent Wyoming judge was dismissive of the case, saying he ought to know better than to open a strip bar in a Mormon valley. Exasperated, Blittersdorf said that was like telling a black man he ought to know better than move to a white community.

This latter-day Larry Flynt voted for Nixon in 1972, yet he has become so fed up with the Republican Party shoving religion down his throat that Blittersdorf avidly is supporting Democrats up and down the ballot, he explained.

With that I finished my beer and bid my friend Neil adieu. As I drove home through the Snake River Canyon, I marveled that even in Alpine, Wyoming, people are eager for change.

Posted under Democratic Party, Politics, Wyoming Legislature