By Jim Stanford on August 17, 2010
Liberals voting in the GOP primary is "precisely what the right wing fears the most," says Capt. Bob.
Today is primary election day. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voters may register at the polls; you need to have lived here only a minute to vote. Click here to find your polling place.
What’s at stake? The governor’s race, for starters. There’s an important contest for Wyoming Legislature. And the fate of 11 specific purpose tax projects hangs in the balance, including $1 million for improvement of the Wilson and South Park access points on the Snake River.
Adding intrigue is the possibility that many Democratic-leaning voters may switch party registration (temporarily, likely) to participate in the Republican primary, where more races are contested. This used to happen in Teton County all the time, before Dick Cheney made the GOP so toxic and sent voters to the Democratic rolls in droves.
The biggest champion of this strategy, of course, is Capt. Bob Morris, who again is seeking the Republican nomination for Teton County commissioner. “Joining a party does not strengthen it; neither does it signify your allegiance for it,” he says on his Facebook page. “One joins whichever party has the more significant primary — even if that is the party which is the more contemptible.”
Voting districts and poll locations in town. Click to enlarge.
Capt. Bob used to go as far as advising young voters to “hold their noses” while voting in the Republican primary. The ploy worked in 2000, when he stunned everyone by winning the GOP primary.
Other candidates besides Capt. Bob could benefit today from crossover votes, including Ruth-Ann Petroff, former owner of the Domino’s Pizza franchise and Hard Drive Cafe. Petroff has been dissed twice in the News&Guide — first by the paper itself, which in the article announcing her candidacy repeatedly referred to her as the wife of Mayor Mark Barron, as if she had no accomplishments of her own (including multiple Small Business Owner of the Year awards). In another front-page article, she drew criticism from her GOP opponent, Joe Schloss, and his supporters for not being Republican enough. (Brilliant strategy, guys!)
Schloss is a former Homeland Security and FBI agent twice thumped in the race for House District 16 by outgoing Rep. Pete Jorgensen, D-Jackson. Third time is not likely to be the charm. The winner will face the estimable Len Carlman.
Finally, the governor’s race. No candidate stands to gain as much from Teton County Democrats switching parties today as Matt Mead, the former U.S. attorney raised in Spring Gulch. Mead will need a big push from his native county (he lives in Cheyenne and has ranches in Albany and Goshen counties) if he is to separate from the crowded GOP field.
Democrat Pete Gosar bow hunting in the Winds.
Almost bewilderingly, Speaker of the House Colin Simpson of Cody trails far behind in the Star-Tribune poll, while State Auditor Rita Meyer is said to have the lead. Ron Micheli, a rancher from Fort Bridger, is the biggest wingnut of the bunch. Meyer, who served 23 years in the Wyoming Air National Guard, received an endorsement from Sarah Palin. Kiss. Of. Death.
In the Democratic primary, the governorship is the lone contested race. Leslie Petersen, a realtor from Teton County and chairwoman of the state party, is almost certain to win, having the support of the establishment. But her challenger, Pete Gosar of Pinedale, has put forth what I consider the best idea to come out of either primary: raising the severance tax on minerals as prices rise. That way as companies reap more profits, the state benefits as well. Gosar has advocated this idea fearlessly, as one might expect of a walk-on linebacker at the University of Wyoming who went on to make All-WAC.
Although he has pandered to the right throughout the primary, Mead is probably best of the GOP lot. A cynic might advise that Democrats register Republican to back Micheli or Schloss, who would be easier for Democratic candidates to beat. But that’s too Machiavellian for me. At the end of the day, let’s have two good candidates for governor and House District 16.
Posted under Democratic Party, Politics, Republican Party, Wyoming Legislature
The electorate-trapping season is well on its way. The candidates are the hunters and we are, the public, the hunted. Shells carrying good, bad, false, sometimes true statements and harangues are being shot at us.
It is up to us to be the true spiritual children of Emerson, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln and sort the manure from the truffles.
The hunters clearly have the advantage. Why? The reason being that the first round of bullets do not have to be factual, they set the tone. We the targets must give no quarters to defend ourselves.
Peter Moyer delivered his first salvo but sending his manifesto via the press. PM is a master of macroeconomics and predicts that an influx of computer carrying locus are going to invade our county requiring affordable housing and dry the coffers of our already depleted chess. He follows by making nonsensical assertions that the plague of these loci is to increase road kills, to only mention one of them.
To give PM his due, his extrapolation raises the eternal question: Do we want to move forward and favor the working, lower middle and professional classes to live here or do we want to keep the regime where money defines everything? Here, wildlife which is by the way loved by all poor or rich, is used as a Trojan horse install into our minds doubts about the net worth of our real estate and fears of doom? Let us ask ourselves where the money come from to finance those powerful environmental organizations.
So Teton County, PM forces us to introspect and ask ourselves what we want. Let us use this electoral period to think more deeply of what is good not for our individual self but for the county as a whole.
Express yourselves Tetoneers!
Matt Mead is running a Nasty campaign, and noone should forget that he has the same team that tried to push Kate Mead four years ago. Her campaign was mean spirited, full of lies, and downright assenine.
I could live with either Simpson or Mead as governor. From the start, I thought this was Simpson’s race to lose. I guess he hasn’t really caught fire in GOP voters’ minds, probably because he isn’t his father. He would make an effective administrator, and both he and Mead would be more moderate than the rest. Hope that’s not just wishful thinking.
Casper Star-Tribune has Mead winning the GOP governor’s race by 714 votes.