Wyoming Vote Tracker

Over the past week, I have been posting content regarding the WYGOP County conventions. Now that I’ve completed reporting the results, I’m going to attempt to delve into the analysis of what happened. Due to the length of the commentary, this will also be a series of posts.

Choosing the Delegate and Straw Polling

As the saying goes people are funnier than anything. This was my first time attending a convention. Since meeting Park County GOP Committeewoman Cherie Fisher in Riverton last September, I have had the pleasure of being “in the loop” on the goings on of political-oriented events in the area. She picked up on my political addiction and has managed to make other members aware of my existence and interest. Not to say no one in the county party knew.

I worked with the former chairman, Glenn Ross, in 2006 on the Ray Hunkins and Barbara Cubin campaigns. I met another committeewoman shortly before John Barrasso’s appointment to the U.S. Senate. Both of these fine people were present at the convention. Also present was my parents’ neighbor, who is also a committeeman. I also met the current Vice Chairman Terry Hinckle (though I didn’t know he was vice-chair then) when Sen. Barrasso did his town hall meeting in Cody.

Anyway, I was on the list of alternate voting delegates for my area in case of an absence. When I arrived, I was asked to sign in and they’d let me know about my voting status when they completed their sign-in process. Shortly before the delegate candidates began speaking, I was thrilled to be presented with a voting packet. Although we were only choosing an alternate delegate, I was glad that I was not in Fremont County, where the process of choosing which alternates would fill in seems to have been a bit more complex.

I was surprised that there was a supporter of Rudy Giuliani here in Park County. Further surprised that she is on the central committee. She has apparently been convinced that he is not the threat to Second Amendment freedoms that he is perceived to be.

I was not surprised to see supporters for Mitt Romney. I’m not sure how much of his popularity is coming from the Mormon influence that exists in the Rocky Mountain West. He has visited the state a couple times and his sons have worked hard in the state. One is even a landowner in the state. However, he has consistently spoke conservative on the family values issues.

I was impressed that Colin Simpson had agreed to speak for Duncan Hunter. Granted, he was asked to do so when he arrived, but he was assured that his job would be easy since Duncan Hunter would be calling in from New Hampshire. After giving a brief introduction while trying to get the call connected. After finally getting the speaker-phone to work, Rep. Hunter addressed Western state concerns such as multiple use and public lands.

Rep. Simpson’s wife was also present and asked to speak on behalf of Fred Thompson. She did a good job at plugging for the former TN Senator and Law & Order actor.

At this point I was torn and I felt like what most Freshman elected officials must feel like when it comes time to vote on an issue that they may not win. Mitt Romney had strong support in the crowd. Colin Simpson has a huge name in the community, so that alone might be able to pull support to Rep. Hunter. Besides, Rep. Hunter practically made a “campaign stop” at our convention! Maybe he could get the proverbial momentum that the media seems to think wins elections! However, Rep. Simpson has noted that he himself is not quite as conservative as his wife (as well as the WYGOP Central Committee) and Mrs. Simpson seemed quite supportive of Fred Thompson, noting that Wyoming Right to Life had renewed their endorsement for his campaign. Yup, this was going to be a tough series of votes.

I finally decided to look past the delegate selection and look at the candidates. Since September 29, 2007, I have been a fan of Duncan Hunter’s, even if he is “lower tier.” And if he were to win a portion of Wyoming’s delegates, he could go somewhere with that. I wrote Colin Simpson’s name in the blank on both rounds of voting, because he was pledging support for Duncan Hunter.

I was slightly disheartened at the nine-point deficit after round one. I was encouraged to see that Romney and Hunter had each picked up two delegates in round two. A quick look at the numbers when the two nominees tied for last were removed showed that Duncan Hunter could win. 14 votes were up for grabs! This was getting exciting!

Then Rep. Simpson asked for approval to withdraw. I reluctantly voted “aye,” only because I liked his display of statesmanship. His own popularity could very well have been contributing to the “Hunter momentum,” and as it was explained the following Monday by his wife on Speak Your Piece, he wanted people supporting Duncan Hunter, not Colin Simpson, coupled with Rep. Simpson still not being totally settled on any one candidate.
And now, those of you that saw my mug on the front page of the Cody Enterprise know the rest of the story.

We started out with 50 voting delegates. While I find Ron Paul a decent man, I cannot bring myself to agree with where he is coming from on Iraq. I was glad to see that he had lost in the first round. Some of his supports seem to have desired a better showing as the vote tally decreased to 47 after the first round.

The straw poll was another interesting event. We had 47 votes in all but the last round. Support in the first round was more diverse than the alternate delegate vote, partly because some candidates didn’t have delegates supporting them. The anti-Second Amendment perception of “America’s Mayor” failed to fade as he remained low in polling. However, I was surprised to see Thompson drop sooner than Giuliani. Perhaps more stunning was Hunter leading round one, and then one behind Romney in round two and then a finalist with a two-vote lead over Romney! And then the moment of truth came when Hunter won the poll by six votes. Maybe we were supporting Duncan Hunter himself after all.

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