Wyoming Vote Tracker

Hey, have ya’ heard??? The blogroll has grown! I’m not talkin’ about how I’ve added endorsement links (yes, I even endorse my car insurance agent, because after all, she’s a good neighbor, and I have to endorse somebody [which is not to say that I’ve endorsed nobody], even if it does invite a bizillion spam comments about home, car, and health insurance that I just end up deleting). It’s a political season; you should expect endorsement links.

So, I figured I’d introduce some of my blogging friends to you. Some of them are folks I’ve interacted with, via e-mail or actual meetings, others are folks that I’ve come across in my researching that may or may not be remotely aware of my existence, but that’s OK.

• Basin Beat Blues: Ruffin Prevost is one of the first Wyoming bloggers I interacted with. This was back before WVT existed and I was doing all my blogging on Political Cowboy. Last March, he took my picture, along with my approximately 599 closest friends, and a couple months later, we had the opportunity to meet in a much smaller setting. I’m not quite sure what all of his political leanings are (after all, he is a newspaper reporter), but last summer he did introduce me as a blogger to State Rep. Colin Simpson. I did clarify that my blogging was by hobby, not profession.
• Sunflower Desert: The blogger I respectfully call Mrs. C. Our first online meeting goes back to the latter part of the 2006 election cycle, again, before WVT. One day, this comment shows up for me to moderate, complete with a wordpress dot com blog addy, and I’m thinking, Someone else blogs in Wyoming??? Conservative? And Christian? How strangely ironic  is that? Had the opportunity to meet her in person in Riverton last September and it is amazing how well you can get to know someone just by reading their blog. Anyway, she kept coming back to comment; we commented back and forth, and then something really weird happened…
• Haemet: Hay, what??? Just be glad she’s shortened then name since switching to Conservablogs. It used to be Haemet Yeshachrer Otcha and I probably mis-spelled it more than once, and I still can’t pronounce it. It’s all Hebrew to me! Yes, I found out Mrs. C. had a blogging daughter. I didn’t quite catch the captions in their blogrolls (not just because she’s my daughter; my favorite mother), but I was ever so amazed when this comment showed up shortly after the bittersweet election of 2006.
• April Showers: Yes, 2006 was quite a year. We had just re-elected Sen. Thomas to his third term. He fought a fight against leukemia, and seemed to be on the upswing after several months in the new Congress. Then the news hit that he had passed. Wyoming Republicans mourned the loss and then went to work to try to fill the shoes of a great man that did great things for the state. Remember that  meeting I told you about last summer? Well, it seems my preference coming out of that town hall meeting impressed my preferred candidate’s daughter. While she didn’t comment at first, she did point out my post, which some of her readers followed her lead, which caught my eye when I checked my blog stats. We have some issues we disagree on, but I do enjoy having another blogger with ties to the Big Horn Basin, yea, even Park County.
• The Ranger Outpost: Hey, check this out: another blogger from CODY that’s not someone’s daughter!!! Admit it; you were getting suspicious that I only read the blogs from the ladies. Now you know it’s not true. This blogger is a regular guest on KODI’s Speak Your Piece and used to be a National Park Service ranger in Yellowstone. Needless to say, he has some interesting insights into the NPS bureaucracy of today, and a number of other subjects.
• The Write Stuff: Radio host Steve Norris has a blog, but I think he quit blogging right after I found him. Hopefully, he’ll get back into it.
• Chris Adamo: A conservative Wyoming Republican activist. I would like to see him talk a little more about Wyoming in his op-eds, but he does have a good perspective on national politics.
• Wyoming College Republicans: I have this great group under the WYGOP heading, and I haven’t interacted much with them, but it is nice that they do have a blog to keep up (as they’re able) with their activities.
• Wyomingirl: Campaigning for Congress: I’m just going to out-and-out admit it. After all, my fan wasn’t at all shy about telling people in Big Horn County that she followed my blog all the way back in New York, so why should I be shy in admitting this fan exists. Yes, I’ve talked about her, but not specifically. So here goes…. Somebody else’s daughter reads my blog. Yup. Not just anybody else’s daughter though. Only happens to be the daughter of the former State Treasurer and current Republican Congressional candidate, Cynthia Lummis. Some of you probably already had me pegged on that and were just being kind and not mentioning it. Well, now you know. And just to clarify, because now I know, with this confession, I’m now a target for suspicion by some, I chose Cynthia Lummis because that’s who I wanted to choose. Yes, people, including Annaliese, were influential (it’s called campaigning), but this is not a mere trade-off of You read my blog, so I’ll support your mom. I was leaning toward Cynthia Lummis when she declared her intent to run in January. After a while of contemplation, I decided to go all the way in supporting her. My choice.
• My Turn to Sound Off: Anthony Sacco’s blog on Townhall.com! I came across Mr. Sacco’s writings while doing some research on Wyoming family values organizations.
• Harlan Edmonds’ Writing: The latest addition to my blogroll. This gentleman is the husband of State Rep. Amy Edmonds. I noticed a peculiar e-mail address in my subscriber tab yesterday, and thought, I bet I can get some information about a particular editorial if I write to this e-mail. So, I wrote, and sure enough, it was who I thought it was! And, I was able to get information about the editorial, which you can find here Oh, and by the way, I think the man has an excellent sense of humor.

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