Wyoming Vote Tracker

In case you haven’t heard or seen the news, Sen. Enzi made his decision public yesterday. For the past several months, Republican officials have been pondering what Wyoming’ senior senator was going to do this year. The media has been prying to end to get some kind of idea what to write about. Granted, Sen. Enzi is pretty popular, so a re-election could be fairly easy, but everyone wants to know if they should be watching for a new Republican face to come along.

While waiting to exhale, many were probably concocting theories about Wyoming’s Senators. Probably one of the most extreme ones that I could think of (though I’ve not seen it published anywhere else) is that Sen. Enzi would be stepping down in January and Sen. Barrasso would announce that he too would be stepping down in January, but not to worry, he would also be a candidate for Sen. Enzi’s seat, thereby getting a six year term in stead of an unexpired four year term. Of course the interesting twist is that Sen. Enzi announces that, though he is stepping down, he is actually seeking Sen. Barrasso’s seat with the four year unexpired term. If both win in November, no one know who the senior Senator would be for certain since they both stepped down to seek election and essentially trade places.

Another line of thought is that Sen. Enzi has had it with Washington and is coming home for good in January, thereby creating a mad rush across the state over the next couple of weeks for Republicans to file for the nomination.

The other line of thought is that Sen. Enzi would in fact be running again. He’s just playing games with the heads of the party to make them consider their ways in committee assignments.

So yesterday morning, a crowd of 100 or so gathered in Gillette to hear what the Senator was going to do. Not even the Senator’s staff members knew the direction the speech was going to go.

According to reports, the speech began with a hint of retirement looming. The Senator spoke, his voice choked up a few times and he even stumbled through the opening lines of his speech, noting that in January 2009, he will have served two full terms in the U.S. Senate. For ten minutes he recounted the successes he’s had. Staff, friends, and family were thanked for their support.

In what seemed to be the last nail before announcing retirement, Sen. Enzi noted that he and his wife still had things they wanted to do while they were still young enough, and he told the crowd “We’ve been proud to serve you.”

No doubt, many were recalling the day they watched Mitt Romney give a rousing speech on conservatism and campaign successes at CPAC and then announce his campaign suspension. Maybe Sen. Enzi would do a reverse Mitt Romney and give all the signs of retiring then announce his intent to seek reelection. But what if this was really it? How many people would end up running for the open GOP-held seat? Would the successor be as good? One would suppose that time would tell. No doubt some eyes were welling up with tears, cringing at the thought of what might be said in the next sentence.

“And now, I’m asking the people of Wyoming to renew my contract.”

And all the crowd that was gathered together applauded with delight and exceeding great joy.

Be watching for Sen. Enzi’s campaign website, and no doubt, forthcoming endorsement from me.

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