Wyoming Vote Tracker

Tuesday night was quite a night. As we near the weekend, I’m just about recuperated from the experience. Until this week, I had never been to a candidate sponsored election night party. I was at one hosted by the Park County Republicans back in November of 2006, but this was a whole new level for me. I had already planned on keeping up with the returns early on. So much that I took the night off from work for the occasion.

Then Amy, a fan of this blog and one of the Lummis campaign staff members, asked if I would be down in Casper for “the party.” I told her I’d have to play it by ear, but I’d try. I did manage to have a short day at the motel, so I freshened up at home and hit the road shortly after 2 PM. My only wish is that I would have had time to stop and take in the beautiful scenery that I watched go by along the byways of Wyoming.

My desire to be in Casper drove me on to where the only stop I needed to make was in Shoshoni (like Emblem, but with people). I did want to stop for one of their famous malts, but I had not thought of it till after I made my stop at the gas station to refill not my car, but my mug.

I pressed along and wondered once again why WYDOT forced people to slow down in Powder River (half the size of Shoshoni but five times that of Emblem) but none of the other towns along the way to Casper. What amzed me even more that I was able to pick up the Thermopolis radio station (*singing* Dino one-oh-one point seven…) all the way down to about the Casper airport. You can even pick it up in most parts of Cody now thanks to the FCC mandating that KZMQ move it’s Cody frequency from 101.1 to 101.7.

Anyway, I arrived into the eastern edge of Casper right about 5 (I must have had a lot of iron-rich food before I left Cody). I pulled out my trusty phone equipped with VZ Navigator and brought up the address of the party. First step was to do what I would normally do and turn left onto the spur to the Interstate. As I prepared to enter the turn lane, I noted how far I was from the stoplight, plus the factor of a couple big rigs, so I quickly and safely moved back into the left traffic lane, so that VZN could recalculate my route, which it did.

I made it to the location with plenty of time to spare, so I meandered my way to fuel up the car. For the first time in months, I saw mid-grade gas (87 octane) under $4 a gallon, so I wanted to avail myself to that before I left town, and now would be better than later. I ended up on the other side of town at  the Flying J, but it was well worth getting to drive on the Interstate. Plus the Flying J is a traditional stop for me in Casper.  I meandered back to the location of the party and pondered the placement of the Dick Cheney Federal Building, directly across the road from the WyoDem HQ, and behind the Dick Cheney Federal Building was a big ol’ blue Cynthia Lummis sign. That sure did warm my heart, but I still wonder if the federal building was first or the WyoDems.

I made it back to the party location and was still early. I figured I might as well go on in and see if they needed any help with last minute set up. A couple of men were in the bar area, but other than that, the place was well decorated with Lummis for Congress door hangers, although the attempt to make garland out of them didn’t work. A small table had stacks of campaign literature, and one could only hope that it wouldn’t be outdated after the night was over.

I observd conversation between the two men, One was only there for the drink and would be heading out at the start of the pary, the other was a Lummis supporter and was there for the long haul. Shortly before the start of the party, a couple of women had entered. We went out to see who was there, one of them recognized the man I met earlier, and I had a feeling who she was. She introduced herself and Amy Swan and I put faces and voices to each others e-mails for the first time.

Through the evening, others arrived. I saw Ryan Ford once again, and the most recent campaign worker I met in Cody, Matthew Wold. Soon there were more folks there than I could keep track of. State legislator Charlie Scott was present, and so was Kit Jennings (another fan, as are some of his employees).

I got to meet the youngest Republican I know reading this blog, Brandon. Later on in the night, a woman approached me and asked if I was from Cody and had a blog. I told her I did, and she introduced herself and expressed her appreciation for my blogging.

Cynthia and her husband arrived a little over an hour after the polls closed. I was helping monitor results at the laptops at the time, but I did go over to greet her, and I’m pretty sure that she didn’t expect me to be there. Once the crowd had dispersed, I meandered my way over to her husband to meet him (I recognized him from the brochure).

It was exciting to watch the numbers come in. The Casper Star Tribune had Natrona County’s results posted on their front page, but we were continually flustered that as a major Wyoming paper, they only had one county and nothing state wide. A few counties had results pages running, and for some reason, could not get the Secretary of State’s page to show anything. I proposed checking the Billings Gazette site since they have a Wyoming bureau. Sure enough, on the front page was a chart showing Wyoming’s Primary Results. One person commented that it was sad that they could get better coverage of state wide numbers from a Montana paper than a Casper paper and the two are owned by the same company.

KCWY-13 was present with a camera and reporter. The reporter asked if I would be willing to be interviewed, and I was. As the numbers continued to roll in, it looked more and more like Cynthia Lummis as going to win. Those of us at the laptops were looking forward to seeing the red check mark appear by Cynthia’s name declaring her the winner. 90% of precincts in, and no clear winner yet. The numbers started blitzing in; 95% in and no winner. In between those two, I was interviewed, as was another man. The reporter sought out Cynthia to interview her, assuming she would win. Just as the interview was getting started, Sen. Jennings hollered out for everyone’s attention that with 96% of the precincts in, Cynthia Lummis had won the primary! A loud cheer went up around the room at the news. Brandon tells me you can find the interview here.

Later on, Cynthia had her supporters gather into the main room. She addressed the crowd and thanked eveyone for their hard work and grassroots efforts. Of course her husband Al and daughter Annaliese were thanked for not only their campaign support, but also their familial support. Amy Swan was thanked for her upbeat and positive energy. Cynthia expressed her desire to go doorknocking for Megen (I found out later she’s another one who reads this blog). Ryan Ford was deemed the “resident of Carbon County.” for campaign strategy, her go-to man was Bill Cubin (I looked over to see that he had been over my shoulder much of the night). Completely unexpected, this blogger was mentioned by name as being instrumental in Park County’s results. She encouragd us to continue on to November and thanked us once more for our support

After the speech, I went to meet Mr. Cubin and found another fan. We had a good talk and he’s got some information on Gary Trauner he’s going to send me. I always like good blogging material, especially when it’s directed at the other party!

If you haven’t noticed, I enjoy blogging about the people I meet that follow this blog. Not because of me, but because of them. You the readers are the ones that make this worth while. I feel that blogging has made the state a little smaller as far as communicating ideas and sharing thoughts on the political scene. I check my stats every couple days (by the way, election night became the best night for this blog), and I know people are reading. Until someone leaves a comment, I don’t know who is reading with consistency, though I do figure that since I have a fairly consistent number of visits, there is a base of support. I enjoy meeting readers, as much as receiving comments.

Thank you readers, from the well-known to the not-so-well-known, for stopping in, whether you’re new or been around for a while. I would be out of line if I didn’t thank Annaliese for reading and telling the lady that ended up being my candidate, and then both of them for doing their part to spread the word, and the folks within the campaign that have been regular visitors. You all are awesome, and while it seems like ego-building on the outside, I can assure you that it is humbling that you are checking to see what I have to say. Thank you for letting me contribute to the cause.

Now is the time to continue on the fight to November. We need to elect Cynthia Lummis to the House of Representatives, and Senators Enzi and Barrasso need to be retained in the U.S. Senate. We need to get Wyoming’s three electoral votes to John McCain. The next couple months are going to be fun and I’m looking forward to watching the campaigns do their things.

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