Wyoming Vote Tracker

On short notice, the Park Counthy Republican Party was notified that Sen. Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis would be including Cody in their schedule of campaign stops across the state on Monday afternoon.

The anouncement came Saturday, a day when several area Republicans were phone-banking for the GOP ticket at the Headquarters. In addition to the Get Out The Vote reminders, there was now a promotion for getting people to Downtown Cody to see the popular junior Senator and hopeful Republican successor to our current Representative.

Additional phone calls were made Monday morning, as well as some advertising on local radio paid for by the Barrasso for Senate campaign.

Shortly before 2 PM, people started arriving, and there was an amazingly well-packed house. Upon his arrival, my favorite Billings Gazette reporter, photographer and former blogger, Ruffin Prevost, chatted with me about how the blogging and site traffic had been going this year. Looked like there might be an interview as he was writing stuff down.

Right around 2, Sen. Barrasso walked in through the back door and those who saw him, started a welcome round of applause that quickly spread through the building. Cynthia Lummis followed him in and the rush to shake hands began. Camera flashes went off, cell phone cameras quacked. I milled about looking for the best camera angles. I found myself in the line of people Sen. Barrasso was working through. Just as State Sen. Hank Coe was getting the crowd’s attention, Sen. Barrasso arrived at me, looked at me, and noted that he recognized me from the campaign anouncement in Thermopolis.

That thrilled me like you wouldn’t believe. I’ve always had these feelings that the Senator had some recognition of me. I met him at the town hall meeting in Cody, saw him a few weeks later in Riverton for a Presidential forum. There he called me by name, and it was only when I was on my way home that I realized I was wearing a name badge. In February, I saw him at the park County Lincoln Day Dinner. The next time I saw him was the announcement in Thermopolis, where he was enthusiastic about my enthusiasm (Lummis button, Republican hat, etc…). I was glad to hear the Senator express that he had recognized me.

Back to Sen. Coe’s introduction, he noted that he was the only one in the room that had served in the state legislature with Mike Enzi, John Barrasso, and Cynthia Lummis and that those three in D.C. would make a great voice for Wyoming. His main introduction was to Cynthia Lummis.

She spoke about taking Wyoming values to Washington and her desire to help Sens. Barrasso and Enzi make Washington a little more efficient through balancing the budget (like we do in Wyoming), keeping bills limited to one subject (like we do in Wyoming), and law makers knowing what’s in those bills (like Wyoming’s legislature does). She gave praise to Sens. Barrasso and Enzi for their opposition to the bailout bill, and noted that even after the bill passed, they kept talking wtih the Treasurey Secretary and Fed Chief about some ideas that are less-burdonsome to the tax-payers, and those ideas are now going to be given some consideration.

Following the Speech by Cynthia Lummis, WYGOP Chairman Diana Vaughn addressed the group and introduced Sen. John Barrasso. Sen. Barrasso gave his support to Cynthia Lummis as well as providing a contrast between Sens. McCain and Obama and the WYGOP Congressional ticket and the Wyoming Democrat Congressional ticket.

Al Simpson addressed the crowd next, and there were intermitent addresses from his brother Pete Simpson and son State Rep. Collin Simpson. State Rep. Simpson encouraged people to vote yes on both Amendments A & B. I agree with him on Amendment A, but I’m still not convinced about Amendment B, so I am still voting no on it. By the way, Pete Simpson recognized me from our meeting at the Big Horn County Lincoln Day Dinner in March (and my subsequent e-mails).

All in all, the event went very well for being essentially a last-minute event. in 2006, Park County proved to be an influential county in the U.S. House race, being the county that came to the rescue for Rep. Cubin, who had been trailing in the results all night until Park County’s numbers came in. Hopefully, it won’t be the nail-biter of a night this go-round, but I am confident that Park County Republicans have been shored up, and if need be, we’ll deliver again.

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