Caucus may have become the word of the moment this year as the Freedom Caucus beat up the Wyoming Caucus severely in Tuesday’s Republican primary.
As the battle for the soul of the Republican Party reached fever proportions, when the dust settled, the Freedom Caucus was the big winner, claiming possibly 10 new seats.
These folks, who see themselves as the true Republicans and who also see themselves as the true believers to Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump, are poised to run this state from the legislative branch the next two years.
That Word Caucus
Here’s some humor about the word “caucus.” Longtime politician Mo Udall of Arizona, said because he lived in the desert, he knew the difference between the word caucus and cactus. “With a cactus, the pricks on are on the outside,” he said. Thanks to former Wyoming newspaperman Steve Woody for that gem.
Our 2024 Republican primary campaign was a barn-burner and full of meanness and hate. Yes, folks, politics in Wyoming, once again, is not political, it is personal.
Much of the deadly campaign fodder was funded by out of state organizations and was aimed at the members of the Wyoming Caucus, who some folks in the Freedom Caucus call RINOs. This stands for Republican In Name Only.
They vented their fury on folks like Bob Nicholas in Cheyenne, Lloyd Larsen in Lander, Ember Oakley in Riverton, and about eight others. Speaker of the House Albert Sommers of Sublette County was also in their sights and was defeated.
Albert looked like a shoo-in to us pundits because he had been winning elections since 2012 and faced two challengers in his primary. He still lost when Laura Taliaferro Pearson of Kemmerer rode a huge surge of hometown votes to the win.
Election Night Reflections
Cowboy State Daily hosted a 3 1/2 hour live video broadcast of the election Tuesday night that included six panelists, the Wyoming Congressional delegation, and two former governors.
As a member of the panel, I found the experience full of suspense and I also learned a lot.
For example, Liz Brimmer, who recently moved to Lander from Jackson, has had a long career as a political consultant and when early returns seemed to indicate an obvious result, she admonished us to “wait until all the votes are in.”
She no doubt had experienced other campaigns where victory celebrations were premature. This happened to this year’s Lloyd Larsen - Tina Clifford race in Lander, which appeared to be a win for Tina until a late surge of absentee ballots pushed Larsen over the top.
I think it was, hearing both CSD Columnist Rod Miller and former federal leader Rob Wallace explain how elections changed during the Mike Sullivan governor administration when the courts ruled against county districts and forced single candidate districts. That made it much easier to create these nasty campaigns, it was pointed out.
Some of this year’s tiny local campaigns were costing $80,000, I pointed out, and I asked Columnist Tom Lubnau of Gillette how much he spent on his campaigns a decade ago? He said the most ever was $14,000. Times have changed.
Panelist Cassie Craven of Cheyenne who represents the Freedom Caucus philosophies argued that it was not just negative mailers that propelled her folks to victory but also that they worked very hard and had great “ground games,” which refers to people on the ground knocking on doors.
Rob Wallace recalled fondly the good old days when Wyoming politicians worked together for the good of the state. He said he misses that bipartisanship.
U. S. Sen. John Barrasso and Congresswoman Harriet Hageman both celebrated their primary wins on our show while U. S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis showed up to share her wisdom.
Two former Democrat governors, Mike Sullivan of Casper and Dave Freudenthal of Cheyenne, offered up some smart answers to our questions. Sullivan handled my question to him about how does it feel to be a Democrat today but saying that many of his oil and gas friends in Casper say they are doing okay under the current supposedly anti-fossil fuel Democrat administration.
Freudenthal made an impact on me when he gave us a brief lecture about how disappointed he was with the lack of focus on “Wyoming’s future,” in most of the campaigns. He was upset that folks seemed to be ignoring the obvious big issues like the flight of young people out of the state and influx of old folks coming in. He said these are not the signs of a healthy state. But few candidates talked about it, he said.
State Sen. Charlie Scott (R-Casper) won reelection and could become the longest serving legislator in the country. He fought back a stiff bid by former Natrona Commissioner Rob Hendry.
Congratulations Winners, Thanks Losers
I was surprised to see Clark Stith of Rock Springs, Tom Walters of Casper, Ember Oakley of Riverton and Dan Zwonitzer of Cheyenne lose their seats.
Former CSD Columnist Cat Urbigkit would have seemed to be the projected winner in her race but Mike Schmid won easily. Schmid is a force.
An attempt to defuse the negative mailer campaign in support of Gov. Mark Gordon pumped some $165,000 into many of the Wyoming Caucus candidate races to try to neutralize the effect of the nasty mailers supporting Freedom Caucus candidates. It helped some but the overall result favored the Freedom Caucus folks.
Kudos to our Executive Editor Jimmy Orr for dreaming up the idea of the live video coverage of the election and thanks moderator Wendy Corr plus Brad, Greg, all the reporters and my fellow panelists. It was a blast and a big success.
And finally, a big thanks to the folks who lost in the races Tuesday. It can tear your guts out to lose an election. If you see someone who lost, thank them throwing their hats in the ring. We need competitive ideas in competitive elections.
