CHEYENNE —Two big political announcements this week may have diminished the chances of electing a woman governor next year.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis told us she is retiring at the age of 71.
She is worn out by working through the long hours amid the chaos called Congress.
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman jumped in immediately to announce she will run for Lummis’ soon-to-be empty seat.
These two are the top women politicians in the state.
The office of governor always has been regarded as the best political job in Wyoming.
I always thought Lummis would be the one to nab it to become the first woman elected governor on her own merits.
Even after her announcement, supporters are urging her to run for governor, according online posts.
This is not a snub of Nellie Tayloe Ross, who served one term as governor in the 1920s. But she gained the office because she was the widow of the elected governor, Democrat William Bradford Ross, not because she was a great candidate.
Lummis has all the creds; she hit all the bases – legislator, state treasurer, congresswoman and U.S. senator.
Unlike Lummis, Hageman never served in an elected office prior to her election to Congress.
She had, however run for governor before. In 2018 she came in third in a six-way Republican gubernatorial primary, behind Mark Gordon and Foster Friess.
Her chances are tons of better now, having made it to Congress and enjoying the full support of President Trump and the MAGA crowd. She can transfer that support to her new campaign.
Another factor in electing a woman governor: Gov. Mark Gordon could suddenly announce his intention to seek a third term after getting a green light from the state Supreme Court.
That signal can be pretty quick, attorneys familiar with the torturous history of Wyoming term limits will tell you.
One of those lawyers who represented the legislators/plaintiffs was Harriet Hageman.
Simply put the Supreme Court threw out term limits for legislators and four of the five elected state officials. The reason: they were put into effect by a constitutional amendment through a ballot initiative.
The court said a constitutional amendment must go through the Legislature first, a move that requires a two-thirds majority vote, before it can be approved by voters.
That never happened.
For reasons that are unclear, the office of governor was not included in the original lawsuit, leaving the status in limbo.
It is unlikely at this point that Gordon will run again; he appears to be supporting legislator Eric Barlow of Gillette, a rancher and veterinarian who is not known for supporting MAGA.
Even though it is early, we are not seeing a crush of women running for governor.
I am referring to Republican women; the Democrats are not in the game this year, or at least not yet.
The Republican leaders of the past have not been kind to their potential gubernatorial female candidates.
That treatment goes back to Thyra Thomson, who served as Secretary of State from 1963 to1987.
Wildly popular, she usually led the ticket in election years.
Despite her support from the people, the party hierarchy discouraged her ideas of moving to the governor’s office.
There have been many good, unsuccessful women candidates for governor - Democrats and Republicans - think Kathy Karpan, Mary Throne, Rita Meyer.
Their defeats may show that voters are clinging to a mind-set that the governor must be a guy with boots and a horse.
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632- 2534-or jmbarron@bresnan.net
