"Hey Steve Friess, British actor Hugh Grant is on the phone. He wants his hair back!"
The well-coiffed Friess is a tall, good-looking guy and perhaps the perfect candidate when it comes to appearance. His hair might be the best of any candidate in the past 10 years, hence the reference to Hugh Grant. He is one of the front-runners for the Republican nomination for U. S. House.
That Facebook comment above is my favorite political potshot so far during this campaign season.
My second favorite comes from candidate Robert Short, who is running for Secretary of State. It goes like this:
"Let's make the Secretary of State's office BORING again!"
This is a knock on the current officeholder, Chuck Gray, who has been a lightning rod during his term. Gray is now in a bruising race for the U.S. House with eight other candidates, a contest that has provided most of the color and controversy during this political season.
Mud Being Thrown
Gubernatorial candidate Eric Barlow has been the subject of more negative mailers and TV commercials than just about any candidate in recent Wyoming history. Folks backing Megan Degenfelder have just about buried our mailboxes with negative fliers about Barlow and burned up the TV airwaves calling him just about everything imaginable.
Barlow must be frustrated because he has run a clean campaign up to now. He is a moderate and thus a big target for folks leaning more toward the conservative side.
Back to the U. S. House race, Friess has spent about $2 million so far on fliers, TV ads, and door-to-door campaigning. He says he and Gray are the front-runners for the U.S. House nomination to replace Harriet Hageman.
As a result, Friess has become the subject of negative ads attacking him over his family's money, his Jackson address, and other issues. To his credit, he has also racked up hundreds of thousands of donations and many endorsements.
Another great line came from Frank Chapman, who until recently was the 10th candidate in the U.S. House race and had poured more than $1 million into an ill-fated campaign. Ever the practical lawyer and businessman, he said he dropped out because "there is no second place."
He could see he could not win so he got out. A bunch of others probably should have done the same.
In Lander, State Rep. Lloyd Larsen saw a kid hanging ugly doorknob fliers attacking him at people's houses and approached him.
"He was just a kid looking for a job. He was from Colorado. He had no idea what the issues are,” Larsen reported.
Facial Hair Curse
Back to the gubernatorial race, Wyoming has not elected a governor with facial hair for decades. I thought Eli Bebout's expansive mustache would help get him elected back in 2002, but he lost to the clean-shaven Dave Freudenthal.
Today, Eric Barlow sports a beard. He looks a little like the Marlboro Man, but I wonder if he can overcome that facial-hair curse. A veteran political operative told me that facial hair has a 2 percent negative effect on voters.
Barlow has borrowed the ice cream social idea used by one of his mentors, the late U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi. Mike's wife, Diana, is part of Barlow's team. The root beer float they served me in Riverton a few weeks ago was outstanding.
As for the overall state of Republican politics in Wyoming, retired Cody publisher Bruce McCormack is a smart political observer. He wrote this on Facebook:
"I've been saying for months that the FC (Freedom Caucus) is gonna take a real pasting in this primary election. I look for Wyoming voters in much of the state to unceremoniously get rid of the FC — much like they rid themselves of the Tea Party. Such is the level of regret in many voters after just two years with a close-up view of the FC. I really thought it'd take 4-6 years."
A Real Cat Fight
Down in Casper, two middle-aged single men are fighting like divas in the race for the U.S. House nomination.
Secretary of State Gray, 36, and Reid Rasner, 42, literally hate each other. The attacks are aggressive and specific, especially Rasner’s.
During the League of Women Voters debate, they were seated beside each other. I expected a fight to break out at any moment.
During the recent PBS debate, Gray took it on the chin from another candidate, Bo Biteman of Ranchester.
Here is how Clair McFarland of Cowboy State Daily described it:
"What I learned during that time is that people respond to legislators with conviction, legislators that are approachable, have a sense of humor and are also authentic," Gray said. "And that's certainly what I am."
Biteman answered with a very different assessment.
"Well, that's not the history I remember, serving with my good friend Chuck," Biteman said during the debate.
"He developed a reputation of being a bully," Biteman continued. "He treated people roughly and he didn't have the respect of his colleagues because of the way he treated them."
The Trump Effect
As I write this on Thursday, President Donald Trump is holding a statewide phone call meeting in support of Megan Degenfelder.
It appears that she is trailing Barlow in the polls at this time. There are two key questions that are about to answered: First, will the undecideds support the Trump-endorsed candidate? And second, have enough Democrats and Independents crossed over to vote for Barlow to push him through to the finish line ahead of Trump’s pick?
Stay tuned.
Bill can be reached at Bill@CowboyStateDaily.com
