Thursday, March 04, 2010

Dave Freudenthal will not seek a third term

Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal announced today that he will not run for a third term.

I was at the Capitol Building this morning when the news broke. The last few days of legislative business is filled with salutes to our troops and performances by drum groups -- along with some last-minute votes and bill signings. This morning, Wyoming Poet Laureate David Romtvedt read his poetry in each chamber. Both were about his daughter, who's now 21 and attending college out-of-state. This is the sixth year that David's read to the legislators. They always seem interested in his words. Maybe it's because his words are a welcome break from the avalanche of legalese they face each session. It's also because David tells stories they can relate to. Riding horses across the prairie or fixing fence in Johnson County. Kayaking with his teen daughter on a Wyoming lake. Love and fear and relationships and all the things people care about, whether they be legislators or poets or even bloggers.

While I waited for the reading, I ran into one of my fellow Dems from Laramie County. She's a lobbyist, and once upon a time staged a losing race for a legislative seat. We jawed about gubernatorial possibilities with the Democratic Party. Milward Simpson had declared several weeks ago that he wasn't running. He's a Democrat in a family full of Repubs, including his cousin Colin Simpson, son of Big Al. Colin is running for governor, but must first get through a phalanx of other Repub candidates, including Matt Mead, grandson of a former Wyoming U.S. senator, and Ron Micheli from the southwest corner of the state. Also, State Auditor Rita Meyer. There will be more, making for a lively primary.

Meanwhile, crickets are chirping on the Dem side of the aisle. Tumbleweeds roll unmolested through party headquarters.

My lobbyist friend today wondered if candidates could emerge from the ranks of county commissioners or city councils or the legislature. I wasn't sure. The name of Sen. Mike Massie from Albany County has been bandied about. But conventional wisdom has him running for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Conventional wisdom can be woefully incorrect. But he's also from the university town of Laramie, known for pointy-headed intellectuals, even in Wyoming. We even have special pointy-headed intellectual cowboy hats for them to wear to summer rodeos.

Someone will emerge from the shadows. It's possible. But this year's governor's race looks as if it belongs to the Repubs.

1 comment:

bigfrank said...

I will be sad to see Dave go. For the most part he was a man of the people not the party and stood up for the state. I didn’t agree with a few things but for the most part that was just personal things that didn’t affect the way he ran the state.
While I am not thrilled so far about any Governor candidate I do wish that it will be one that will tell the Feds to get out of Wyoming and leave us alone to do our thing for they are destroying our country and Wyoming is by most part in solid standing.
While I wouldn’t be too quick to give up to the republicans Wyoming voters have never been afraid of electing a solid democrat that isn’t a party man or wacko. Most of Wyoming's best governors have been democrats that put the party behind them and did the States work.
There are rumors of a candidate coming from the Natrona county commissioners and he is a republican that will destroy the state just like he is doing a hell of a job here of giving the middle finger to the voters of Natrona county.