Sunday, June 13, 2010

Ken McCauley comes calling -- in the rain

Ken McCauley stopped by my house yesterday. Surprised to see him as it was raining and there's still time enough to campaign for the 2010 Wyoming primaries in August.

But he's new to political campaigning and thought he'd get an early start. I invited him in but he said he had a lot of territory to cover. He handed me a flyer. We talked outside in the drizzle.

Democrat for House District 8. My previous rep was Democrat Lori Millin, who's parlaying her two terms in the Wyming House to a campaign for the Wyoming Senate. Both House and Senate need all the Dems it can get. Wildly outnumbered in both houses. Still, there's always hope.

I walked the neighborhood for Lori in 2006 and will probably do the same for Ken. Lori beat long-time House Repub Larry Meuli in 2006 and newcomer Bob Nicholas in 2008. Both were squeakers. In 2008, results on KGAB Radio had Millin the loser. She ended up winning by a handful (documented at the time on this blog -- I forget the number).

Ken has a similar challenge. I've seen him working up to this for some time. He's a fellow traveler in the Laramie County Democrats. We were both handing out Gary Trauner flyers in the dark on election eve 2008, urging people to get out to vote for a good cause, albeit a losing one.

His campaign material displays his name underlined by an A-10 and its contrail. Ken flew A-10s in the USAF and is a combat veteran. He now flies big jets for United. That alone shows dedication and skill. Military service carries with it a mantle of patriotism. But that's not enough, at least for me. Many ex-military politicians have deserved votes. Others have not. I know some of Ken's politics and will research the rest and go to his public appearances. His significant other, fellow writer Joanne Kennedy, thinks a lot of him and that's probably enough for me. Still, an informed voter gets to win the arguments.

For the rest of you -- Ken deserves your attention. And, once you learn about his person and his politics, your vote.

1 comment:

Joanne Kennedy said...

Thanks for the support, Mike! I do think a lot of Ken. I suppose that's obvious, but one of the reasons we first got together was that I was so impressed by how much he cared about his kids and how little he talked about his own accomplishments. It really is about other people for him. I keep having to remind him that he needs to "toot his own horn" to run a campaign.
He was out in the rain again today. Because he's still a working guy, he has to get in the campaigning when he can. And when he goes after something, he goes at it with everything he's got. He'll make a great legislator.
Commercial over! Sorry, I'm pretty enthusiastic about this!