From a LarCoDem

I’ve been secretary for the Laramie County (Wyo.) Democrats the past two years. I got involved with the county party in spring of 2004 when I attended its convention in Cheyenne. A lifelong Democratic voter, I wanted to do more and plunged into the county party apparatus. Thus I became a Dem apparatchik.

By the end of that day in 2004, I was a Dennis Kucinich delegate to the state convention, and I had a nifty T-shirt that read "Wyoming Democrats: Alive and Kicking." The lettering was in blue (of course) and also featured a profile of a kicking donkey. Clueless, I attended the state convention in May in Sheridan. I huddled under the Laramie County banner and suggested several anti-war planks that were quickly voted down and then cast my vote for Kucinich. We fell five votes short of snagging a Kucinich delegate for the national convention. I was shocked that we got that close. If we peaceniks had been the least bit organized, we could have succeeded. But I had little idea how the process worked.

Since then, I’ve worked at the polls as a "counter" tallying the day’s votes and, during this year’s primary, I was an election judge. In my role as secretary of the LarCoDems, I helped plan the spring 2006 state convention in Cheyenne. I canvassed for the Wyoming Dems twice this summer, and was only yelled at a few times by disgruntled citizens. Not bad for the reddest of red states. I have a yard full of candidate signs, and I’ve contributed a little bit of money. I write an occasional heated letter to our local paper, the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. I have heard LarCoDems say the paper is tilted toward Republicans, yet I have heard Repubs call it a "liberal rag." The publisher is an R, the managing editor a D. Maybe that schizophrenia is reflected in the coverage.

This is just a brief intro to what will be many posts from this Cheyenne Liberal as we head into the nasty mid-term elections. You might say that it can’t get nasty in WYO, land where Repubs run everything. Au contraire, my deluded friends. Our Dem Gov, Dave Freudenthal, is under attack by Ray Hunkins of Wheatland. Ray says he’s running a clean campaign and blames all the dirty ads and even dirtier tricks on Drake Hill of the Wyoming Republican Party. I’m always amazed that The Personal Responsibility Party (a.k.a. GOP) never takes responsibility for anything. Hill has brought in pricey Repub hitmen to dig up (or make up) dirt on Freudenthal, who’s popular even among Repubs. And our lone Congressional Rep, Barbara Cubin, has already been accused of push-polling in her reelection bid against Dem Gary Trauner. Stay tuned....