Nick Carter drops by for a little chat

Nick Carter dropped into tonight's meeting of the Laramie County Democrats. He's been putting some hard miles on his motor home. The Democrat from Gillette has been campaigning for U.S. Senate in our part of the state, dropping into Cheyenne last Friday for a presidential debate party and then stayed over for Saturday's endorsement by the Federated Firefighters of Wyoming on the State Capitol steps. Tomorrow, he'll travel to Torrington and vicinity for some doorbell ringing.


The personal touch, that's what Wyomingites like. That's why candidates and supporters go door to door for some personal contact with voters. We still use phone banks, and sometimes gather for phone-calling parties. There will be one this Sunday in Cheyenne -- details to follow. But the old reach-out-and-touch-someone approach is losing some of its effectiveness. For one thing, we're mainly calling home phones. Nobody under 25 has a traditional home phone these days. And, as Tom Lee said tonight at our meeting, people don't answer their calls anymore. They screen their calls, in order to avoid the solicitors and worse -- push-polling calls from remote states by people who can't even pronounce our Governor's name. Some of the Dems have received these calls which are laden with traps and innuendos against Gary Trauner and other Democratic Party candidates. I hope I get one of these people calling me. I can't wait to record their number and turn them in. To whom, I don't know, but those who do push-polling are the lowest of the low.


Nick Carter is feisty. His campaign signs say "Wyoming tough." He is outspoken and persistent, I'll give him that. He calls Barrasso on his nonsense. He wonders how we can trust Sen. Barrasso on the energy issue, when he's taken a half-million dollars from energy companies. He must be tapping into the Cheney pipeline. Carter wonders how we can trust Barrasso (Dr. Barrasso) on healthcare reform when he's taken a half-million dollars from drug companies and healthcare conglomerates. He's puzzled about Barrasso's ability to vote correctly on issues affecting the economy when he's taken money from Sallie Mae and Freddie Mac.


Said Carter: "Every day I have to go out and raise money for a campaign against a guy who has $2 million in the bank from special interests." Carter advocates for real campaign finance reform in the form of federally financed elections. Barrasso does not, he added, noting wryly that the Doctor/Senator received federal financing in a roundabout way by accepting money from Freddie Mac and Sallie Mae who got gazillions of taxpayer funds in the recent bailout.


He asked a good question regarding the so-called bailout: "A company that is too big to fail is probably too big to exist."


Carter wants to emulate his hero Teddy Roosevelt by breaking up the big corporations "You need courage to break them up." You also need to get elected. To that end, local Dems will be conducting a literature drop throughout the county for Nick Carter and Chris Rothfuss, the Democrat who's challenging Sen. Mike Enzi. More than 30,000 flyers in the hands of voters -- or placed strategically in their screen doors. Interested in volunteering for this task on Oct. 11? Drop me a comment.