Wyoming permits voters to change their registration up to the Aug. 21 day of the primary and vote accordingly. After voting, you can change back and be on your way, your conscience clear that you may have helped keep the more odious conservative gubernatorial candidates from running against the Democratic candidate in November. WYO is a party preference state, so at the polls you get a D or R ballot based on your registration. Up to 10 percent of voters in the state register as unaffiliated. To vote in the primary, you have to switch to D or R. Most will choose R in this overwhelmingly Red State.
In 2010, this tactic ensured that moderate Matt Mead was the R on the ballot against the D, Leslie Petersen of Jackson. Petersen was the superior candidate. But it was 2010, the Tea Party year, and she didn't have a chance in the general. Mead's opponents were Tea Party regressive Ron Micheli, the wishy-washy Colin Simpson, and former state auditor Rita Meyer.
Local Democrats gathered the night of the primary to nosh and and drink and gab and listen to the results on the radio, just as our ancestors did in days of yore. Micheli and Meyer exchanged early leads. Mead crept up and passed them both by the time all the precincts were in. We went home secure in the knowledge that our guy had a snowball's chance in hell of winning and that Mead would guide us for the next eight years. This was important to me because I was a state employee and the Gov was my boss. I would work with him and his staff on issues important to the arts in WYO. I wrote the annual "State of the Arts" speech. Sometimes that speech was uttered almost verbatim at the Governor's Arts Awards in February. More often, however, the Gov's speechwriters got their hands on it and mangled it beyond recognition. As a corporate and government writer/editor, I learned long ago that anything I do is a rough draft. Actually, I discovered that as a fiction writer, too. I am never edited when I write in my journal or when I write this blog. The only time I revise my blog post-post is when I make a mistake, particularly a factual error. Blogs are notoriously cavalier with the facts, be you prog-blogger or wingnut from the Right. I attempt to be accurate.
Mead won in 2010 and 2014. He's a super nice guy as is the First Lady. Mead was so nice for eight years that he almost never got his way with the Republican majority in the state legislature. Mead now says that he is going to retire to his Albany County ranch and chill, and who can blame him? We thought he would jump right into a Congressional race. Maybe in 2020. Maybe not.
Have I ever crossed over the Rubicon on primary day? No. Will I do it this time? No. The Dems have a terrific gubernatorial candidate in former legislative minority leader Mary Throne. She's a Gillette native, an attorney, a mom and a cancer survivor. Nobody on the Republican side can match her. Mark Gordon comes closest. He's the current state treasurer and a moderate compared to the others. He grew up on a ranch and continues to ranch, as you can see in his many folksy TV ads. He's up against some dedicated crazies but, at least in governor races, the moderate R usually has the advantage. Even now, in Trump times. Where you get the real crazies are in races for the gerrymandered legislature. I've documented some of their worst transgressions. Sometimes I get sad and give up. Then I get mad again...
No switcheroo at the polls Tuesday for this cowboy. Actually, I'm not a cowboy. I'm a Dem and a city boy who's worked in the arts. As a kid, I used to suffer violent asthma attacks when adjacent to livestock. When I ride horses now, I look like the dude that I am. Kind of like Foster Friess, although much younger. Somehow, I learned how to survive and thrive in cowboy country without betraying my liberal social justice background. How about you?
4 comments:
I voted absentee, on a ballot that was sparsely populated, marked Democratic. In all honesty,I fit more into the Independent category, but that's not an option.
I used to be a registered Republican, like my father and grandfather before me, but in the 1990's I realized that I was voting for more D's than R's and so I switched.
I am beyond thrilled to have Mary Throne to support this year and have donated to her campaign. Go Mary!
I was registered as an Independent back in 1976 and then found out I couldn't vote in the primaries or caucuses. Since then, I've been a registered Democrat in red states and blue states. I am pleased that Mary Throne is on the ballot and look forward to having her in the governor's office when 2019 rolls around.
I am registered as an Independent in Missouri. But for the primary, you just tell them which ballot you want-Republican, Democrat, Independent, etc. or one with just non-primary issues on it. Usually the best I can say for Missouri politically is that it is not Wyoming, but was proud to see that we soundly defeated the so called Right to Work amendment by a large margin.
Got to work now to get Claire re-elected as Senator.
Bob
I like the Missouri method, where you get a choice of ballots. Here we have to change registration to vote the other party and there is no Independent ballot. And you have a separate ballot with non-primary issues? Interesting. The good news is that the moderate, non-Trump candidate, Mark Gordon, won the R primary for governor. The Trump candidate, multimillionaire Foster Friess, went down in flames. The difference of 6-7 percent could be evidence of the Dem crossover vote. Gordon will be tougher for Dem candidate Mary Throne to beat. Now we can watch TV without seeing five of the six Repub candidates kissing up to Trump.
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