Politics News

Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

Politicking the Old Fashioned Way in Wyoming

By Joan McCarter, 10-17-08

I arrived on a beautiful afternoon in Jackson, ready to meet up with Gary Trauner for another afternoon of canvassing. I’d hoped to have a repeat of the front-porch magic I had witnessed when I met up with him for a canvass in Cheyenne in 2006. Here’s what I wrote then:

Gary Trauner has front porch mojo that you really have to see to believe. We met him in Cheyenne for a very chilly few hours of block walking in an “undecided” precinct. Undecided my ass. It was the middle of the day, Tuesday, so I wondered how much luck we’d have finding people at home. About half the houses were empty, but at the others the most remarkable thing happened. “Gary Trauner! How’re you doing? You’ve got my vote. My husband’s/wife’s too! And we’re Republicans!” At door after door people bounded out to say hello and to tell him how sick of Barbara Cubin they are. All but maybe three people he met reacted this way--not only recognizing him, but offering their support.

But it wasn’t to be this time around. Mostly just because few people were home. The woman in the picture, with her daughter, was an exception. She’s a stay-at-home mom that volunteers in early childhood education. And she wanted to talk about the economy, which is probably the number one doorstep conversation candidates are having these days. We met a few more folks while walking the precinct--a plumber who bounded across the yard of the house he had just finished working in to say hello and let Gary know he had his vote. On the whole, there were probably six or seven people, a few undecided, but the balance seeming firmly decided for Gary. All of them concerned about the economy.

When I was in Cheyenne with Gary in 2006, the topic going door-to-door was Iraq. After Iraq, it was health care. There was a great sense of unease in 2006, the beginnings of the tidal wave that nearly swept Gary into office that year. Just one vote per precinct, and he would be in Congress today.

That unease is still there, and in a big way, but the real anger hadn’t seemed to reach Wyoming yet. The difference this year seems to be the added layer of fear because of the economic meltdown. Wyoming has huge oil and gas wealth, and the economy here hasn’t been hit as hard in some states. Though it also has the highest number of people working multiple jobs to get by, so that wealth doesn’t necessarily get spread around. The foreclosure crisis is more of a real estate slowdown in much of the state, but that doesn’t stop people from worrying as they watch the markets tumble.

That unease needs to be answered, and that’s where Trauner’s got an advantage. He actually goes out and talks to people. All of the people. It’s sort of a new trait among Western Dems, or rather the revival of a too-long forgotten campaign strategy: retail politics, which means finding local people to volunteer or work around the state to talk, one-on-one, with as many persuadable voters as possible. And even some of the unpersuadable ones. Turns out, that’s in contrast to Trauner’s Republican opponent, who for some bears a bit too much of a resemblance in political style to the current Representative, Barbara Cubin.

Cynthia Lummis, former state treasurer and Republican nominee for the seat, isn’t as...let’s say...eccentric as Barbara Cubin, but she’s just as likely to pull a nasty stunt. Consider that she hired Cubin’s press secretary to work on her campaign and then the staffer tried to play “gotcha” on a closed press call Democrat Gary Trauner was holding to talk about the economy. Not only was it a nasty stunt, attempting to tie Trauner to Nancy Pelosi (not the most popular figure in Wyoming), it was a stupid one. It was clear from the moment she introduced herself as “Sierra,” a Trauner supporter, that it was a set-up because the call was only announced to the press.

That’s just dirty politics, and not very smart dirty politics. But what’s more bothersome is a sense of entitlement that seems to be ingrained in Lummis, and frankly in too many politicians--of both stripes--in states that have one party rule. It’s an arrogance that seems to be born from a sense that they are entitled to win, that political seats are reserved for them, and they shouldn’t have to work for them. That was made abundantly clear at a League of Women Voters’ forum that was held Thursday in Laramie.

All three Democratic candidates running for Congress attended Thursday night’s forum at the Albany Public Library. But all three Republican candidates sent other people to speak in their place.

Democratic House candidate Gary Trauner drove from Teton County to attend. Republican Cynthia Lummis sent her daughter to talk for her.

That was the second time in just a week that Lummis had reneged on a commitment to appear with Trauner at a LWV forum. A few nights before she failed to show in Teton county. Now, some observors might think that it has something to do with the fact that she was less likely to find a receptive audience in the more left-leaning Teton and Albany counties. And that’s entirely possible. But that doesn’t make it acceptable. That’s the kind of arrogance and disrespect for the people and the political process that one-party rule breeds. It’s the kind of arrogance and disrespect that got us in the awful mess we’re in today.

And that’s something Trauner addressed that night in Laramie.

This part of his comments was particularly reflective of what the Trauner I’ve come to know over the past two years is all about.

....what we’ve been practicing here in this state, and what we’ve been practicing here in this country for the last--I don’t know how long it’s been--is what I call the politics of fifty percent. And that is, you know what, you get career politicians that only talk to the people they think will support them, they think will vote for them, or they think will give them money. And that’s something that we need to change. I was speaking to someone from the Petroleum Association not that long ago, and he looked at me at the end of the lunch--I don’t think I’m going to get his vote, good guy, good lunch--and he said, “You know what, Gary? You didn’t have to come do this today.” I looked at him and said, “You know what, Bruce? Yeah, I actually did. Because if I win this seat, I’m going to represent you and the people that you represent just as much as I represent anyone else in this state.” And until we get past that, until we are willing to talk to others that we may not agree with, nothing is going to change. And if we keep allowing politicians to substitute party label for true leadership, nothing is going to change. And if we keep allowing our career politicians to substitute simple slogans for complex issues that take hard work and dedication and extensive knowledge, nothing is going to change. Wyoming has a really clear choice this time around, and it’s about someone who is going to be the politics of the future or someone who is looking back toward the past....

Gary Trauner has a very real shot at this race--the polling data since last summer shows him running neck and neck with Lummis, with a very high percentage (hovering between 15 and 20 percent) of undecideds, most of whom are Republicans. Those voters are faced with a tough decision, particularly in this time of extreme turmoil. The fact that one of these candidates has proven that he will always be willing to talk to them, regardless of whether he’s going to like what he hears, is likely to be one of the things they’re mulling over carefully when they mark their ballots.

Editor’s note: Joan McCarter’s weekly blogs are part of NewWest.Net/Politics’ “Diary of a Mad Voter” feature, a group blog, published in partnership with the Denver Post’s Politics West intended give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the ‘08 election cycle. For more columns check in with www.newwest.net/madvoter. And for more information on each of the bloggers, click here.

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