'08 Fundraising Season Underway

Democrats’ 50-State Plan includes Tapping Teton County’s Gold

By Gil Brady, 8-08-07

JACKSON, Wyo. – By the time county Republicans grabbed local headlines Tuesday, gushing over two Valley residents having moved up the rungs of the GOP ladder, about 50 or so of their rivals had met in near secrecy on famed attorney Gerry Spence’s ranch Monday night to toast Democratic national chairman Howard Dean.

At $2,500 a plate, $500 for cocktails, the main entrée appeared to be the fattening of the party’s war chest for their big push to widen their congressional margins and take the White House in 2008, according to an invitation obtained by NewWest.

The difference in party profiles and public relations is likely one of occasion rather than introversion. High-stakes political fundraisers here tend to be well-choreographed, sparsely chronicled events, often conducted under the radar, while the promotional upgrades of local party loyalists are things of irrepressible joy that lend themselves to easy and desirable headlines.

Still, the increasingly frequent, high-flying Democratic stopover here of late indicates that national leaders and candidates of that party are seizing upon something that their current Republican competitors have so far been slower to grasp: Teton County is good for business.

“Democrats think (Wyoming is) an automatic loss. Republicans think it’s an automatic win,” former Wyoming Democratic chair Mike Gierau said Tuesday in explaining why national leaders of his party have kept their visits here low-key and largely off Main Street.

Added Gierau, “Democrats to their credit are trying to change that. Take (Gary) Trauner’s candidacy. The DNC invested in him. That would be unheard of two election cycles ago.”

Trauner lost a door-to-door grudge match in 2006 against six-time Rock of Gibraltar Republican Barbara Cubin for Wyoming’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

County goes from purple to blue while remaining green

Having gone “blue” in its 2006 vote for local Democrat office seekers, Teton Valley also stayed very ‘green’: giving $274,505 in direct presidential contributions during the 2004 election cycle — $39,300 of which went to Sen. John Kerry’s failed White House run.

But the most eye-popping local figure among a mother load of unprecedented giving in the nation’s ritziest presidential election contest to date was the $250,000 in combined funds Gierau said the county delivered for the Democratic National Committee.

In campaign fundraising circles, the Valley’s $5 million in political contributions since 2000 has made this small, red-state tourist-haven ground zero for savvy, prime-time Democrats who have been quietly parachuting in and squeezing the choiciest purses and wallets of Teton County’s 19,000 or so citizens.

Last summer, a clique of prominent Democrats gathered at the Spring Gulch ranch of former Donald Trump protégé Richard T. Fields, now a major stakeholder in a horse-racing syndicate coming under closer scrutiny in the east coast press.

Ostensibly, Field’s hootenanny was to raise funds for the runaway New York gubernatorial race of Eliot Spitzer, who at the time led his closest rival by more than 50 points.

But as Spitzer himself conceded, in a one-on-one interview last year, another goal of the event was to lend his marquee name to add some Empire State sizzle to the regional brands of governors Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Brian Schweitzer of Montana.

Asked last July why a 50-point frontrunner from New York was in Wyoming and whether it was to help energize local and national Democratic Party candidates, Spitzer said that raising funds was critical to any campaign.

“And if I can lend some excitement to some other races, that’s wonderful,” Spitzer said, shortly after mocking his spiffy new cowboy boots. “If I can help Bill Richardson, that’s great. Gov. Schweitzer, that’s great. These guys are leaders in our national party, they’ve done spectacular jobs and so anything I can contribute, I want to.”

In between all the backslapping, bear hugs, book plugs, image polishing and trick pony shows was a pitch aimed at acclimating a new crop of well-heeled and veteran locals into the fine art of giving liberally to rising western Democrats.

And, though exact amounts are uncertain, raise funds Fields and his trio of almost and near famous politicos sure did: to the tune, when reportedly bundled with other donations organized by Fields, of at least $200,000 which found its way into Spitzer’s campaign account, according to a recent article in The New York Observer.

The two men are the subject of a controversial news story this month alleging that Fields bet heavily in 2006 on Spitzer winning the governorship for personal gain.

According to the Observer, Excelsior Racing, which Fields reportedly holds a 35-50% piece of, currently stands to keep its multibillion dollar concession to run the gambling operations at three of New York’s largest horse tracks.

But how much of the money raised on Mr. Field’s ranch last July found its way back to the state party—or any local Democratic candidates’ campaigns—is unknown, said one state party official in attendance who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.

Regarding whether any Wyoming Democrats saw any of the funds raised by Fields, Gierau said he was not closely enough involved in last summer’s event to know one way or the other.

It’s the money, stupid

When national Democrats come calling for their campaign cash quickies in this affluent mountain hamlet of high-dollar donors, surrounded by a handful of remaining cattle barons and their red meat heartstrings, they don’t sweat over converting new and undecided voters in this Republican stronghold state carrying just 3 electoral votes.

With its age-old conservative leanings and libertarian longings, the Cowboy state nevertheless twice-elected its current Democratic governor, Dave Freudenthal.

While enough Democrats exist in Wyoming to back candidates for local and statewide offices, there are no barnstorming rallies from Yellowstone to Cheyenne of national party honchos singing populist homilies to mineral-field workers, ranch hands and “90-Day Wonders” about ending the war in Iraq, or promoting economic fairness and leveling the playing field of the “Two Americas,” a la John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich and Bill Richardson.

On their round-trip, red-eye tours of duty here you won’t find Howard Dean or Hillary Clinton in chaps and cowboy hats at any down home July 4th barbeques rubbing elbows with the hook and bullet-loving natives.

Instead, their arrivals and departures in and out of the Valley are timed to fit rigid itineraries designed to meet, greet and toast pre-qualified, awestruck wealthy benefactors.

Shaping a message: Is abortion on the table?

Speeches by visiting bigwig Democrats here can assume a big tent revivalist fervor while typically focusing on centrist party themes: Wall Street friendly pro-growth policies; Middle East energy independence and investment in alternative fuel technology and tapping more of the Rocky Mountains’ vast treasure troves of oil, gas and coal.

“If we’re going to change this county, it’s going to happen in the states,” Richardson said last summer at Mr. Field’s fundraiser before about 100 enthusiastic supporters, some with New York residences. “Jobs, renewable energy, health care, making sure America moves forward. And right now there’s nobody better, in this country, with the potential to become a national leader instantaneously with this election, than Eliot Spitzer.”

(Despite the claims of some reporters, more than a year ago Gov. Richardson hinted to this journalist first his intention to run for president in 2008).

Besides infusing their campaigns with all important greenbacks, fundraisers also offer candidates a rare opportunity to hear directly from the rank-and-file about what’s important to them.

But so far, unlike their counterparts on television, what Democrats under the Tetons aren’t talking openly about are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—or on poverty. Nor are they discussing global warming, abortion rights, greater protections for endangered species, free universal healthcare or ending unequal distributions in wealth and public education.

Said one attendee of Monday’s estimated $85,000 Spence fundraiser, when asked about the tightly scripted Democratic message here, “One thing we were talking about last night was the whole abortion issue and how we look at it, and how we define it as a party.”

“Personally, ‘the right to choose’ is an American value, that’s why I support it,” the Wyoming Democratic Party member said. “It’s a value we have as a party, and I have personally, supported…I think a woman has a choice to their body without government interference. It’s as simple as that.”

According to the same unnamed source, on Monday night Dean and other leading Democrats discussed broadening the party’s statewide message.

“I think as Democrats we shy away from some things,” the well-placed source said. “As politicians we talk about things we think people want to talk about. Take the governor (Dave Freudenthal), he talks about some things, and other things he doesn’t talk about. But he was elected with 70 percent of the vote last time. Are you going to tell him what he’s doing is wrong?”

Dean’s ‘New Democrats’

During a victory lap last November at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, touting Democratic congressional gains, Dean praised Trauner’s hard fought, narrow loss to Cubin as a litmus test of his new electoral strategy.

In 1994, Cubin became the first woman to win a federal office in Wyoming, arguably the first state to give women the right to vote.

Coming on the heels of criticism among at lest one influential Democrat, Dean illustrated the success of his 50-state plan by highlighting Cubin’s slim margin of victory over Trauner during their 2006 race.

“Wyoming was a big success story,” Dean told the standing room only crowd at the Snake River Lodge and Spa last fall. “Who would have thought it would be within 1,000 votes and the vice president would have to come in to campaign.”

Trauner’s grassroots stategy promoted unorthodox Democratic notions such as criticzing trade protectionism and single-payer universal health care while supporting gun ownership rights, immigration law enforcement, and what he calls “common-sense capitalism.”

In keeping with his beliefs on congressional ethics and lobbying reform, Trauner says he has not accepted campaign funds from political action committees.

Though Democrats saw majority gains in both the Senate and the House, Dean came under fire from former Bill Clinton strategist James Carville, widely hailed as the architect who shaped the two-term ex-president’s 1992 campaign victory.

Carville blasted Dean for leaving too much money—reportedly $6 million—in the bank that he argued could have been used to win as many as 50 more House races in ‘06 and strengthen the Democrats control of Congress.

Asked last November about Carville’s specific charge that he focused on a long-term, 50-state vision in the last election rather than a short-term strategy to win competitive House races, Dean shot back, “I don’t respond to talking heads on TV. The party has to stick together. This is the new Democratic Party.”

Dean’s “new Democratic Party” allusion may have been a stab at defusing Carville’s bombshell that Dean’s 50-state strategy was “Rumsfeldian” in its incompetence. Carville, in turn, while disparaging Dean on televison following last November’s election, had invoked the name of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who once caught flak for distinguishing “New Europe” from “Old Europe.”

As reported in the Jackson Hole News & Guide, during a speech later in the day at the Association of State Democratic Chairs, Dean drew upon the success of Democrats across the nation in the recent elections as proof that his 50-state strategy worked on a national scale.

“It was a great win for what I call the new Democratic Party,” Dean said. “This is the new Democratic Party. The old Democratic Party is back there in Washington, sometimes they still complain a little bit.”

The ex-Vermont governor reportedly added that other smart Democrats supported his 50-state plan.

“But the fact is that this strategy not only works, it works in states Democrats have given up on for 30 years.”

2008 fundraising season heating up

Though their public standing and fundraising capabilities in one of the nation’s prettiest and sweetest honey pots has greatly improved, Democrats, old and new, still lag far behind Republicans, both in Teton County and statewide, in terms of overall funding and votes for national offices.

This presidential election cycle, however, Democrats appear to have gotten the early jump on tapping into the county’s highly sought after and boundless resources.

But local sources say the presidential fundraising season is just kicking off. Republicans, they say, are gearing up for upcoming events to stuff the already healthy coffers of Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, and the currently undeclared presidential bid of former Tennessee GOP senator Fred Thompson, who most recently starred on ‘Law & Order’.

Though well-placed, rumours of planned fundraisers for Romney and Thompson are still unconfirmed.

As of July 30, Mitt Romney led all presidential candidates in Teton County with at least $72,000 in reported campaign contributions.

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