Republicans Will Crowd for Open Wyoming Senate Seat

By Brodie Farquhar, 6-11-07

Wyoming telephone lines are humming, email accounts are overloading and backroom wheeling and dealing is ramping up this week as the Wyoming Republican Party tries to figure out which three candidates it will nominate for the U.S. Senate seat left empty by Craig Thomas’ death on June 4.

Last week, Wyoming mourned the late Sen. Craig Thomas (R-WY), 74, with a Saturday service in Casper and a Sunday burial in Cody.

Unlike some other states, Wyoming law dictates that when a vacancy occurs in the U.S. House or Senate, the governor must appoint a successor from the same party as the previous holder of the seat. That’s why the 71-member Republican state committee is gearing up for a formal, day-long meeting on Tuesday, June 19, during which they’ll select three names to be submitted to Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal for his final selection.

The individual Republican selected by the governor will serve until January 2009, with the remaining four years contested in a special November 2008 election, to fill the remainder of the term won by Thomas last November. That 2008 election will also feature races for the seats currently held by Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY) and Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), both of whom are expected to seek re-election.

Wyoming Republican Party Chairman Fred Parady called a press conference this morning, to outline the procedures for selection of candidates.

Before the press conference, Parady quipped that he’s in an office pool on how many people will seek Thomas’ vacant seat in the U.S. Senate. Parady said he’s picked a low number of 15 candidates, while someone in his pool picked 22.

Asked what he’d do if there were 50 candidates, Parady laughed and said, “Just shoot me.”

Parady emphasized that the selection process will be open to the public, although the balloting will be secret.

“Wyoming has a deep bench,” Parady said of Republican candidates.

“We need someone who is able to drop everything and move to Washington, D.C. in a matter of weeks,” Parady said, adding that Wyoming needs full representation in Congress during a time of political upheaval and turmoil.

Procedure

A two-page application form, cover letter and resume from candidates are due no later than 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 14, at party headquarters in Casper. Procedures and the application form can be downloaded from the party’s Web site.

Candidates for the Senate, according to the U.S. Constitution, must be at least 30 years old, a citizen of the U.S. for at least the past nine years, and live in Wyoming.

A complete packet of application materials will be sent to the 71-members of the party’s central committee, and will also be made available to members of the news media and the public, he said.

Parady said the state party is working to co-sponsor a candidate forum for Sunday, June 17, with the Casper Star Tribune, Wyoming Public TV and Radio and Casper College, time and place to be announced.

The central committee meeting will convene at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, June 19, said Parady, tentatively at the new Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission building in Casper. “I am looking for a larger venue,” he said.

Should a large number of candidates apply for Thomas’ seat, Parady said, each will be given an opportunity to speak before the committee winnows the field down to eight After that a series of votes will be held in which each member of the central committee votes for three different candidates. After each vote is tallied, the candidate with the least number of votes will be dropped and the committee will vote again.

“I don’t get a vote,” Parady said, “and that makes my job easier.”

That same process repeats until there are three, final candidates who will be forwarded to Gov. Freudenthal no later than June 20, he said.

In a question and answer session with reporters, Parady said he’s received so many telephone calls from Republicans who are interested in Thomas’ seat that he hesitates to name any, in fear that he might miss someone.

“Let’s just say it is a matter of wide interest,” he said.

Speculation

State and national news media have speculated widely (and wildly) about who might run and who might be among the final three who’ll be reviewed for final selection by Gov. Freudenthal.

It might be easier to note who has specifically said they’re not interested in Thomas’ seat – Parady himself, Rep. Cubin and Secretary of State Max Maxfield.

And while MSNBC speculated that Second Lady Lynn Cheney could be one of the final three, the fact remains that Wyoming hasn’t seen much of the Cheneys since Dick Cheney left the Pentagon in 1993 and moved to Texas to take up the reins of Halliburton.

News reports over the past week have listed a number of Republicans who might be interested in the job, including: