When Senator Craig Thomas died on June 4th, it created an empty seat. In most states the Governor selects a replacement that serves until the next even-year election. Wyoming is different. This is unfortunate because Wyoming Governor Dave Feudenthal is a Democrat. In any other state we could expect a Democrat to replace Craig Thomas. But, because of a quirky little state law, Freudenthal doesn’t have that option . Freudenthal must pick Thomas’ replacement from a list of three candidates provided by the Wyoming GOP.
The GOP got together today and whittled down 31 contenders to a final list of three. Here’s the final vote, with winners in bold.
Tom Sansonetti – 58
John Barrasso – 56
Cynthia Lummis – 44
Matt Mead – 30
Ron Micheli – 25
We will either have a Senator Sansonetti, a Senator Barrasso, or a Senator Lummis until January 2009. Freudenthal must pick one of them within two weeks five days.
Sansonetti worked in Ashcroft’s Justice Department as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Environment and Natural Resources Division. Before that he worked for Senator Craig Thomas and in the Interior Department. I don’t know where he stands on issues.
John Barasso was once described as a a moderate pro-choice renegade Republican by the American Reform Party, when they were looking to recruit him. He is currently a State Senator.
Cynthia Lummis was the State Treasurer from 1999-2007. Before that she served in the state legislature. She isn’t very bright because she thinks that al-Qaeda has training camps in Iran. I guess we can add her to the list of people that don’t know the difference between a Sunni and a Shi’ite.
This isn’t really enough information to determine who the best candidate is, I know. Freudenthal will have to balance his own partisan interests in winning Craig Thomas’ seat for the Democrats in ’08 with his parochial interest in having an effective senator in Washington DC representing his state.
Barasso is allegedly pro-choice, for what it’s worth. Former Senator Alan Simpson is pro-choice too. Beyond that, I guess we’ll just wait and see what happens.
Update [2007-6-20 0:34:34 by BooMan]: Barasso is definitely not pro-choice.
Barrasso was quoted in the Casper Star-Tribune: “I’m proud of my record and will fight hard for our shared beliefs. Like Senator Thomas, I believe in limited government, lower taxes, less spending, traditional family values, local control and a strong defense. In the State Senate….I have voted for prayer in schools, against gay marriage and have sponsored legislation to protect the sanctity of life.”
Booman, Barrasso is now exceptionally anti-choice – in fact, he admitted his last sponsored piece of legislation was meant to smooth the way for criminalization!
Sansonetti is the man behind much of the corruption and scandal that exists in the Interior Department (or existed before a bunch of them got indicted or jumped ship fearing indictment.) He was the Transition Team head for Interior, and hired Norton, Griles, Clarke, Cason, Wooldridge, Myers. The whole mess can be placed at his feet. And who picked him? Cheney, his long-time buddy from Wyoming.
Sansonetti is so deep in Abramoff doo-doo that he needs a back-hoe to get out. For that reason alone, he’s the best choice for a Democratic governor, as Sansonetti will be lucky if he’s not indicted before November, 2008, though all the dirt will certainly come out by then.
Anyway, I’ve written tons on Sansonetti over on Wampum, as he’s also very involved in screwing Indians left and right, both while he was at DoJ (his department handles Indian affairs) and as a lobbyist (he was lobbying recently for Section 1813 wording to remove tribal sovereignty on lands leased by BigEnergy.)
Barasso is now anti-choice? Well…that explains how he made the cut today. Whatever is convenient, I guess.
So, it looks like maybe the woman that thinks Sunni terrorists have camps in Shi’ite Iran is the best bet?
Oh, God no! She’s a Gale Norton clone. Seriously, whacked out Wise-Use, Ayn Rand nutcase. I bet I’ll find her hooked up with the Mountain State Legal Foundation with James Watt living in her basement.
So, who would you pick if you just wanted a decent rep for the next year and a half?
Sounds like they’re all awful. No surprise.
You’re not going to get a decent rep with these three. The best bet is to pick the weakest, and hope for either a strong Democratic candidate, or a decent Republican primary challenger.
Thus, while Sansonetti clearly has the most experience, he also has the greatest Achilles Heel, his relationship with Griles, Federici and Abramoff. He’s a corporatist, not a nutcase, so he’s going to be doing his best to forward the goals of his BigEnergy clients. No different than Thomas, when it comes down to it. So it’s a wash on the action, but a gain on the vulnerability.
The other two, I think, are far more dangerous come 2008. It’s difficult to unseat Republican women, and right-wing nutcase physicians tend to do pretty well in red states (see Frist, Bill, and Coburn, Tom.) Even though Sansonetti is clearly the biggest threat to Indians, I think we’re willing to take our chances, knowing how to take him out. I suggested two weeks ago that it would be Sansonetti, and I still expect that to be the case.
But, won’t Freudenthal look like an asshole if he picks a guy that gets indicted?
Why? He had no part in the selection of these idiots – the whole process is insider baseball at best, completely unconstitutional at worst. 71 GOP committee members decided not only who gets to fill Thomas’ seat, but put that same person in a position of incumbency? An honest thing to do would have been to nominate people who only serve the next 18 months – there were candidates who offered to do just that. Freudenthal is under no obligation to save the Wyoming GOP from itself. Besides, should he actually chose to run against the incumbent, it will be completely forgotten that he made the final selection.
This is not a true appointment for Dave, and everyone knows it. He was handed a dish of rotten fish, and no one can expect sushi.
I don’t think he is going to run.
I want Trauner for this seat. Let someone else take a shot at Enzi, he’s unbeatable.
For more information on John Barrasso please visit: John Barrasso’s Project Vote Smart Page
For more information on Cynthia Lummis please visit: Cynthia Lummis’ Project Vote Smart Page
For more information on candidates for the Wyoming Senate seat please visit Project Vote Smart or call our hotline at 1-888-VOTE-SMART.