Wyoming is ornery.  Its political character is typified by the ex-Senator Al Simpson, who loves to puncture the politially correct balloons of all comers, left or right.  While overwhelmingly Republican and conservative, it marches to the beat of its own drummer.  Both in 92 and 96, this state gave totals in excess of the national average to third-party/independent presidential candidates.  It is strongly deserving of the status of ARP target state, and merits our closest scrutiny.

    Senior Republican Senator Craig Thomas is an establishment conservative Republican.  ARP has little use for him, though he has supported the fiscally interesting proposal of Senator Domenici that the federal budget be turned from a one-year to a two-year process.  He is very powerful in this state at the moment however, and there is no one on the horizon who is an obvious and credible challenger to him.  I therefore recommend that a flag-planting campaign is an appropriate option for us here.  John Barasso, a moderate pro-choice renegade Republican in this state, would appear to be ideal from our point of view.  Barasso has been so ostracized by the state's GOP that he might be approachable on the subject of an independent or even an ARP candidacy.

    The junior Wyoming Senator, Republican Mike Enzi, is another traditional establishment Republican. As with Thomas, the ARP will have little use for him.  In the past John Barasso challenged Enzi for the GOP nod when Enzi first ran.  Barasso might still be interested in running such a race, maybe even for ARP if he continues to be on the outs with his party's leadership.  Our contact in Wyoming, Bill Strickland, might be in a position to give us more info on this orthopedic surgeon, who is expert in health issues as well (naturally!).  In any event, Enzi is more vulnerable than Thomas, having won only 54% of the vote in his last race.  I believe that in 2002 this race could be a sleeper for ARP.  It is worth making the investment, and that investment should be to win, with either Simpson or Barasso.
 

AT LARGE CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

    Wyoming, as with Delaware, has one Representative, who serves at large and represents the entire state in the House of Representatives.  Currently, the seat is filled by one Barbara Cubin(R), who received 58% of the vote in her last race here in '96.  She is no Trojan horse, and needs to be challenged in '98.  One issue on which she might be vulnerable is term limits.  She has supported various versions of that reform over the years and yet she will be running for her fourth term in 2000.  Ideally, Al Simpson will join the Gang of Eight, and agree to run for this seat as an ARPer for the good of the cause.  And Simpson has never served in the US House, not even for one term, and served in the Senate for only three.  He is perfect on both our core issues, fiscal and entitlement reform and campaign finance reform, with the added bonus that he is impeccable, even-handed, and courageous when it comes to another issue important to ARP, immigration.  He has supported the recommendations of the distinguished bipartisan panel on immigration some years ago, recommendations which had the impressive imprimatur of support from that panel's distinguished chair, Barbara Jordan.

    There are wheels within wheels here.  The fact remains that it is a demotion for Al Simpson to serve in the House.  I see a possible solution:  It is to support Simpson for Speaker.  He might quickly emerge as a satisfactory compromise choice.  It gives him a reason to run for the House, and it gives him a reason to stay there once elected in '00.  We have a similar situation with regard to former Governor John McKernan in Maine, whose presence in the House would also be helpful to us.  As with Simpson, I think McKernan's candidacy should be couched in national terms by the ARP as our entrant for a House leadership role, such as the Majority Leader.  In addition, there are others I have suggested should be considered also as the ARP candidate for Speaker and/or Majority Leader.  This is something that will have to shake out, assuming we get the sympathetic interest of Lamm, Zschau, Penny, etc. etc. this summer as we attempt to make the sale to them of this strategy.

    And, if Simpson is not available for this race, or would prefer to return to the Senate instead, we may have Barasso as a backup.  As I say, this could wind up being an interesting state for ARP.
 
 




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