Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
Is it really only the second week in August? In my teaching days, the summer flew by at warp speed. One day you were getting your three summer paychecks, and the next day it seemed some guy or gal in a shiny suit who had never been in a classroom was elaborating on how you were failing as a teacher, but if you followed their inane plan, you could become a super teacher just like they would have been.
Alas (that’s a great word from the distant English lexicon), this summer seems a lot longer than usual.
The drought and intense heat account for part of that sensation, but the arrival of artificial intelligence on the campaign trail has made it interminable.
How many flyers do you get a week from Rasner, Freiss, and of course, Little Chuckie Gray? You’ve probably gotten a few from Harriet as well. Thankfully, the best candidate for our vacant U.S. Senate seat, Sam Mead, isn’t playing the flood the post office game. He probably won’t beat Harriet next Tuesday, either. I appreciate his stance on keeping public land in public hands. Harriet, not so much. She seems open to the highest bidder for your favorite lake, mountain trail, or open public grassland.
The flyers are bad enough. How many robo-texts do you get? How about robo-calls? Maybe someone sold all the voter information that “Little Chuckie” so eagerly provided to the feds.
There are even a few robo-texts coming in local races. Has anyone else received these unsolicited texts from Ryan Preston for county commission?
Thank you, Shanell Stanley and Ron Fabrizius, for running traditional, non-digital campaigns. I appreciate it.
There are three county commissioner seats open, and the field is packed. In District 1, David Mossburg and Clarence Thomas are on the ballot. Stanley, Fabrizius, and Preston are vying for District 3, and a whopping five candidates are battling in District 4: J.D. Carper, Christy Hirasawa Gabel, Steff Kessler, Jim Taylor, and Jeffrey Young load the ballot.
We have some unopposed countywide offices, and why not? Tara Berg is fabulous in her present position as county assessor. I don’t think there is a better county clerk in all of Wyoming, maybe in the entire United States, than Julie Freese, and Erin Ivie is magnificent as county coroner. Amanda Sanchez does great work as the district court clerk as well.
In the governor’s race, it’s Eric Barlow, Maga Degenfelder and Brent Bien. Degenfelder must be exhausted; she’s been campaigning for governor for the last five years. At first it was for state superintendent of public instruction, but that was just a stepping stone to the governor’s office. You don’t even hear her deny it.
Barlow is in the mold of our great governors from the past. Given the chance, I think Eric will be one of the best in state history. All I know of Brent Bien is that he’s the darling of the Free Dumb Caucus, and that’s enough for me not to vote for him.
Any candidate endorsed by these clowns is definitely not good for Wyoming. Hopefully, their day in the sun ends next Tuesday evening.
The free dumb folks have been horrible for Wyoming, for our children, and for the state’s future. All you have to do is listen to them for a few minutes to realize that, collectively, they don’t have a single clue about how things are done.
Back to the United States House race.
I wrote a month or so ago that Steve Friess represented the “cleanest dirty shirt” in the House race. That’s still true. He’s a trust fund baby; that’s something that Reid Rasner and Little Chuckie have been pounding lately in television and radio advertisements, but he’s not as MAGA-permeated as Rasner and Chuckie.
The race is boiling down to an “ABC” campaign (anybody but Chuck.)
The field is so full on the Republican side that polling has indicated someone will win the primary with as little as 16 percent of the vote.
Rounding out the field are “cut and run” Jillian Balow, Bo Biteman, Kevin Christensen, Richard Dodson, David Giralt, and Keith Goodenough, along with Rasner, Friess, and Gray.
Biteman is the best candidate, but Bo hasn’t campaigned well and won’t make it to the general election.
Goodenough is a great candidate but isn’t really a Republican. Keith has been the frontrunner for the reform of marijuana laws, not a traditional Republican position, but he’s knowledgeable, clever, and has been a great traditional candidate for office for decades. He is the Pat Paulsen of our time (some of you will have to look that up).
In the last couple of weeks, a few of the campaigns have become decidedly negative.
Maga Degenfelder is desperate; polls have her trailing Barlow by double digits. Her organization is trying to paint Eric Barlow as a wide-eyed liberal.
That’s rich. The Campbell County High School graduate, United States Marine veteran, and successful veterinarian is anything but that. Barlow is a Wyoming guy, with Wyoming values and a resume that Degenfelder can’t hope to compete with. So naturally, let’s start slinging mud. She’s Trump-endorsed, and that’s worked for the “Donald” his entire life, so she’s hoping to get in on the Mar-a-Lago coattails and into the governor’s office with the same tactics.
Barlow knows what’s going on and where the money is coming from. In a Gillette News Record story published on August 8, he addressed it.
“…he’s had “remarkably good interactions” with people around the state, but now, he said, there are a lot of negative ads and mailers paid for by “outside money, outside agendas, outside voices, trying to tip the scales in Wyoming.”
And people are taking notice. He’s fielded questions from potential voters about what they’ve seen in these ads, and he’s had to set the record straight.
“For the last 11 months it’s felt pretty Wyoming,” he said. “Now here at the end, it’s feeling pretty messy, pretty outsider, pretty out of touch with what we’ve been hearing…we’re getting a whole deluge of negativity and hatefulness. I’m not surprised, but now that it’s here, it’s an avalanche, it’s a flood.”
Rasner is comical. I’m going to miss his clumsy dog-and-pony shows on television and my social media feeds. He’s the personification of “Elmer Fudd,” trying desperately to be something he isn’t. It’s been fun watching you stumble along the campaign trail, Reid, throwing every MAGA talking point against the wall while hoping something sticks.
Here’s a little tidbit that insiders don’t tell the general public: if Little Chuckie somehow gets 16 percent of the primary vote and makes it to the general election, there is an excellent chance that (heaven forbid!) Wyoming will have a Democrat in the United States House of Representatives. Oh, the horror!
Chuckie is universally despised but hopes to get the nod with a handful of true believers in the primary election. That’s how Liz Cheney got in. A big field narrows the competition and makes it easier for a fringe candidate to get into office.
Let’s make sure we cut the fringe next Tuesday.
While we are at it, how about throwing the free dumb caucus on the ash heap of history?
It’s up to you. Do your part next Tuesday and vote.