WY-AL: Simpson won't run to replace Cubin

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

...it seems entirely possible that Trauner can win in 2008.

Not...really.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

...it seems entirely possible that Trauner can win in 2008.

Not...really.

Trauner most certainly can win. If Cubin is on the ticket again...and if  Freudenthal is running for something...and all republicans leave the state for a picnic...and they get locked out for the day...and hell freezes over...

The state GOP really needs to stop scheduling that picnic on election day.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

...it seems entirely possible that Trauner can win in 2008.

Not...really.

Trauner most certainly can win. If Cubin is on the ticket again...and if  Freudenthal is running for something...and all republicans leave the state for a picnic...and they get locked out for the day...and hell freezes over...

The state GOP really needs to stop scheduling that picnic on election day.

Trauner lost by 1,012 votes. There's actually historical precedent for a close federal election in a Presidential election year in Wyoming. In 1988, Malcolm Wallop won by just 1,322 votes.

If Democrats pick up 220 votes in a close election every 18 years, we'll finally win a close race in 2064! Unfortunately, the winning Democrat will probably lose reelection in the "Wave of '66."

Trauner came close solely because people were voting against Cubin.  Maybe he worked hard to get within 1,012 votes, but I'd think that a monkey wearing a birthday hat could have gotten within 2,500 in a wave year like 2006.  People weren't voting for Trauner, they were voting against Cubin.

It's like trying to argue that people were in love with Doug Forrester back when he was leading Bob Torricelli in the polls by double digits.  They weren't, and half the state didn't know who he was beyond "the guy running against Torricelli."

Swap out the candidates, and Trauner falls apart much the same way Forrester did.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Good comparison between an odious New Jersey politician and an equally odious Wyoming politician. Then again, if Cubin was so horrible, how come she easily won reelection in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004? She was actually polling quite low (four point lead, if I remember correctly) before the wheelchair comment. This seems to suggest that Wyoming is either becoming more Democrat or less immune to changes in national political atmospherics.

The Wallop example is quite heartening to Democrats. This two Republican Senator with no tinge of scandal nearly lost in a Presidential election year to a second tier Democrat.

The only thing that made Cubin unpopular was the "wheelchair comment."  Please.

If you think Wyoming is becoming that much more Democrat, then you'll be thrilled to know both Senate seats are up this year!  Might even get up to 40% of the vote in one of them!  (Maybe!)

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I'm also interested in an answer to that question. Does anybody have a copy of the  1990 Almanac of American Politics?

I do.  I'll try looking it up tonight if I can find my copy.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

I'm also interested in an answer to that question. Does anybody have a copy of the  1990 Almanac of American Politics?

I do.  I'll try looking it up tonight if I can find my copy.

Thanks. It'll be interesting to see why Wallop underperformed against a lowly State Senator.

It turns out that it was 1988 sitting on my desk at home, not 1990.  (I still have it somewhere in a box, that I do know.)  Here's what I found in the Time archives, however.

You must be logged in to read this quote.