spdirty
03-07-2008, 10:45 AM
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_8483272
Oft-ignored Wyoming has its moment
By David Olinger
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 03/07/2008 08:11:33 AM MST
Wyoming — where Democrats can remember only one visit by a top presidential candidate in 20 years — is in the spotlight. Its caucuses Saturday could shift momentum in the Democratic race. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)Related Articles
Mar 6:
DNC's Dean urges do-overs in Fla., Mich.Re-energized Clinton plots scenario to win nominationMar 5:
Obama reflects on lossesObama, Bill Clinton due in WyomingObama to sharpen criticism of HillaryBush endorses John McCain for presidentClinton wins by refusing to quit"We kept the faith," Huckabee tells backersMcCain clinches GOP nominationBig-state wins for ClintonMar 4:
Clinton wins Ohio, TexasRecord turnout could decide raceIs today D-Day for Dems?LARAMIE — There are Democrats in Wyoming.
But they've been largely ignored by every presidential candidate for 20 years.
All that changes today. Suddenly Wyoming matters again. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are both holding rallies in the state today, on the eve of the state caucuses Saturday.
The race is extremely tight. Wyoming is all alone on the weekend Democratic schedule. And though its caucuses will choose only a dozen of the 4,000 Democratic delegates — in a state where the last two Democratic presidential nominees pulled less than 30 percent of the general election vote — Wyoming suddenly finds itself in the national spotlight.
Momentum is the big factor. Clinton needs to show her star
Results
Watch Post photojournalist RJ Sangosti's campaign journal, depicting the frenzy and fatigue of the campaign trail.
View a slideshow of photos from the many primaries and caucuses.
Browse up-to-date primary news.
View state-by-state GOP presidential candidate delegate allocation
View state-by-state DEM presidential candidate delegate allocation
is rising after big wins in Texas and Ohio. Obama needs to start a new string of state triumphs.
So for Democrats from Cheyenne to Jackson Hole, happy days are here again. At least for a couple of days.
"This is great," said state party chairman John Millin. "People are just thrilled. It's the talk of the town, for sure."
In 1988, Wyoming was the first caucus state after the New Hampshire primary, and seven Democratic contenders fanned through the state in search of supporters.
"All of the major candidates were here," recalled Muffy Moore, the state party chair that year. "Michael Dukakis, Dick Gephardt and Al Gore had offices here."
It has been a lonely two decades since. Aside from a speech Bill Clinton gave at an airport hangar in Cheyenne in 1992, Democrats here cannot remember seeing a single leading contender.
Thursday afternoon, Bill Clinton was back, this time to promote his wife's candidacy.
At the University of Wyoming in Laramie, thousands of people braved icy winds and waited in long lines outside a campus arena to hear the former president speak. He answered with a speech that held them rapt even as he ranged from his wife's plans for universal health care to her plans for creating a technology that could burn Wyoming coal without generating greenhouse gases. In memory of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was murdered in 1998, he also pledged that as president, Hillary Clinton would see federal hate-crime legislation become law.
He asked everyone in the audience to raise a hand if they knew someone without health care, and nearly everyone did.
"This is the only wealthy country in the world where you would get that response," he said.
In asking Wyoming to support "my wife, my senator and my candidate for president," he asserted that "she is better prepared to be president than I was in 1992."
Wyoming, he said, "led the nation with women's suffrage. You might as well lead the nation with a woman president."
Some Wyoming Democrats say they haven't enjoyed so much attention since 1960, when they gave John F. Kennedy the votes he needed to win the nomination on the convention floor.
Mike Vinich, now 84, was a Kennedy delegate that year. He had known Kennedy during World War II, when "I jumped on his PT boat with a wounded Marine," he recalled.
Nearly two decades later, he had his chance to repay "the man who saved my life." The floor belonged to Wyoming, Kennedy needed 13 delegates to clinch the nomination, and "we had 15 delegate votes," Vinich said.
He said he hollered at his fellow delegates to put Kennedy over the top until the delegation chairman abruptly "gave all 15 votes, didn't even take a head count. The balloons went down, the band went up."
This weekend, as Wyoming Democrats once again get a moment in the spotlight, Democrats are bracing for record turnout at caucuses that, in some years past, had more delegates to elect than people who showed up.
"It has been so exciting," said state Rep. Mary Gilmore, one of 17 Democrats in Wyoming's 60-member House. In Cheyenne, she said, Democrats had to switch from a building that holds 200 people to one than can hold 2,000.
"They didn't expect the turnout, the registration, the young people involved," she said.
Obama has won most of the Western states and nearly all the caucus states. But Gilmore, a Clinton supporter, said she thinks Clinton might surprise some people in Wyoming.
"After Clinton's victories in Texas and Ohio, there's new momentum," she said. "She's on task. My flagging hope is revived."
David Olinger: 303-954-1498 or dolinger@denverpost.com
Oft-ignored Wyoming has its moment
By David Olinger
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 03/07/2008 08:11:33 AM MST
Wyoming — where Democrats can remember only one visit by a top presidential candidate in 20 years — is in the spotlight. Its caucuses Saturday could shift momentum in the Democratic race. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)Related Articles
Mar 6:
DNC's Dean urges do-overs in Fla., Mich.Re-energized Clinton plots scenario to win nominationMar 5:
Obama reflects on lossesObama, Bill Clinton due in WyomingObama to sharpen criticism of HillaryBush endorses John McCain for presidentClinton wins by refusing to quit"We kept the faith," Huckabee tells backersMcCain clinches GOP nominationBig-state wins for ClintonMar 4:
Clinton wins Ohio, TexasRecord turnout could decide raceIs today D-Day for Dems?LARAMIE — There are Democrats in Wyoming.
But they've been largely ignored by every presidential candidate for 20 years.
All that changes today. Suddenly Wyoming matters again. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are both holding rallies in the state today, on the eve of the state caucuses Saturday.
The race is extremely tight. Wyoming is all alone on the weekend Democratic schedule. And though its caucuses will choose only a dozen of the 4,000 Democratic delegates — in a state where the last two Democratic presidential nominees pulled less than 30 percent of the general election vote — Wyoming suddenly finds itself in the national spotlight.
Momentum is the big factor. Clinton needs to show her star
Results
Watch Post photojournalist RJ Sangosti's campaign journal, depicting the frenzy and fatigue of the campaign trail.
View a slideshow of photos from the many primaries and caucuses.
Browse up-to-date primary news.
View state-by-state GOP presidential candidate delegate allocation
View state-by-state DEM presidential candidate delegate allocation
is rising after big wins in Texas and Ohio. Obama needs to start a new string of state triumphs.
So for Democrats from Cheyenne to Jackson Hole, happy days are here again. At least for a couple of days.
"This is great," said state party chairman John Millin. "People are just thrilled. It's the talk of the town, for sure."
In 1988, Wyoming was the first caucus state after the New Hampshire primary, and seven Democratic contenders fanned through the state in search of supporters.
"All of the major candidates were here," recalled Muffy Moore, the state party chair that year. "Michael Dukakis, Dick Gephardt and Al Gore had offices here."
It has been a lonely two decades since. Aside from a speech Bill Clinton gave at an airport hangar in Cheyenne in 1992, Democrats here cannot remember seeing a single leading contender.
Thursday afternoon, Bill Clinton was back, this time to promote his wife's candidacy.
At the University of Wyoming in Laramie, thousands of people braved icy winds and waited in long lines outside a campus arena to hear the former president speak. He answered with a speech that held them rapt even as he ranged from his wife's plans for universal health care to her plans for creating a technology that could burn Wyoming coal without generating greenhouse gases. In memory of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was murdered in 1998, he also pledged that as president, Hillary Clinton would see federal hate-crime legislation become law.
He asked everyone in the audience to raise a hand if they knew someone without health care, and nearly everyone did.
"This is the only wealthy country in the world where you would get that response," he said.
In asking Wyoming to support "my wife, my senator and my candidate for president," he asserted that "she is better prepared to be president than I was in 1992."
Wyoming, he said, "led the nation with women's suffrage. You might as well lead the nation with a woman president."
Some Wyoming Democrats say they haven't enjoyed so much attention since 1960, when they gave John F. Kennedy the votes he needed to win the nomination on the convention floor.
Mike Vinich, now 84, was a Kennedy delegate that year. He had known Kennedy during World War II, when "I jumped on his PT boat with a wounded Marine," he recalled.
Nearly two decades later, he had his chance to repay "the man who saved my life." The floor belonged to Wyoming, Kennedy needed 13 delegates to clinch the nomination, and "we had 15 delegate votes," Vinich said.
He said he hollered at his fellow delegates to put Kennedy over the top until the delegation chairman abruptly "gave all 15 votes, didn't even take a head count. The balloons went down, the band went up."
This weekend, as Wyoming Democrats once again get a moment in the spotlight, Democrats are bracing for record turnout at caucuses that, in some years past, had more delegates to elect than people who showed up.
"It has been so exciting," said state Rep. Mary Gilmore, one of 17 Democrats in Wyoming's 60-member House. In Cheyenne, she said, Democrats had to switch from a building that holds 200 people to one than can hold 2,000.
"They didn't expect the turnout, the registration, the young people involved," she said.
Obama has won most of the Western states and nearly all the caucus states. But Gilmore, a Clinton supporter, said she thinks Clinton might surprise some people in Wyoming.
"After Clinton's victories in Texas and Ohio, there's new momentum," she said. "She's on task. My flagging hope is revived."
David Olinger: 303-954-1498 or dolinger@denverpost.com