MEAD GRUVER Associated Press writer with staff reports | Posted: Thursday, August 21, 2008 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - After clinching the Republican U.S. House nomination and thanking her supporters, Cynthia Lummis wasted no time before characterizing her Democratic opponent in the general election as an urban Easterner who can't possibly identify with rural Wyomingites.
"It's very difficult for someone who was raised on the coasts, in dense urban areas, to transplant to a rural state and really have those rural values integrated fully into their psyche, into their soul," Lummis said of Gary Trauner on Tuesday night.
Trauner, unlike Lummis, hasn't lived in Wyoming his whole life - he's been here 18 years - and he's heard it before. Rep. Barbara Cubin, who's not seeking an eighth term, leveled the same attack during Trauner's nearly successful bid to unseat her in 2006.
There's a twist in this election, though. Republican Sen. John Barrasso, who was appointed last year and now is running for the seat, has lived in Wyoming for 25 years.
"I assume she might be saying the same thing about John Barrasso, because he is from the East Coast as well," Trauner said of Lummis' remark.
Trauner, 49, was born in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., and Barrasso, 56, in Reading, Pa. Both moved to Wyoming in their early 30s and have lived in Wyoming for less than half of their lives.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal appointed Barrasso following the death of Sen. Craig Thomas.
Lummis is a former state treasurer and a lifelong Wyoming resident. She beat Mark Gordon of Johnson County and two other candidates to win the Republican U.S. House primary on Tuesday. Trauner, of Wilson, was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
Lummis grew up on a ranch just outside the Cheyenne city limits - the first thing mentioned in a short biography on her Web site.
"I think the race in the general election will be about urban issues versus rural issues and rural values versus urban values, perhaps even more than partisan issues," she said Tuesday.
Trauner scoffed at the notion that where he used to live is a liability.
"That's the kind of stuff people talk about when they don't have anything positive to offer," he said. "You know what? What we need to talk about is how to solve energy issues and health care issues and our economic issues, the price of gas, the price of groceries."
The Republican National Congressional Committee wasted no time late Tuesday night in setting the tone for the general election. Its release said that with Lummis' nomination, Wyoming Republicans are poised to maintain control the U.S. House seat.
Re-run Democrat nominee Gary Trauner, on the other hand, has already established himself as an out-of-touch mouthpiece whose support from Washington's Democrat establishment highlights how poorly he is aligned with the people of Wyoming," the release said. "Trauner has already revealed that he supports abortion rights and was lauded by the far-left Daily Kos' annual convention as a "Netroots hero."
Bill Luckett, the executive director of the Wyoming Democratic Party, said he hopes "Lummis will join Trauner in focusing on issues and giving the people of Wyoming the campaign they deserve."
"It's interesting to see the Washington Republican establishment speaking out unprovoked about the Washington Democratic establishment," he added Wednesday. "It's like the pot calling the kettle black."
Dave Marcum, political science instructor at Laramie County Community College, expects the general election for the U.S. House to be "nasty."
He based that assessment on primary campaign television ads from both Lummis and Gordon targeting Trauner as being an outsider who is supported by the national Democratic party.
Two years ago, Marcum said Trauner was criticized for being too nice to Cubin, who won re-election in a close race.
This time, he said, Trauner will have to answer Lummis' volleys.
As for Lummis characterizing the race with Trauner as a rural-urban contest, "the people in Kemmerer might find that interesting," Marcum said, because Lummis has spent years in Cheyenne.
And Cheyenne could be considered an urban area by Wyoming standards.
Lummis, however, insists her characterization is valid.
"Yes, I am rural," she said Wednesday afternoon.
Trauner said he ran a positive, issues-based race two years ago and stuck to issues of interest to Wyoming and will do so again this time.
As for the rural-urban distinction, Trauner said he has lived in a rural place for the last 20 years and attended college in a Hamilton, N.Y., a small town in upstate New York.
For the next two and a half months, Trauner will be campaigning door to door in more communities than he did two years ago when he lost by half a percentage point to Cubin.
Trauner has a leadership team in all 23 Wyoming counties that includes Democrats, Republicans and independents, according to a release from his campaign.