CHEYENNE - Gov. Dave Freudenthal spent Tuesday stumping for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in four small towns in western Pennsylvania.

The Obama campaign paid all expenses, the Democratic chief executive said Wednesday afternoon. Freudenthal's chief of staff, Chris Boswell, took a vacation day to accompany him on the trip, he said.

Several other governors have taken similar trips to key regions in the presidential campaign to support Obama.

Freudenthal and Boswell flew into Pittsburgh late Monday night and returned to Cheyenne late Tuesday night.

They were accompanied on the Pennsylvania tour by Obama staff members.

Freudenthal said he talked to small gatherings of 25 to 30 people.

"I'm delighted to do it but I'm not going to spend too much time at it. It's not my full-time job," he said. "I've never done anything like that before, where you just show up in a place you've not been with people you don't know and you get up and give it a riff and take questions."

Freudenthal received a lot of questions about guns, health care, the price of gasoline, the stock market and whether the Democrats will be any better than the Republicans.

"People there are just as scared as they are here," Freudenthal said. "There's an awful lot of unease about the economy."

He was struck that so many people turned out for the campaign stops on a working day.

Freudenthal, a sportsman, said people in that part of Pennsylvania hunt white-tailed deer and birds.

In Somerset, Pa., Freudenthal attended a sportsmen's gathering, followed by a stop at the coal miners union hall in Grindsville, Pa., a stop at another sports club in McDonald, Pa., and a rural meeting at a farm in Tarentum, Pa.

In April the governor endorsed Obama for president on grounds he could end the bitter partisanship in the nation's capital.

So far Freudenthal has not endorsed any Wyoming candidates.

"Governor Dave has never been terribly political," said Bill Luckett, executive director of the Wyoming Democratic Party. "He could have helped the Democratic Party more if he wanted to."

Sen. Obama is a unique politician in Freudenthal's eyes, Luckett said. "I don't know what plans he has in local elections at this point."

During a recent news conference Freudenthal said he would make no endorsement in the contest between Republican Sen. John Barrasso and Democrat Nick Carter of Gillette.

It wouldn't be proper, he said, because he had appointed Barrasso to the seat after the death last spring of Sen. Craig Thomas and Barrasso had been in the office for such a short time.

He told reporters he would decide later on endorsements in the other senate race between Republican Sen. Mike Enzi and Democrat Chris Rothfuss of Laramie, and in the U.S. House race between Republican Cynthia Lummis and Democrat Gary Trauner.

Freudenthal did campaign door-to-door recently with a Cheyenne Democrat, Katherine Van Dell, who is challenging Republican incumbent Amy Edmonds for the House District 12 seat.

Contact capital bureau reporter Joan Barron at (307) 632-1244 or joan.barron@trib.com