JARED MILLER Star-Tribune capital bureau | Posted: Monday, July 16, 2007 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - When Brandon Owens moved from Alabama to Wyoming to become the new executive director of the state Democratic Party, he purchased a satellite radio.
The 30-year-old former union organizer and political campaigner knew the job would require lots of traveling, and he wanted good music to help pass the miles.
In one month, Owens has traveled hundreds of miles to shake hands with party faithful and meet potential candidates.
"Our goal is just to get our message out to the people of Wyoming, to let them know we're there for them," Owens said recently. "We think once we get our message out there, they'll agree with us."
Owens, who replaced Kyle DeBeer, is just one new feature of the state Democratic Party.
The party elected Cheyenne eye surgeon John Millin as its new chairman. Millin defeated two-term party Chairman Mike Gierau, who had been criticized for focusing too little on the grassroots.
Millin responded by unveiling a 23-county plan similar to national party chairman Howard Dean's "50-State Strategy." In a May memo to party members, Millin promised to "take the fight to every corner of the state," using resources partly provided by the national party.
The Democrats also are pushing harder to raise money.
Millin, in the memo, noted that it is "significantly more challenging" to meet fundraising goals at the state level than at other levels of politics.
"While people and ideas are at their heart, political organizations ultimately live and die based on their ability to raise funds," he said, calling for $10,000 in donations during his first week at the helm.
In Wyoming, Republican voters outnumber Democrats more than 2 to 1. Republicans similarly outnumber Democrats in the statehouse. Only one statewide office holder, Gov. Dave Freudenthal, is a Democrat.
At the federal level, all three of the state's congressional delegates are Republicans, and the state GOP aims to keep it that way, party Chairman Fred Parady said.
"I think with Sen. (Mike) Enzi, Sen. (John) Barrasso and our congressional seat, we have a lot of energy for maintaining that Republican federal delegation," Parady said.
Democrats who win a seat in the statehouse have said they are careful not to stray too far from the politics of their Republican counterparts.
Some Democratic activists fear their party may never again have a strong voice in state government.
"There is this kind of unstated assumption that, regardless of what the party does, the result is going to be a state of a permanent minority status," said Phil Roberts, University of Wyoming history professor, Democratic Party activist and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate in 1998.
That scenario isn't likely, UW political scientist Jim King said.
"Things change," King said. "They were talking about a permanent (Republican) majority in Congress a year ago."
Finding success
State Democratic party spokesman Bill Luckett scoffed at the idea of permanent GOP power in Cheyenne.
"I think it's safe to say that there will not always be a Republican majority in the state, especially as people get to know more about what the individual parties stand for," he said.
Wyoming Democrats made good showings in the 2006 elections, with Wilson resident Gary Trauner narrowly losing to six-time incumbent Rep. Barbara Cubin. The party gained three seats in the state House.
Meanwhile, Democrats in traditionally conservative states including Montana and Colorado have begun to shine, and similar trends could be in store for Wyoming, King said.
"It's not going to be a case where in the next election we're going to see the Legislature become Democratic," King said. "It's going to take time to build up, to create situations where particular constituencies become linked with Democratic candidates and then gradually expand."
While some states have turned blue, Wyoming is still solidly red.
"We're now essentially five years into the term of a (Wyoming) Democratic governor, and he has had no coattails in either the statewide elected (offices) or in the Legislature," Parady said.
Wyoming donors are showing some early favor for 2008 Democratic presidential candidates.
The No. 2 fundraiser in Wyoming is Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois with almost $15,000 in contributions. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, leads in Wyoming with $36,550, according to opensecrets.org, a watchdog group that tracks political contributions.
Other Democratic presidential candidates have raised a combined $12,800 from Wyoming donors - only slightly less than the remaining GOP candidates.
Raising money
Wyoming Democrats will have another chance to build interest in the party at the Democratic National Convention next summer in Denver.
"If you have something going on in Denver where they sincerely realize some of the concerns that people have here in the West," said Dave Marcum, political science instructor at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, "then you might see some folks in the region get pretty excited about the party,"
"On the other hand, if the party platform that comes out of the convention, and the presidential candidate that comes out of the convention is talking East Coast liberal Democratic ideas and values, that is going to totally turn off the folks in Wyoming," Marcum said.
The national party provided funding for two additional full-time Wyoming staff positions last year.
"The funding commitment to those jobs is good through the (2008) election cycle," Luckett said. "As far as we understand, the intention is to maintain those positions long term."
The staffers are spending time with activists, attending county party meetings and recruiting political candidates. They received a particularly warm welcome earlier this month in Gillette, a Republican stronghold, Luckett said.
"They're all very excited to see someone from the state office come to their county."
Luckett said the party is having more success with fundraising than in the past. He declined to provide specific numbers, including whether Millin was successful in raising the $10,000 he asked for in his initial letter to state party members.
"We're not rich," Luckett said. "But we're seeing some really important signs."
Speaking up
Recent efforts have won praise and some criticism from state party members.
A small group of vocal Democrats complained that the party missed an opportunity to spread its message during the recent whirlwind effort to choose a successor to Republican U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, who died June 4.
The selection process provided the state GOP with a flood of news coverage and turned the spotlight on the party's crowded stable of aspiring office holders.
"It was wonderful advertising, not only for the Senate race but for all sorts of political campaigns down the road," said Roberts, the UW professor. "In my way of thinking, all of (the candidates) turned out to be winners in a way."
Roberts and Warren Lauer, a Laramie lawyer and former Albany County Democratic chairman, helped write a newspaper opinion column criticizing the Democratic Party's silence during the selection process.
"I wanted to use a critical statement in a way to encourage members in the state party to kick it up a notch and not wait and be reactionary to things, but be proactive about what the party believes," Lauer said.
Democratic Party leaders countered that state law made it clear that Thomas's successor was to be selected from the state GOP, and they had no role in that discussion.
"That's not our place," Owens said. "We would just like people to consider our candidate, whoever that might be in 2008, and that's all we can really do in this situation in this state."
Owens helped stir up a minor flap during the Senate selection process when he told a reporter that party officials had been working behind the scenes with Freudenthal to assure that the next senator would "not be a strict conservative."
Freudenthal's office called the report inaccurate, but Wyoming Public Radio stood by the story.
Owens last week said the conversations reported in the story never took place and blamed the incident on his newness to the state.
The Senate selection process was created by the Legislature in 1993 but had previously never been used.
An uphill battle
It's been difficult in recent years to find high-quality Democrats for office.
Excluding Freudenthal, even those who have made good showings had limited political credentials. Trauner's previous experience consisted of the chairmanship of his local school board.
It's especially tricky to find solid candidates for national races, Luckett said.
"It's a yearlong commitment, and it's hard on candidates' families, and you can't do it unless you've got a little bit of money already to start off with," Luckett said.
Whoever runs has a slim chance of actually winning. Incumbents in Wyoming tend to dominate elections for national office.
Thomas won re-election last year with 70 percent of the vote.
Marcum, the LCCC instructor, said the party's new grassroots strategy makes sense.
He said Democrats need to start at the local level, focusing on races for school boards, county commissions, city councils and mayors. Candidates who succeed there may eventually gain the experience and credibility to succeed on a larger political stage.
Reach capital bureau reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at jared.miller@casperstartribune.net.