MATT JOYCE Associated Press writer | Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - Wyoming will remain a Republican stronghold in this year's election despite optimism among Democrats in the state and nationally, the new head of the Wyoming Republican Party said Monday.
Citing figures that show Republicans with a better than 2-to-1 registered voter margin over Democrats, state Party Chairman Diana Vaughan said she expects the party's core principles of "smaller government and lower taxes" to win the day in state and federal elections this November.
"We're talking about Wyoming," said Vaughan, who became the state GOP chairman last month. "This is what Wyoming stands for. That's why we've got the overwhelming majority in the state Legislature. People believe in those Republican principles and that's why we elect the people that we do."
Vaughan said the GOP is strong enough in Wyoming to overcome any national backlash over controversial Bush Administration policies, such as the Iraq war. Vice President Dick Cheney - a Wyoming native - is committed to helping the state GOP in the lead-up to the general election, she said.
Vaughan also said Wyoming Republicans can match their Democratic counterparts both in energizing young voters and in preparing candidates to run for office. Both parties have offered training programs for their state Legislature candidates.
"I think it has become newsworthy that the Democrats are now all energized," she said. "But they have just only begun what we have been here doing. We've been serving the people of Wyoming all these years."
On the other hand, said Bill Luckett, executive director of the state Democratic Party, Wyoming residents are listening to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's commitment to overcoming partisanship in Washington.
"I understand why the Republicans want to continue thinking that this is a Republican state and Republicans are just going to win because that's the way it's always been," Luckett said. "But we have outstanding candidates this year, up and down the ballot."
One of Wyoming's most closely watched races in the primary and general elections will be the contest for retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin's congressional seat.
Vaughan declined to endorse one of the four Republicans vying for the GOP nomination - Mark Gordon of Buffalo, Cynthia Lummis of Cheyenne, Bill Winney of Bondurant and Michael Holland of Green River. Vaughan said she expects any Republicans who voted for Democrat Gary Trauner in his bid to unseat Cubin two years ago to come back into the Republican fold.
Trauner, who lost to Cubin by half a percentage point in 2006, is the only Democrat seeking his party's nomination.
"I think we've got great candidates and I think they're all running great campaigns," Vaughan said. "The party is sound and we are going to be solidly behind the person that comes out of (the primary)."