JOAN BARRON Star-Tribune capital bureau | Posted: Saturday, June 16, 2007 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - Because of the size of the pool of candidates for the state's open U.S. Senate seat, the Wyoming Republican Party changed the balloting process slightly Friday, party Chairman Fred Parady said.
With the withdrawal of one candidate, Clif McCrady of Casper, the field dropped from 31 to 30 Friday.
The State Republican Central Committee will meet Tuesday in Casper to choose three finalists for the seat vacated by the death of Sen. Craig Thomas.
Parady had said earlier that if there were more than eight candidates, the first vote of the 71-member central committee would cull the list to eight. Those eight would then advance to the next round of ballots.
He said Friday that plan was likely to change.
"We will have some sort of tiered voting process, but given the size of the pool we may not drop quite that far," he said. "We're looking at a higher number because the pool is bigger."
The exact number will be in rules to be released today, he said.
Parady also had earlier indicated that each candidate would be allowed an "opening short speech" before the first vote to winnow the field. But on Friday, he said he had heard concern that a short opening speech might not do a particular candidate justice, indicating the possibility that such opening speeches will not be allowed.
"But we've been at this for a week now," he said.
The party headquarters sent out hundreds of pages of biographical and other information to the central committee members, and the candidates have been on the phone generating letters of recommendation, among other activities that have been taking place, he said.
"The speech is just the culminating tip of the process, but it's not the whole process, and I don't want people to lose sight of that," he added.
The central committee will nominate three candidates for the Senate post, and Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal will have until June 25 to pick one of the three. That person will serve until a special election in November 2008.
Parady will be the moderator for a separate candidates' forum Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. at the Gertrude Krampert Theater at Casper College. The forum will air live on Wyoming Public Television.
The plan is to have the panelists - Casper Star-Tribune Editor Clark Walworth, Bob Beck of Wyoming Public Radio, and Geoff O'Gara of Wyoming Public Television - ask questions of four groups of seven or eight candidates.
Each panel is expected to last 45 minutes, and the questions to the candidates will vary and will depend upon each panelist.
There also will be a "lightning" round, he said, where the panelists give the candidates a word to discuss.
Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at joan.barron@casperstartribune.net.