Wyoming vote takes on importance of JFK era

NOT since 1960 have Wyoming Democrats felt so relevant.

That year, at the Democratic National Convention, the state’s delegation cast 15 votes that pushed Senator John F Kennedy over the top and made him the party’s nominee for president.

With this year’s race for the Democratic nomination still unsettled, Wyoming Democrats are feeling relevant again as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama focus on the 12 delegates at stake in Saturday’s caucus.

Only in the last few weeks have the campaigns stepped up their presence in the state, opening offices, calling voters and sending mailers. The first visits came on Thursday, when former President Clinton made three appearances. Obama and Hillary Clinton follow, each scheduling two events today.

Clinton plans town-hall meetings in Casper and Cheyenne. Obama, who has had greater success with caucuses, plans a rally in Laramie at the University of Wyoming.

On Saturday, the state has 23 county caucuses and all the attention has Wyoming Democrats feeling giddy.

“It’s amazing,” said party spokesman Bill Luckett. “It’s a once-in-a-generation type of opportunity for Wyoming to have a say in this presidential race.”

The number of registered Democrats has grown by more than 1,000 since the start of the year, the secretary of state’s office says. Republicans have 136,000 registered voters, compared to 59,000 Democrats.

“In the grand scheme of things, Wyoming factors in for us,” said Obama spokesman Matt Chandler. “We take it very seriously.”

Clinton spokesman Blake Zeff said potential volunteers are reaching out. “We’re going to be harnessing that enthusiasm to really bring out the vote,” he said.

It remains unclear which Democrat might have an edge; no public polling has been done in the state. However, at least one prominent Wyoming Democrat has questioned whether Clinton’s unpopularity would hurt other Democratic candidates in the West.

“I feel a lot of conservative Republicans may not show on Election Day to vote for (John) McCain, but they may show up to vote against her,” John Millin, the state Democratic Party chair, said.

The state’s top Democrat, Governor Dave Freudenthal, has said he doesn’t like any of the candidates, Republican or Democratic, because they haven’t spoken enough about Western issues. He hasn’t endorsed anyone and will not say who, as a superdelegate, he will vote for at the convention.

“I just don’t usually get involved in it. I may or may not,” Freudenthal said.

Meanwhile, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has urged Florida and Michigan party officials to come up with plans to repeat their presidential nominating contests so that their delegates can be counted.

“All they have to do is come before us with rules that fit into what they agreed to a-year-and-a- half ago, and then they’ll be seated,” Dean said during a round of interviews on Thursday on network and cable TV news programmes.

The two state parties will have to find the funds to pay for new contests without help from the national party, Dean said.

“We can’t afford to do that. That’s not our problem. We need our money to win the presidential race,” he said.

Officials in Michigan and Florida are showing renewed interest in holding repeat presidential nominating contests so that their votes will count in the epic Democratic campaign.

The Michigan governor, top officials in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and Florida’s state party chair all are now saying they would consider holding a sort of do-over contest by June.

That’s a change from the previous insistence from officials in both states that the primaries they held in January should determine how their delegates are allocated.

The Democratic National Committee stripped both states of all delegates for holding the primaries too early, and all Democratic candidates, including Clinton and rival Barack Obama, agreed not to campaign in either state. Obama’s name wasn’t even on the Michigan ballot.