Saturday, March 8, 2008

Obama Lassos Hillary in Cowboy State

We are continuing our campaign coverage here at Politics, Culture and Wastes of Time with a look at how Barack Obama defeated in-party rival Hillary Clinton by a 58-42 percent margin in the Wyoming Democratic Caucus on Saturday.
The Republican Caucus was held back in January, and it went to Mitt Romney who has since dropped out of the race.
While my coverage can not match C-Span, CNN or MSNBC, I will continue to look at how local newspapers in each state with a heated contest covered the race.
Laramie, Wyo., is home to Wyoming University, and the local newspaper there is (gotta love this) "The Laramie Boomerang."
According to Aaron LeClair of "The Boomerang," Obama beat Clinton even more decisively in Albany County, which is the county where Laramie is. The Illinois senator got 969 votes (74 percent) to Clinton's 328 votes (25 percent) at county caucus which was held at the Laramie Plains Civic Center.
There was a huge turnout for the event as 1,300 Democratic voters came out.
"This is probably one of the more exciting things that's happened to Albany County politically for a very long time for the Democratic Party," said Grant Showacre, the county's party chair (to the "Boomerang").
Impressively enough Laramie is represented by a Democratic state senator, Mike Massie (Wyoming is the home of Dick Cheney, after all, and Republicans outnumber Democrats two-to-one in the Cowboy State).
Massie told "The Boomerang" that Obama's win was the result of an extremely, well-organized state-wide campaign. Massie said he was also amazed to see 1,300 people show up for an event that would have normally seen 100 people in attendance.
Gary Trauner, who is running as a Democrat for a congressional seat in Wyoming, also came to the caucus. In 2006, he narrowly lost to Cong. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.) by less than 1,000 votes.
One thing Republicans have to fear is that more enthusiasm for a Democratic presidential could mean more Congressional and U.S. Senate seats, not to mention gubernatorial seats, could go to Democrats as well.
Wyoming has a Democratic governor who has so far refused to endorse either Obama or Clinton.

Useful Links:

http://www.laramieboomerang.com

No comments: