by JOAN BARRON | Casper Star Tribune - Posted: Sunday, July 11, 2010 12:00 am
CHEYENNE -- Here are some minor observations about the primary election ballot.
-- Two candidates, one for the state Senate and one for state auditor, are from tiny Devils Tower, Wyoming.
-- Two legislative candidates have run for federal office before.
This is a switch because the first rung for higher political office is more often a local office or a legislative seat, not the reverse.
Devils Tower Junction is on the state map but has no population listed.
The junction is located near the monument itself, a major tourist attraction.
A website, neighborhood link, said the hamlet's zip code, 82714, is a "sparsely populated, upscale rural zip code."
Devils Tower has a population of about 85 people, primarily white and mostly married.
Ogden Driskill is a Republican candidate for Senate District 1. He is trying to succeed Sen. Chuck Townsend of Osage who didn't seek re-election this year.
Driskill is a fifth-generation rancher from Devils Tower. His wife is postmistress. He says Devils Tower is a community composed primarily of families.
Bruce Brown of Devils Tower is a Republican candidate for state auditor. He and Driskill are good friends.
Driskill is one of three Republicans seeking the Senate seat. The others are Terry Marie Henderson of Shawnee and Tom Dunlap of Keeline.
No Democrats filed for the seat.
To me, having two candidates, one for the Senate and one for state auditor, from Devils Tower is as unlikely as having a pair of would-be state politicians coming out of Moneta.
The two former candidates for federal office are Chris Rothfuss of Laramie and Bill Winney of Bondurant in Sublette County.
Rothfuss, a Democrat and a chemical engineer, ran for the U.S. Senate two years ago and lost to Republican Sen. Mike Enzi.
At that time, Rothfuss said, according to his website, people from throughout the state, including Democrats, independents "and even Republicans" asked him to consider running for the Wyoming Legislature this year. They told him the state needed his expertise as a chemical engineer "to help shape our state's energy future," and encouraged him to stay in Wyoming politics.
Rothfuss will face Jodi Guerin in the Democratic primary for SD 09.
The seat is now held by Sen. Mike Massie who is running for state superintendent of public instruction. No Republicans have filed for SD 09.
Winney is a Republican candidate for House District 22. A second Republican in that race is Emmett Mavy of Alpine.
Winney, a retired naval officer, ran twice for the U.S. House in 2006 and 2008 and lost the GOP nomination both times to former Congresswoman Barbara Cubin. In recent years Winney has been following the Legislature and legislative committees in Cheyenne.
"If you're not up there and something pops up you missed it," he said.
Earlier this year he tracked the budget and now feels he has a good idea of how things work in the Legislature.
"I'm still upset by some things in politics," Winney said.
A third observation came from Dunlap, the Keeline Republican candidate for Senate District No. 1.
Dunlap said his biggest concern is maintaining health care in the state's rural areas. Senate District No. 1, which has 5 hospitals, is the largest of all the Senate districts, covering 8,500 miles and encompassing all of Niobrara, Crook and Weston counties.
A former hospital administrator, Dunlap said the Legislature has had no physician-members since Dr. John Barrasso went to the U.S. Senate.
The only legislator with medical experience, he said, is a surgical technician. He was referring to Rep. Lori Millin of Cheyenne.
It is unusual for the Legislature to have no physician or a few other health care professionals on the floor to explain health care bills and to support the rural hospitals.
Contact Capitol Reporter Joan Barron at joan.barron@trib.com or at 307-632-1244.