GOPer Colin Simpson Not Running In Wyoming House Race
In a surprising development, the Republicans have lost the man who may well have been their best candidate in a normally solid seat — meaning that it might just turn into a real race. Wyoming state Rep. Colin Simpson (R), son of former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, announced yesterday that he is not running for the open House seat, after all. Simpson had indicated earlier this year that he would run against incumbent Congresswoman Barbara Cubin in the primary. Now neither of them are running.
Cubin's 2006 Democratic opponent, Gary Trauner, is already running again after barely losing, and can count himself lucky over Simpson's departure. However, Wyoming remains a heavily Republican state that will in all likelihood go for the GOP presidential nominee by a huge margin, and there are plenty of other prominent Republicans statewide.
This latest race-by-race analysis of vulnerable House races had dropped WY-AL to "potentially competitive only, thinking that Cubin's retirement helped the GOP. But if Republicans can't get their act together, the race could very well become much more competitive.
December 4, 2007 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whether Simpson had run or not, Gary Trauner had and has a strong chance of winning the Wyoming seat. Not only did Trauner come within a thousand votes of beating a six-term incumbent in 2006. This time he has strong name recognition, a fundraising and organizing lead, and very low negatives all over the state. Moreover, Wyoming Democrats are building strength in a number of ways (including Party fundraising), which should help Trauner. He also benefits from the high marks and popularity being accumulated by Governor Dave Freudenthal, also a Democrat. Freudenthal won reelection in Wyoming in 2006 with roughly seventy percent of the vote, which would have been good in a "blue" state.
December 6, 2007 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
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December 11, 2007 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink