Friday, January 04, 2008

HORSERACE

With 24 Hours Until Caucusing Ends, The Projected Winner in Wyoming Is...

Here's some more on what to expect at tomorrow's Wyoming Republican presidential caucus.

At 9 a.m. local time, Wyoming Republicans will go to 23 county seats for their caucuses. At eleven of those locations, they will be picking one convention delegate; at eleven of those locations, they will be picking alternates, and at one they will be picking one of both.

Laramie County, where the county seat is Cheyenne, will be casting for both and was awarded this bonus because their county cast the most votes for Barbara Cubin in the last Congressional election. Candidates that are picking a delegate this cycle will be picking an alternate next cycle, and vice versa.

"The way it will work is that the county chair will ask any registered Republican to write their name on a blackboard, and next to that which candidate they would support," says Tom Sansonetti, the 2008 Republican County Convention Coordinator. "There may be multiple potential delegates for each candidate, or just one, or none. Then they address the delegates and say why they support the candidate they support. And then they vote, and keep voting until someone gets 50 percent plus one." They knock off the potential delegate who came in last each time.

The voting is expected to be done by 3 p.m. local time. (Newsbusters reports that deadline was set to ensure the results will be in the Sunday New York Times!)

While it's been under the radar, the state has gotten some attention from the candidates. Sansonetti says that only three candidates have not visited the state at all: John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and Rudy Giuliani. In addition to the candidate visiting twice, Romney's wife Ann and his sons have visited. Direct mail and phone efforts have been persistent in the past week. Sansonetti said he had voice mail in the past day from representatives of Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul, Fred Thompson and Romney.

GOP officials in the state expect that the candidates who have put in the most effort in the state to walk away with delegates. Discussions with local county chairs suggest the following results, or something along these lines, would not be surprising: eight delegates for Romney, two delegates for Thompson, one delegate for Ron Paul, and one delegate for Duncan Hunter.

UPDATE: And note this bit of late-breaking news:

 Today Fred Thompson announced the endorsement of Right to Life of Wyoming.

"We're proud to endorse Senator Thompson for president because he has a long track record of supporting pro-life principles," stated Steven Ertelt, President of Right to Life of Wyoming.  "Senator Thompson had a 100% pro-life voting record during his tenure in Congress.  Today, he supports overturning the Roe v Wade decision which allowed for unlimited abortions, he opposes euthanasia, and he opposes forcing taxpayers to fund scientific research that requires the destruction of human life."

Right to Life of Wyoming (RTLW) is the state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee which has endorsed Senator Thompson for President, along with 13 other state affiliates.

01/04 04:54 PMShare