Early voting in Platte County

My wife and I headed down to the Platte County Clerk's office this morning and voted early. It was real simple, and only took about 10 minutes. We were both wearing Obama campaign buttons, and a gentlemen also at the counter commented that he liked them. A fellow blue voter! I replied that I was happy that he liked them. There was another young female at the booth voting early too...which was good to see. Not that we should have a real problem with extensively long lines here in Platte County, but why not go and vote now? There was literally no waiting. If there is a problem with your registration, you'll have time to fix it, and you'll be assured your vote is included. I encourage every eligible citizen to take the time to vote, especially my fellow Platte County Democrats! This election, we have the opportunity to make a difference. Every vote counts.

Wyoming Democratic Party needs your help Platte County Dems

I received this e-mail this afternoon from the Wyoming Democratic Party Treasurer Chuck Herz:

Ten days to go! And much at stake.

The congressional race in Wyoming is neck-and-neck. Gary Trauner leads Cynthia Lummis by a mere one percent in the latest polls and even the Republican National Congressional Committee admits that the race a tossup. We have a strong chance to elect the first Wyoming Democrat to either house of Congress in over thirty years.

We also have a strong chance to increase Democratic representation in both houses of the Wyoming Legislature, quite possibly enough to boost our representation on committees and secure any veto by Gov. Freudenthal. The Presidential and US Senate races currently look tougher, but we’ve an off-chance to pull a big surprise and should at minimum be able to narrow margins so that potential candidates, funding sources, the national party, and Wyoming Democrats will see Wyoming as much more competitive in the future.

Everything now depends on turnout. So we’re setting out to mount the strongest get-out-the-vote effort Wyoming has probably ever seen. An army of you are involved already, and thanks for that. But we need every Democrat in Wyoming to pitch in as much as they possibly can. So if you’re not already signed up as a volunteer to help whenever and wherever you can on the last weekend (November 1 and 2) and especially on Election Day itself (November 4), please, please do so now. If you’re already signed up, please consider signing up for another shift.Here are the contacts in each county with their contact information:

Here are the shifts for which we need volunteers:
Saturday, Nov. 1 Doors: 10am-1pm, 2pm-5pm
Saturday, Nov. 1 Phones: 10am-12pm, 12pm-2pm, 2pm-4pm, 4pm-6pm
Sunday, Nov. 2 Doors: 12pm-3pm, 3pm-6pm
Sunday, Nov. 2 Phones: 12pm-2pm, 2pm-4pm, 4pm-6pm, 6pm-8pm
ELECTION DAY, Nov. 4 Doors: 10am-12:30pm, 1:30pm-4pm, 5pm-7pm
ELECTION DAY, Nov. 4 Phones: 10am-12pm, 12pm-2pm, 2pm-4pm, 4pm-7pm

NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD DEMOCRATS TO COME TO THE AID OF THE PARTY, AND OF OUR EXCELLENT CANDIDATES AT ALL LEVELS! Good hunting.

If you can lend a hand, the contacts for Platte County are Katie Lass, 307-680-6128, katie@wyomingdemocrats.com, or Dana Walton, 307-258-1825, dana@wyomingdemocrats.com.

Citizens gather for Platte County Nursing Home

On Saturday, nursing home residents, Banner employees, and concerned citizens gathered outside the nursing home wing at Platte County Memorial Hospital to show support for keeping the nursing home open. CBS news from Cheyenne was there to cover the event. A short news video is available here: http://www.kgwn.tv/_videos/pages/200810185747.html

Banner Health is cancelling their contract to run the nursing home citing uncontrollable financial losses from the nursing home side of the facility over the past several years. In cancelling the contract, the Hospital District Board has to decide how to best handle the situation. They could:
A. Let Banner run the hospital and close the nursing home.
B. Let Banner run the hospital and find another entity to run the nursing home.
C. Find another entity to run both the hospital and nursing home.
D. Have the county run the hospital and nursing home.

What seems to not be an option is to negotiate a way for Banner Health to continue running both the hospital and nursing home. Banner, it seems, is not interested in operating the nursing home at this point, under any circumstances. Option B would seemingly be the hardest to accomplish. The nursing home and hospital share operational departments such as food service, laundry, housekeeping, and maintenence. Utilities are shared as well. It wouldn't be easy for two companies to negotiate a plan to share the employees and operational expenses. Option D is unlikely...the county simply does not have the resources and expertise to run a healthcare facility. From my vantage point, this leaves options A and C. Both will cause quite a stir, neither are optimal choices.

Regarding the politics of all this, the one person that may suffer backlash from community frustration is democratic candidate Joe Reichardt. He is the only Platte County Commissioner that is up for reelection this year. Although the commissioners have input, the negotiations in solving this dilemma are between Banner Health and the Platte County Hospital District Board. There are several names in the hat for the Hospital District Board. On the ballot in November are Rick Bowen, John C. Bunker, Crystal (Boettcher) Gamblin, Lori Modesitt, and Chuck Witte. These are brave people for wanting to be involved (or wanting to stay involved) in all this mess. The current Hospital District Board states they are doing their best to resolve the issue. Surely there must be a win/win solution to the problem. Any suggestions?

Trauner, Lummis and Herbert at Casper College

Dateline: October 5th. Gary Trauner, Cynthia Lummis and W. David Herbert (Libertarian Party) answered questions at Casper College on Sunday, taking turns speaking almost exclusively about domestic policy.

I seriously came close to blowing iced tea out of my nose in response to this statement from Lummis: I believe my party stands for limited government, low taxes, for keeping spending under control, and for balancing budgets. Sure, these are the usual pillars the GOP tout as their platform, but c'mon. She seriously wants to speak of balanced budgets and keeping spending under control? Considering the past eight years, that's a verbal pill I find a bit hard to swallow.

Lummis also made a slip of the tongue, referring to Barack Obama as "Osama". Nice one, Cynthia. She apologized after the forum. Perhaps the gaffe provides us with some insight into her psyche.

Gary Trauner made a comment regarding healthcare that tells it like it is. He said "The United States already has a nationalized health care system because 20 cents to 30 cents of every health care dollar goes toward paying for those who are not covered by insurance. Health insurance coverage for everyone is morally the right thing to do and the economically right thing to do." Well said, Mr. Trauner.

Platte County citizens will have a couple of opportunities to meet Gary Trauner and other candidates over the next week. The Platte County Meet the Candidates forum is scheduled for Sunday, Oct 12 from 2-4 p.m. at the First State Bank Conference Center (Wheatland). Then on Tuesday, Oct. 14 from 7:00-9:00 p.m. locals can meet candidates from both sides of the aisle at the 4-H Building at the Platte Co. Fairgrounds in Wheatland.

I believe I've stated this before, but it is worth repeating. Gary Trauner missed defeating Barbara Cubin in Platte County by only 125 votes in 2006. Isn't Gary Trauner the better choice for Wyoming in 2008? I ask you to talk to your friends and neighbors to discuss the congressional race. This gets down to the local level, and we can truly make a difference in our county.

And the Vice-Presidential debate winner is...

Wow, good debate. Governor Palin didn't stink like she did in the Couric interviews, which was great for Senator Biden. It allowed him to be his best and he was able to avoid looking like a bully. The moderator was extremely fair. I chose to watch the debate on CNN, where it was interesting to see the real-time opinion of thirty-some Ohioans displayed on the television via a graph measuring audience mood during the discussion.

I feel Biden won the debate, but Palin restored her previously held position as a scrappy soccer, er, hockey mom. She was full-on folksy tonight, for sure, ya know. Couple of winks in there, too. The debate reaffirmed my opinion that I'd rather see Biden stepping into the presidential shoes over Palin. Joe Biden is well spoken, able to make his point, and has the wealth of knowledge and experience to assist Barack in his Presidency. He did his job well, connecting McCain to Bush, and making the case that an Obama/Biden ticket will do more for main street America than McCain/Palin.

Right now the pundits are sorting out the factual content, and I'm sure by morning the news will have some polls to let us know who prevailed. The voices that will count most will be those of the independents. For me, this was a wonderful affirmation that Obama made a great choice in Biden. What a great ticket.

McCain/Palin attempt to be on same page

This ticket scares me more and more every day. Palin is asked a question from a voter, she gives an answer. But oops, it doesn't match what McCain's views are. So, we go on CBS and state that this was "Gotcha Journalism". What?! How should that have been handled then? Should Palin have said "That's a good question, Mr. Voter. Let me call John and see how I should answer this, and I'll get back to you."

Don't give us the line that it was crowded and loud and she didn't fully hear the question. C'mon, we're smarter that that. This can't be the ticket America wants in the White House. It just can't be.

Wyoming, vote with your absentee ballot today!

In Wyoming, you are allowed to vote 40 days before the General Election. This means you can vote NOW! There are two ways to vote by absentee ballot. First, you may go directly to the office of the county clerk. That's 800 9th St, downtown Wheatland for Platte County. You know the building. Grab a ballot, fill it out, and hand it in right there. Piece of cake. Secondly, you can request an absentee ballot be mailed to you by calling the county clerk (322-2315) or submitting your name, residence address, mailing address, and birth date or Social Security Number. Once your information is verified, your ballot will be sent by mail.

All ballots must be in by November 4th, at 7 p.m. and can be returned in person or by mail. If you are in the military or overseas, go to http://www.fvap.gov.index.html/ for an application for an absentee ballot.

If you're going to be busy November 4th, or happen to be bad at remembering dates, why not contact our county clerk and vote now!

Help Obama/Biden, Call the Swing States!

If you are a realist, you probably have figured out that no matter how much we want it, Barack Obama will probably not win in Wyoming. So what is a Democratic Wyomingite to do? How about picking up the phone and making some calls to those swing states? The Obama website has set up an area where you can register to make phone calls to the states where we really need the votes. They provide you with names, numbers, and talking points to show those "Undecided" folks why Obama must be the next President of the United States of America. Visit the Obama website now and lend a hand.

Gary Trauner on Health Care

Please take a look at Gary Trauner's stance on health care:

• Nearly 1 in every 5 of our fellow Wyomingites is without health care coverage
• The US system is the most expensive in the world
• Our system is inefficient - nearly double most other developed countries, per person
• The US is the only country that relies primarily on employer based plans for health care coverage

Gary's response to "What can we do?" is:

• Reduce the health care coverage burden on our businesses, especially small businesses
• Strive to cover every American with basic, quality coverage
• Take medical decisions away from insurance companies, medical product manufacturers and accountants and give those decisions back to patients and doctors
• Stop the fear talk about universal health care and start the hopeful work of solving this huge national problem

I think Gary Trauner hits the nail squarely on the head. This is the kind of leadership that Wyoming needs. We have a lot of issues to solve in the USA, the hottest topics being the War in Iraq, Energy and the Economy. But let's not forget about healthcare; it should be a priority too. Don't be so resigned to accept our current system as unfixable. Give this man a chance and vote for him on November 4th.

Wyoming Polls thus far

We have some poll numbers conducted from Sept 22-24th, and Gary Trauner is once again in a dead heat against a Republican opponent. The rest of the Democratic hopefuls are polling in the mid-thirties percentile. These numbers are pre-presidential debate, but with only 3% stating themselves as undecided, it is unlikely Obama will make any headway here in the Equality State. Colorado is most certainly a battleground state and it will be interesting to watch the results from our neighbor.

Poll results, asking who you would vote for if the election was held today:
Trauner 42% Lummis 42% Undecided 16%
Carter 34% Barasso 58% Undecided 8%
Rothfuss 35% Enzi 59% Undecided 6%
Obama 36% McCain 57% Other 4% Undecided 3%

Other stats are available in this brief from DailyKOS.

First Presidential Debate 2008

I eagerly awaited the debate last night, hoping that I would see Barack Obama trounce John McCain. I thought overall Obama did a very good job, but McCain did get in some good jabs. McCain likes to be snarky, and it seemed Obama had to take the defensive more often. The Washington Post stated that McCain twice called Obama's views "naive," called them "dangerous" four times, and seven times said Obama doesn't "understand." In reply, Obama said nine times that what his opponent claimed was "not true." Four more times he piped up to "correct" his opponent.

My ears tuned into how many foreign countries McCain has been to, and it's true, he has had plenty of time in office to travel the world twice over. I guess if we need to cut out the pork we could schedule a few less field trips? What really chaffes me is that if "foreign experience" is so tremendously important to John McCain, how on earth did he feel Sarah Palin would be ready to roll should she need to sit in the big seat? If you compare the two tickets, I feel far safer with Obama/Biden at the helm.

Barack has been accused of late of being to "cool", with newspeople saying he needs to show stronger emotion. I don't think I can agree with these opinions. I prefer to see Obama remain cool and collected. I don't think, and this has been mentioned before on the campaign trail, that appearing as an "angry black man" is going to score any points with a good deal of the population. I hate to mention race, but I would be naive myself to deny the type of comments I hear around Platte County on a regular basis. This county is full of people who won't give the man a chance because of the color of his skin. I think Barack needs to remain calm under pressure. This type of mature stature is an asset if we are to have dialogues with the leaders of foreign nations, both those who like us and those who don't.

Concerning the current economy crisis, I think Obama did a good job tying McCain to Bush, stating that eight years of bad policy is how we got into this mess. I am fearful of this bailout, but it seems it is going to happen. We're pretty much screwed either way this goes down. This whole issue is a pivotal point for our history books. I believe they're adding a chapter called "The Second Great Depression" as we speak. Obama made a good point that while McCain is railing against pork barrel spending (which has decreased over the past five years), we do have this occupation over in Iraq that is costing us billions every week.

In the sorting the fact from fiction department, both sides had misrepresentations. Rather than repeat the work of the pros, I'll simply point you to factcheck.org's summary of the debate.

The polls are showing Obama as winning, but admit the demographics watching the debate were slanting left. Most are saying it was a draw. I think, with foreign affairs being McCain's strong suit, Barack held his own. That's a good thing. Next week Joe Biden will have his chance to take on Sarah Palin. If she performs like she did when speaking to Katie Couric this week, I'm going to bring some popcorn to this comedy special.

Gary Trauner 3rd Ad 2008

Platte County Gearing Up For Election

The plattecountywyoming.com website has the latest election news, including forms for absentee voting and voter registration. If you haven't registered yet, get going!! From the site, take a look at the 2008 General Electoin Ballot Proof. Not much going on with the Wheatland Town Council positions. Two candidates, two positions open. Hmmm. The County Commissioner race will be worth watching. There's one position available, with our Democrat incumbant Joe Reichardt and a Republican candidate Terry Stevenson both aiming for it. There's a couple of constitutional amendments and a taxation continuation on the ballot. Those always seem to catch people off guard. Terry Jones has been stumping (came to my house this week!) for the State District #3 House Rep position. He's up against Frank Peasley.

There's some good races. Be sure to visit with your candidates and give them your support!

Gary Trauner 2nd Commercial 2008