Sen-WY, Send Trauner on the road for 2 years

With Enzi, the Republican Senator from Wyoming, ignoring the close result of the election in November in Trauner's race against representative Barbara Cubin and continuing to rubberstamp the Bush agenda by voting for escalation, the DNC should encourage Trauner to go for the big prize in 2008.  And, to start right now...

By all accounts, Trauner knocked on 12,000 doors in Wyoming in 6 to 8 months.  His style of retail politics swept this red state up into a blue firestorm, in his bid to unseat Cubin which he narrowly missed by around 1,000 votes.  The thing is, Wyoming is about the only state where retail politics would stand a chance at reaching almost every potential voter in a US Senate race.

There are 200,000 households in Wyoming.  Perhaps 60% contain registered voters.  That leaves 120,000 doors to knock on.  Now obviously he's not going to be able to knock on every one, especially considering the large amount of rural population in Wyoming.  But he doesn't need to knock on every door.  He just needs to have the appearance that he has knocked on every door.  Just like you have urban myths, you have country legends.  If Trauner were to start now, by November 2008 the legend in the state will be that he's spoken to every voter.

Why have Trauner, who by all accounts was very popular during this last election, go back to his day job?  The DNC should shovel whatever cash they need to him to keep him on the road for the next 2 years, assuming he would want to do it.

He has done the hard part.  His hard work has caused the Wyoming and National media to raise his name recognition greatly in this last election.  Now when he knocks on a door and says, "it's Gary Trauner", people will open the door and talk to him.  Seriously, if the DNC & DSCC spent $100,000 per year in pseudo-salary to Gary + gas and oil money for his vehicle, I don't think funds could be any better spent in trying to gain yet another Senate seat in red country.

The netroots has a role too.  We did it with Tester, elevating a man with no National office experience to a US Senate seat within a Mountain West state.  Let's do it again with Trauner.

•  Tips

  Send all tips to Gary in Wyo.

  by rustydude on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 11:43:13 AM PDT

•  Professional Politician?

  I don't know if you'd get some negative feedback about Trauner becoming, in essence, a professional politician.  But certainly, a retail campaign in Wyoming would work, and if there's a place where Democrats could use some bridge-building to the people (and benefit from it) a place like Wyoming is it.

  by Tybalt on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 11:46:49 AM PDT

  •  Good idea, framing?

    Would Wyoming go for a guy who spent two years campaigning, without otherwise having a day job?

    I deeply admire the effort, and hope it would work, but I don't know enough about the local political culture in Wyoming to know whether they'd look askance at someone who spent a full 2 years campaigning and think the candidate "over-eager."

    by Paradox13 on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 12:16:59 PM PDT

    •  Good points

      They can't simply send him out there as a paid candidate.  But where politics is involved there are all types of creative solutions.  I believe his business is in Internet Services.  So he could re-jigger his position as CEO to require essentially full time activity on the road where he campaigns and works his travelling job concurrently.  Sure, it would be a bit transparent but the money transfer would be legit if certain moneyed Democrats simply chose to invest in Gary's company.  You could leave the DNC and DSCC out of it until it came closer to the campaign.

      Really, I think his name recognition is such that he can leapfrog the aspect of winning a House seat first, and go for the big enchilada.

      by rustydude on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 01:44:09 PM PDT

•  Key Point

  left unsaid is that the house district he campaigned in covers the whole state, so he is already known throughout the state.  

  I think this is a great idea.  

  by hilltopper on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 11:52:03 AM PDT

•  Rec'd

  This is doable.  

  by Crashing Vor on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 11:58:02 AM PDT

•  Campaign workers must knock on the *other* doors

  and get the households with no registered voters, registered!

  Edward Kostikyan wrote about the biggest source of votes -- amongst the non-voters in How to Win Elections (c. 1980).  There is no way a Dem. can win without them.

  by bearian on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 12:06:14 PM PDT

  •  Yup

    Once you got 6 months out from the election, you could fan out campaign workers to cover the rest of the map, especially in the rural regions.

    Republicans have been getting away with murder in WY by waging simple and inexpensive media campaigns with messages that attract a pluarlity of a very conservative base.  But Gary's retail strategy is the perfect antidote for all this.  You can bet that if Trauner were to try this that Enzi would be hightailing it back to Wyoming on a regular basis in a newfound love for mixing it up with his constituents.

    by rustydude on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 01:49:08 PM PDT

•  It sure couldn't hurt

  Wyoming can't be that expensive. Could be a very wise investment for the Democrats. Even if he loses, he'll be continuing to get an alternative message out there. Who knows? Wyoming could follow in the footsteps of its neighbors Colorado and Montana and go purple!

  by dairystater on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 12:17:10 PM PDT

•  Heck yeah - Rec'd

  I really really loved that last ad he did prior to the election.  Probably forty-five seconds long against a white background.  YouTube is blocked at work, otherwise I'd post a link.  I was really hoping that Trauner would defeat Cubin.  Has Trauner indicated any interest in running again versus Cubin, or running at all?

  by Strabo on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 12:22:20 PM PDT

•  This is a good suggestion and is financially

  Viable.
  It all boils down to the guy, how much does he want it? and what inconviences does he have to put up with?.

  Schumer should assess this possibility with the seriousness it deserves.

  by wuod kwatch on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 12:33:55 PM PDT

•  A question

  What does he do for a living?  Can he realistically afford to leave his job for a couple of years to campaign?  If so, we should encourage him to run.  He can build upon the name recognition he already has.

  by Hotspur18 on Wed Feb 07, 2007 at 12:45:48 PM PDT

•  test

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  by rustydude on Tue Feb 13, 2007 at 11:12:21 AM PDT