"Git 'er done': Teton County Republicans choose Romney

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

By Sam Petri

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-At the retooled and revamped - also known as ‘early’ - Wyoming Republican Caucuses last Saturday, the Teton County Republican Party surprised no one when it backed presidential hopeful Mitt Romney via the election of County Chair, Joe Schloss, as the national delegate. Schloss will attend the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minn., Sept. 1-4.

The Wyoming Republican Party caucuses were held, statewide, a month before their national party allows. In doing so, Wyoming Republicans will be penalized half of their 28 delegates at their National Convention. The state party’s idea of scheduling caucuses early this year was to bring attention to Wyoming Republican voters and to give the state a bigger piece of pie during the primary process - a chunk of the influence that Iowa and New Hampshire currently share.

However, the caucuses did not attract appearances from presidential hopefuls or the national media on the day of the event, as the party initially hoped it would. It did draw a few Republican presidential hopefuls, like Mitt Romney, to campaign in the state months before the caucuses.

The Teton County Republican Party Convention kicked off in classic fashion inside the Snow King Grand Ball Room with a pledge of allegiance before the American flag. But with no flag in sight, the caucuses were paralyzed for a few moments until someone managed to round up a flag so everyone could pledge (phew!). Then Senator Grant Larson led a prayer: “Our father in heaven we thank you for this glorious snowy day,” he said. “…We ask as we move forward to help choose the leaders of our wonderful country.”

After the amens and once roll call was completed, Chairman and not-yet-elected-delegate Joe Schloss presented his opening speech.
“Basically, we want to take Teton County and make it a Red County again,” he said, “and we can do that and we will do that. And the way we do that is to ensure a strong Republican vote in the congressional election coming up in the fall.”

Senator Larson spoke again, highlighting the obstacles the Republican Party has in this Blue County. “The number of Republicans in Teton County is becoming not less, but a smaller percentage every year, for I can’t tell you how long. We must try to get back to being the majority, which I don’t believe we are now - registration is to the contrary - so that we can know that we have our Republican principals brought forward through all levels of Teton County.”

State Rep. Keith Gingery echoed these sentiments, noting that the Teton County Republican Party has lost the majority on the county commission, which in turn has changed the direction of Teton County. “We need to get that majority back,” he said.
Leland Christensen, one of two remaining Republican Teton County Commissioners (the other is Bill Paddleford), put it succinctly:
“It’s our time,” he said. “We can ‘git ’er done.’”

Gingery mentioned that he was opposed to the Wyoming Republican Party moving their caucuses to January and said he likes when both the Democrats and Republicans have their caucuses at the same time. That was, until presidential hopeful Fred Thompson called his home the night before, he said.

“I doubt he would have called me if this had been in March - he could have cared less if this had been in March - so now I’ve totally flip-flopped and now I just love the whole idea.” His joke garnered plenty of laughs from the audience and highlighted the power of presidential campaigning (which, in Wyoming, pretty much means showing up).
Of the six Teton county republican nominated for the position of national delegate, Joe Schloss and Bill Scarlett were for Mitt Romney, Kate Mead and Jeremy Aughenbaugh were for John McCain, Shepard Humphries was for Ron Paul and Keith Gingery was for Fred Thompson. None of the delegates were for Iowa winner Mike Huckabee or New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

It took five rounds of voting to reach a majority plus one vote for the national delegate. In the end it came down to a vote for either Joe Schloss or Bill Scarlett, who were both for Mitt Romney. Schloss won with 29 votes, beating Scarlett’s 24. At that point, all votes were essentially cast for Romney. Statewide, Wyoming voters chose 8 delegates for Mitt Romney, 3 delegates for Fred Thompson, and 1 delegate for Duncan Hunter.

Illustration by Nathan Bennett for Planet Jackson Hole.

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