The Nifty Fifty House Party - Part I: Wyoming

Well, the introduction was just posted, but I am now ready to focus on this ambitious project within my blog. And I also should mention that for each district, I will also be including the S-Factor, which measures the electoral strength of each district. As the title suggests above, the first state in my series is the smallest state (population wise) in the union...

WYOMING

Wyoming is as red as red can be in America. It is a state where the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains converge, where Division I college football can be played at the highest altitude in its class, and a state that spawned eventual Vice President Dick Cheney. But not all is red in Wyoming, as evidenced by the popularity of Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal, who was re-elected by a large margin in 2006. Wyoming Democrats are also looking to add some spice to its profile this year in the nation's smallest congressional district.

At-Large (S-Factor 18.5 GOP): This is the only congressional seat in the Equality State, and hence a strongly Republican one as well, but incumbent Barbara Cubin has at best proven to be divisive in one way or another. The seven-term Republican, dogged with a handful of questionable actions from taking ARMPAC money to a rather inappropriate comment about a third-party opponent in regards to his suffering from multiple sclerosis, only had a 1,000-vote margin last year. Cubin has decided to call it a career and not seek re-election. The Republicans in waiting to succeed her include rancher Mark Gordon, former State Treasurer Cynthia Lummis, and retired naval officer Bill Winney, who ran a spirited yet underfunded campaign against Cubin in the 2006 primary. Gordon and Lummis appear to be the stronger candidates. Cubin's Democrat opponent in '06, Teton County School Board Chair Gary Trauner, whose jurisdiction is in the northwest of the state around the town of Jackson, is running again and has nearly half a million dollars in individual donations plus over half a million dollars cash on hand as of March 31st, more than his Republican cohorts combined. Once the GOP nomination is settled by the August 19th primary however, this will be a real race. Prediction: Tossup.

And that's just one state out of many. Next stop: South Dakota.