Campaign Coverage

    Campaign 2008 coverage officially begins for us in this edition of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup.
      In the coming months we’ll bring you as much news and information as we can about each of the candidates for the three congressional seats. We’ll also key in on some of the more interesting races for the Wyoming Legislature, especially those of greatest significance to the agriculture industry. Candidates in even-numbered districts are up for re-election in the Wyoming Senate, while all candidates in the State House are up for re-election. It will undoubtedly be a busy summer with numerous picnics, ice cream socials and meet-the-candidate type gatherings. Aren’t we lucky to live in a state where we have a chance to meet people one-on-one before placing a check next to their name on the ballot?
    Some newspapers choose to endorse candidates. While that’s their decision, it’s not a practice we plan to put in place at the Roundup. Dennis, Christy and I have had several conversations on this subject. We agree that our duty as a newspaper is to provide you with the best possible information on which to base your decisions. Voting is a personal decision and the values we hold dear in judging candidates may differ from your own. If we can ask the questions we feel are important to agriculture and let you know how the candidates answered, we can hopefully aid you as a voter in your effort to make a wise choice. You won’t find us telling you how to vote.
    We’ve begun visiting with the candidates, having completed interviews with both Mark Gordon and Cynthia Lummis. We’re in the process of scheduling additional interviews as more candidates announce their intentions. By offering about an article a week, we hope to bring you the information you need without making you feel like there’s little going on in the world beyond elections ‘08. I’ve personally had that feeling as of late in some of the publications I read and every time I talk the kids into letting me watch something other than cartoons.
    We write a specific list of questions for each candidate based on their history and things we know about their campaigns and past experience in politics. It’s interesting to have the opportunity to visit with each candidate one-on-one and find out what he or she finds most important.
    As summer sets in, we’ll be asking the leading candidates to write guest editorials. This is an approach that allows them to tell you what’s important to their campaign and what they know and believe about your industry.
    We hope this is an approach that allows us to provide the kind of campaign coverage you find useful and applicable.
    I also want to remind our readers that we’re posting a new poll each week at www.wylr.net. It’s been fun to learn more about our readers’ viewpoints on topics ranging from packer concentration to calving dates. We have a goal to continue increasing participation in that aspect of our website. “Stop by the website” and let us know what you think. If you register as a member to the site we’ll let you know when new on-line polls are posted.
    See you at a campaign picnic or candidate forum somewhere along the trail this summer!
-Jen