Good times in Sheridan
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Aug 22, 2007 Posted by Bill Luckett
I traveled up to Sheridan last weekend to join area Democrats to celebrate the 150th of former Wyoming Gov. and U.S. Sen. John Kendrick. Despite the rain and wind, about 50 Democrats from Sheridan County and neighboring counties made it to the event, which is no small feat for a mid-August event during a non-election year.
The dynamic duo of state party Chairman John Millin and freshman Rep. Lori Millin made the trip up from Cheyenne and inspired the crowd with their insights into legislative elections. Rep. Lori shared the tale of how she went from citizen activist to legislative candidate running against an incumbent to newly elected state representative in the span of less than a year. We only need to win four seats in the state House for the Democrats to be able to sustain any veto by Gov. Freudenthal, she said, and we can achieve that goal in 2008 if we find enough good people to run.
Chairman John struck a similar chord in his speech. He noted that our party needs to win just two state Senate seats to double Democratic representation on the five-member Senate committees, shifting the current 4:1 ratio to a more attractive 3:2. Considering that there are 13 Republican-held Senate seats up in 2008 and only two Democratic seats, netting two seats next year is a goal within our reach. But the first step is fielding candidates for those seats, Chairman Millin said, and our party must do better than we did last year, when we left over half the state House races uncontested.
In all, there was a good energy in the crowd, good eats, good music, and good conversation. Congratulations to the Sheridan County Democratic activists on another successful event.