Leslie Petersen elected as our new state chair!
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Apr 21, 2009 Posted by Bill Luckett
Greetings from party central! The big news is that Leslie Petersen of Wilson was elected as the new state chair of the Wyoming Democratic Party during our State Central Committee meeting in Casper on April 18th. Other officers elected were new Vice Chair Mike Bell of Cheyenne, new Secretary Linda Barton of Lander, and re-elected Treasurer Chuck Herz of Moose (elected for a second term). I've worked extensively with all four of our officers since I started working for the state party in 2005, and I'm delighted and optimistic about the team we have in place.
Leslie has been heavily involved in party affairs for decades. She has previously served as a Teton County commissioner and has been involved with various conservation, political and natural resource boards. She has been a Teton County Democratic Party activist for years, is a former Teton County party chair, and served as the county's state committeewoman for the previous election cycle. She also worked as legislative liaison for former Wyoming Gov. Ed Herschler, and she was the Democratic Party's nominee for secretary of state in 1982 and for a state House seat in 1990. Petersen has helped organize fundraising events for presidential candidates Sens. John Kerry and Barack Obama that each raised more than $450,000. She is a retired realtor and is married to Hank Phibbs, chairman of the Teton County Commission.
The Young Democrats of Wyoming also elected officers: Chair Dana Walton, Vice Chair Rey Fuentes, State Committeeman Sean Williams, and State Committeewoman Ellie Bolender. I got to know Dana and Rey last year when they worked for the state party as field organizers, focusing on Gary Trauner's U.S. House race. They said at the April 18 meeting that they will focus on recruiting volunteers and candidates over the next two years.
We've got a great team in place, to be sure, so now it's back to doing the hard work that needs to be done to lay the foundation for the 2010 election, spreading our message about investing in working families, and maintaining our momentum from the past two election cycles to bring more progressive government to Wyoming.