Wampum

Blogging the Wyoming GOP Senate selection process.

According to the Caspar Tribune, the first round of votes are currently being tablulated. This is where the field is whittled from 28 (originally 31) to 10. The counts were supposed to be done by 10:25 am MST, and I'm inpatiently reloading this page.

Update: After round one, here are the votes,

In order of votes received:

Tom Sansonetti - 65
John Barrasso - 60
Ron Micheli - 57
Cynthia Lummis - 53
Frank Moore - 52
Randall Luthi - 51
Matt Mead - 51
Paul Kruse - 49
Colin Simpson - 47
Bruce Asay - 33

Update2: The Casper Tribune Blog is running a poll on the sidebar. Go on over and vote for Sansonetti.

Update3: Second round tallies are in:

Tom Sansonetti (60)
John Barrasso (59)
Ron Micheli (40)
Cynthia Lummis (37)
TIE: Randall Luthi and Matt Mead (31) (run-off to be held)

It's pretty clear that Sansonetti and Barrasso will be in the final three. The wild card is the finalist, and where the other votes will go in the final round. Micheli and Lummis, both being ranchers seem to split that vote. I think that Matt Mead mostly hurts Sansonetti if he makes it into the next round, but not enough to bump him from the top three.

Despite being relative conservative for a Dem, I don't see Dave Freudenthal appointing a raving wingnut like Barrasso. The guy is essentially no-exceptions anti-choice and pro-school prayer (as in mandated school prayer.) If it's Lummis, I think he'd be foolish, as female Republican Senators are pretty hard to knock off once they're in (see Snowe, Olympia, Collins, Susan) and that's in relatively blue states. So it's Sansonetti, with all his baggage, which, if we all work hard enough, can be made to have the wreath of Abramoff draped around his neck before 2008. Go Tom!

Update4: Mead advances. So just how did he end up one of the USA to-be-fired lists?

Update5: The final votes are in:

Tom Sansonetti - 58
John Barrasso - 56
Cynthia Lummis - 44

BTW, I finished this dKos diary a half an hour before the final vote was in, so confident was I in this exact outcome.