GOP holds onto top offices in Wyoming

GOP holds onto top offices in Wyoming
 
By The Wyoming News Exchange
 
Wyoming’s Republicans maintained their hold on the state’s top elected offices Tuesday as voters cast their ballots for the GOP candidates for the spots by a margin of more than two-to-one.
State Treasurer Mark Gordon, Secretary of State Ed Buchanan, Kristi Racines and state Sen. Curt Meier all handily won their races for governor, secretary of state, state auditor and state treasurer, respectively, according to unofficial vote totals from the secretary of state’s office. Incumbents U.S. Sen. John Barrasso and U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney also had no problems defeating their Democratic opponents.
Gordon, who won a six-way primary race in August to face former state Rep. Mary Throne in the general, won 136,339 votes in Tuesday’s election to Throne’s 55,984. Rex “T-Rex” Rammell, a candidate for the Constitutional Party, won 6,739 votes and Libertarian Lawrence Gerard Struempf won 3,114.
In the race for secretary of state, Buchanan, who was appointed to the office earlier this year, won with 136,939 votes to the 53,384 collected by state Rep. Jim Byrd, D-Cheyene. Libertarian Kit Carson III earned 8,604 votes.
Republican Racines collected 143,887 votes while her Democratic opponent Jeff Dockter earned 52,488.
Sen. Curt Meier, R-LaGrange, won his bid for state treasurer with 141,732 votes to the 54,894 collected by Democrat Chris Lowry.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, running unopposed for re-election, won 163,690 votes.
In the races for congressional offices, Barrasso and Cheney handily won re-election.
Barrasso, seeking his second full term in the Senate, won 136,129 votes to defeat Democrat Gary Trauner with 61,254 and Libertarian Joseph Porambo with 5,697.
Cheney, also seeking her second term, won 127,883 votes to defeat Democrat Greg Hunter, who received 59,929. Libertarian Richard Brubaker won 6,884 votes and Daniel Clyde Cummings of the Constitutional Party got 6,194.