Needless to say, this would be a major game-changer:
It now appears that Freudenthal may well seek a third term in 2010 — thanks to a series of legal and political maneuvers that began more than two decades ago.
After Democratic Gov. Ed Herschler served three consecutive terms into the mid-1980s, the state legislature passed a bill limiting Wyoming’s chief executives to two terms. Then, in 1992, voters passed a ballot initiative that brought term limits to the state legislature in the finest “If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander” tradition.
Fast-forward 12 years to a lawsuit brought by two term-limited legislators — a Democrat and a Republican — challenging the constitutionality of such limits. The state Supreme Court unanimously agreed that the term limits could not be imposed by ballot initiative, ruling that an amendment to the state constitution would be required.
While that decision did not apply to Wyoming’s five statewide offices — including governor — there is a strong sense that if Freudenthal challenged the constitutionality of his own term limits, it would be a slam-dunk victory for the incumbent.
Freudenthal seems an unlikely sort to pursue this kind of challenge – but he’s leaving the door wide open:
Asked about the possibility that Freudenthal would seek a third term, his spokeswoman Cara Eastwood said only: “When the governor has something to announce, he will announce it.”
Putting aside my own feelings about term limits & voter referenda, this would be great news for Democrats, of course. And here in NYC, it doesn’t appear that Bloombo is paying a price for extending his own term limits (despite far worse optics and behavior), so I suspect Freudenthal could pull it off.
😉
But do we actually care whether Wy has a Dem governor? He already governs like a moderate to conservative Republican. Moreover, there is no redistricting to be done unfairly, What are your thoughts?
Even a moderate Dem like Freudenthal is preferrable to a conservatie republican holding the Governorship of Wyoming. And it sounds like the effort to overturn term-limits is bi-partisan, so Freudenthal probably wouldn’t be damaged politically by this effort. I still wish he would have tried his luck for Senate though.
Barrasso and Enzi do tend to keep their mouths shut unless it is a labor issue like EFCA with Enzi being the ranking member of that committee. Of course their voting records are atrocious, but I would take the Wyoming delegation over the two misfits that represent Oklahoma for example. Inhofe and Coburn always win the batshit crazy duo contests. So comparatively given how conservative most of Wyoming is Enzi and Barrasso are a treat compared to a likely alternative.
IMO assume voters to be too dumb to kick out bad politicians. The argument for them is that otherwise you have a bunch of career politicians running things, but if that is so bad then why not just vote them out? As long as we have a functioning democracy they just don’t make any sense.
Been there, done that, move on.
He can run for the House or Senate if he wants to serve the people of Wyoming. Third term Govs are so 20th century.
like Brad Henry in Oklahoma he has not been a leader in the State Democratic party and not helped use his political popularity to help make broad gains. At least the state DP hasn’t completely imploded like under Henry, but still. Freudenthal is not overly political, that’s for sure. He was actually my top choice for Secretary of the Interior though.
Other popular State Democrats in the west have helped build their parties, Sebelius, Nepalitano, Schwieter,