Wyoming Republicans who favor incumbent U-S Senator Mike Enzi have started fundraising on his behalf. This week, they formed a political action committee – or PAC – called “Wyoming’s Own” to rally voters for his re-election.
Wyoming’s Own co-founder Bill Cubin – son of former Congresswoman Barbara Cubin – says Enzi is hard-working and effective, and shouldn’t be replaced right now.
“He, along with Senator Barrasso and Representative Lummis… They make up one of the strongest delegations in Congress, and so we want to protect that.”
Enzi is popular in Wyoming and in the national Republican Party, and hasn’t had very steep competition in the past. Enzi spent about $1.6 million on his 2008 campaign, and won about 75-percent of the vote.
But PAC organizers say Enzi’s well-connected challenger Liz Cheney stands to raise significantly more than that for her first Congressional campaign.
Cubin says he wants the PAC – which will operate independently of Enzi’s re-election campaign – to remind Wyomingites of Enzi’s work.
“You know, Liz Cheney, she’s got a very famous last name and her father was the Vice President, and I think that she would be able to raise a lot of money, and possibly turn this race into a very competitive race.”
Cubin says forming a PAC would probably not have been necessary to combat a lesser-known challenger. He says money raised by the PAC – which is independent from Enzi’s campaign – will pay for TV and radio advertisements, direct mail, and voter outreach.
