June 22, 2008

A Happy Solstice to All,

And just a brief report for this evening. I did my first podcast this past weekend, and here is the link to the site if you wish to tune in to the archived version.

Blog Talk Radio

or http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Shared_Sacrifice/2008/06/21/Shared-Sacrifice

There is a 25 minute lead in, and then my remarks last for about an hour. The two hosts, Matt and Gary, do a good job of letting the guest do the talking.

As I listened to the recorded version, I realized I was a lot more casual about using 'filler' words such as ...well.... than I am when I speak at public forums. If you listen, please keep that in mind!

And of course, send comments if you wish.

I hope to be able to have a debate with my Primary Election opponent on this venue at some point during the campaign.

Keith "On the Pod" Goodenough

June 15, 2008

Finally! A taste of summer weather has arrived. And it was well received at the campaign stop we made at the Lander Brewfest on Saturday. After all, who would want to hang out in the City Park and taste-test beer in the cold?

I was drinking lemonade myself since it’s campaign season, but they only had one choice of that beverage.

They had some great local music with wonderful female vocals to serenade the crowd. This State needs more women singers… there should be a law!

We also campaigned in Hudson with Wyoming Democrat Emeritus Mike Vinich for a little while on the way home. If you know what Old School, Wyoming honorable straight shooters are like, you’ll know what Mike Vinich is all about.

Besides the Brewfest, the past week also saw a campaign trip to Buffalo for a county Democratic picnic. As you may know, Buffalo is in Johnson County and is known for not having many Democrats. It wasn’t that long ago they were still spraying for them! But in this case there was a very respectable turnout, I think somewhere around 35 fine citizens showed up.

Besides myself, U.S. House Candidate Gary Trauner and U.S. Senate Candidate Chris Rothfuss were there. My opponent had committed to being there, but bowed out at the last minute. We each made our remarks, and had some questions from the group.

The Casper campaign office is finally ready to occupy, and we have our first gathering there tomorrow night. It’s a small place, but has the advantage of being next to the Federal Courthouse. So when I have a gripe with the Federal court system, they’ll be able to get the message by just looking out the window and reading my slogans. If I need bail money, I’ll send a note.

I am going to be on my first campaign Podcast next weekend, so I will be sending out an additional note with the details towards the end of the week. It’s a technology that needs to be promoted as much as possible within the Democratic Party. Voters can get the political scoop without leaving home or having to buy gasoline!

Stay tuned,

Candidate Keith Be Goodenough

June 8th, 2008

Good evening!

And if this isn’t the coolest and wettest spring in a long, long time, please set me straight!

Given that politics is a multi-faceted conglomeration of issues, policies and personalities, it is tough to find common ground as we try to discuss it with one another. So I spend a fair amount of time thinking of ways to accurately convey to citizens like you my opinions on where we all are in the political realm.

So today, while coming back from an outing on Casper Mountain, I had a thought. It is a political analogy to the phrase “web of life”, that is frequently used when discussing environmental issues.

Of course that phrase refers to the fact that all aspects of our environment, from the smallest to the largest, are linked together and that we should all be concerned when any aspect of life on Planet Earth is threatened or eliminated. I agree with that.

The politically analogous phrase I have decided to include in my campaign message is “web of rights”. Because it occurred to me that ALL of the rights theorized under our system of government are linked together, either directly or indirectly.

Many of the rights that we have, and that immediately spring to mind, are the big ones. Rights such as: freedom of speech, the freedom to assemble, the right to arm bears, and the right to run for public office are well known and commonly thought of.

The problem I see is that there is an entire subset of lesser known rights that are being undermined by numerous elected officials who have no respect for the individual rights that are the foundation of our system. When those lesser rights are damaged, the web of rights becomes weaker.

One quick example for you. When I started in the Legislature in 1989, it only took one valid write-in vote at the Primary Election to qualify a person to fill an empty ballot slot for a partisan office. The right of the individual was respected.

After I had been in the Legislature a few years, some legislators advanced the idea that only having to have one valid signature made it too easy to get on the ballot. So then the threshold was raised to 5 valid write-in signatures. And not too long after that, the threshold was raised to 25 valid write-in signatures, and that is where it stands today.

Consequently it is much more difficult to gain access to the ballot by write-in vote today than it was in the past.

Our web of rights has been significantly weakened by those actions of the Legislature. There are many more examples that I will post on my website in the near future, but the issue is clear to me. Our individual rights are in trouble.

Thank you for your time, and I will chat with you next week.

Candidate Keith “leave my rights alone” Goodenough

Sunday, June 01, 2008

A happy June to all of you! And now for a short and sweet report on the week’s activities.

Friday was the last day to file for statewide office, and so that was the day I showed up in the Secretary of State’s office in Cheyenne, and made it official. The trip home turned into a campaign swing, with stops in Chugwater, Glendo, and Douglas.

One of the best parts of campaigning is that it gives me a reason to talk to each and every Wyomingite I come across. These are my people! People are great in this state, there’s always something interesting to chat about.

I had a letter to the editor published this week in the Casper Star-Tribune. In it I publicly challenged my opponent to a series of public debates, but have not heard anything back, and I doubt that I will.

His strategy is to pretend that he has already won the nomination, but we shall see if that level of illusion will stand the test of time.

In a telling comment on the lack of political understanding at the upper levels of the Casper Star-Tribune, today’s editorial referred to my opponent as “one of John Barrasso’s opponents”.

So wrong, so sorry. It would have been correct to say, ‘one of John Barrasso’s POTENTIAL opponents’, but they failed to accurately categorize

the situation. Where’s the political knowledge of yesteryear?

My downtown Casper campaign office will be ready to occupy this week, and so I will haul my accumulation of campaign materials down there and set up shop soon.

Type with you all next week!

Keith