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Barrasso will be newest senator |
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By Aaron Blake
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Posted: 06/22/07 01:11 PM [ET] |
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Wyoming state Sen. John Barrasso (R) will become the newest member of the U.S. Senate after being picked from three candidates by Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D). Barrasso will be appointed to the seat of the late Sen. Craig Thomas (R), who died earlier this month after losing a seven-month battle with leukemia. Barrasso, a well-known surgeon and public healthcare figure, beat out two other candidates — former Assistant U.S. Attorney Aeneral Tom Sansonetti (R) and former state Treasurer Cynthia Lummis — to win Freudenthal’s approval. The governor’s decision came two days after he was given a list with the three names. He had five days to decide. The Republican State Central Committee had reduced the field from 28 to three on Tuesday. Barrasso, who ran for Senate in 1996 and narrowly lost a primary to now-Sen. Mike Enzi (R), is expected to run for the final four years of Thomas’s seat in November 2008, when a special election will be held. Among the possible Democratic candidates are attorney Paul Hickey, state Sen. Mike Massie and 2006 congressional candidate Gary Trauner. Lummis and Sansonetti indicated they would not run for the seat in 2008 if they were not appointed. |
