In My Time - Dick Cheney [65]
After my heart attack, the campaign became even more a family affair. I turned in the Mustang, and we rented an RV with room for all of us, including my parents and the girls. Dad drove, and Mom made sure I ate regularly and sensibly. The kids took it all in stride. Mary would later write that she thought everyone grew up walking door to door, handing out campaign buttons, and worrying about what was going to happen on the first Tuesday in November. She also claimed that her proudest assignment was standing outside our headquarters wearing a “Honk for Cheney” sandwich board. Liz showed formidable political skills, pressing Cheney buttons and literature upon everyone in sight. She also provided one of the key stories in the archives of Cheney campaign lore when she took a wrong turn in the state fair parade in Douglas, Wyoming, and got lost for several hours.
As the September 12 primary approached, we found ourselves, despite the generosity of many friends, running out of campaign funds, but we did have some personal savings, thanks to Lynne’s father, who had left us money from his civil service retirement when he died. It was enough so that we could either buy another round of advertising or pay for a poll, but we couldn’t do both. We decided on the advertising, figuring that the poll wouldn’t do us any good anyway if we had no money left to act on the results. We were confident that if we won the nomination, we would be able to raise sufficient funds to repay our loan to the campaign, and we managed not to think about the alternative.
Primary election night was a very special time. We waited for the returns to come in at our home on Beech Street, and when the votes were tallied, I had won the Republican primary with 42 percent of the vote to 31 percent for Ed Witzenburger and 27 percent for Jack Gage. That first election victory was an emotional high, topped by few things in life, not just because of all the hard work, although there was plenty of that, but because of the ups and downs and the risks we had taken. In the end, it had all worked out, and Lynne, Liz, Mary, and I celebrated with family and friends into the wee hours of the next morning.
I BELIEVED THAT ONCE I won the primary, I could be confident of winning the general election in the fall. My Democratic opponent was Bill Bagley, longtime aide to Congressman Roncalio, who was from Star Valley. He could expect to capture some GOP votes in that area of the state, but overall it was going to be a tough year for Democrats in Wyoming. With seven statewide seats including the governorship on the ballot, the Democratic Party was going to be stretched for resources. The GOP had advantages in registered voters and in finances, and the Democrats had the added disadvantage of having Jimmy Carter in the White House. He was a definite liability in Wyoming.
Because of the late primary, the fall campaign was mercifully short, just eight weeks, and for part of it, the GOP candidates traveled together. This was a tradition based on necessity, since most communities in Wyoming were small and couldn’t possibly host separate events for every statewide office seeker.
The star of the ’78 GOP road show was Al Simpson, our candidate for the United States Senate. His father, Governor Milward Simpson, had unexpectedly been defeated for reelection in 1958, and Al worked hard on that first campaign and every one after to make sure that never happened to him. He kept precise notes of all the people he met and how their families were doing and carefully filed the cards away after each event. He was a diligent politician, which I think most people never guessed because they were so taken with his sense of humor. It wasn’t that the jokes he told were so great, but the way that he told them brought the house down every time. In fact you could hear his jokes many times (and, believe me, I have) and still find yourself laughing.
Al and his wife, Ann, also have a gift for friendship, and Lynne