By David Peck

After announcing her bid for governor at rallies in Riverton, Casper and Cheyenne last Tuesday, Jan. 19, Wyoming State Auditor Rita Meyer made a whirlwind tour through Wyoming during the rest of the week, stopping in Lovell on a snowy Friday morning, Jan. 22.

Meyer is finishing her fourth year as auditor, having been elected in 2006, but she is now seeking the Republican nomination for governor, the first of several anticipated candidates to announce.

In a tour that took her across the state, Meyer visited Laramie, Rawlins, Rock Springs, Green River and Kemmerer on Wednesday; Pinedale, Thermopolis and Worland on Thursday and Cody, Powell, Lovell and Greybull on Friday.

“My approach was getting right back out after announcing and quickly touching base with a lot of communities across Wyoming,” she said.

Meyer said she has two main themes to her campaign so far: the economy and federal intrusion into state and local government.

Number one, she said, is the economy – “jobs on Main Street,” she said. Wyoming has lost jobs with the current recession, perhaps fewer than other states, but many jobs nevertheless.

“It’s all relative,” she said. “We’re still operating from a position of strength in Wyoming, but all roads lead to the economy and jobs.”

She said she will work closely with the private sector to promote job growth in Wyoming.

“The governor’s office is going to have to work directly with Main Street and partner with the private sector,” Meyer said, “and not only keep the jobs we have but also create new jobs. It’s not necessary to find the 150-job plant, but the wise direction is a variety of smaller businesses with five,10 or 15 employees.”

She said she is wary of the “mission creep” of the federal government “layering” regulations on businesses, adding to the cost of doing business.

“With a small business the profit margin is already tight,” she noted. “The margin is so tight that it (another regulation) could put a business over the top and out of business.

Also at the top of her list is intrusion by the federal government, which “impacts literally every county in Wyoming,” she said, adding, “We need to pull up to the table and push the feds back on issues that, I believe, are truly at the state and local level.

Meyer said she spent four years as Gov. Jim Geringer’s chief of staff, working closely with constituents and the issues of the day, noting, “The issues don’t change much. The economy is what is the greatest interest to people.”

Visiting small communities in Wyoming comes naturally to Meyer, she noted, because she made a promise when she ran for auditor that she would get out into the state and follow what’s going on in communities.

“I promised I would stay in touch with local communities and I have,” she said, “especially the smaller communities. They don’t prevail well in funding formulas, so frankly I try to keep my eye on them.

“I’ve had an eye on your incubator project for a long time,” she added, referring to the Lovell Inc./Town of Lovell project to refurbish the Lovell Inc. building as a business incubator.

“Sometimes smaller communities don’t have the number of planners and grant-writers that larger communities do,” she said. “I stay in touch with the Big Horn County commissioners. They will tell you that’s been a priority of mine.”

Meyer said that, as governor, she would keep the federal government at arm’s length, saying that, for instance, when it comes to health care reform, she prefers an incremental approach to changing the system.

“I don’t have great faith in the federal government knowing how to run a federal health care plan efficiently,” she said, adding that the federal government does not have a good track record with Social Security and Medicare.

Overall, she said, she’s optimistic about Wyoming’s future, adding that she has seen a lot of good things happening across the state.

Experience

Meyer said she has a unique combination of experience in agriculture, small business, government and the military.

During her four years as chief of staff, she said, she earned executive level experience in the operation of state government, working with boards and commissions and the state budget. She has also served on various state boards, including the State Loan and Investment Board, as state auditor and served on the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees and is currently a member of the UW College of Business advisory council.

“I understand a day in the life of service to Wyoming and that it’s a seven-day-a-week job,” Meyer said. “I understand the demands and the pressure.”

During her 23-year military career, she served in both Iraq and Afghanistan as a member of the Wyoming Air National Guard, retiring as a full colonel in 2007.

She also knows private business, she said, helping her husband, Dr. Charlie Meyer, run his dental practice in Laramie for 14 years until the family moved to Cheyenne when she went full time with the Air National Guard.

“I understand payroll and that the owner isn’t paid until the staff is paid,” she said. “That built me into a tough decision-maker.”

Finally, she said, she understands agriculture on the ground level, raised on ranches in northeast Nebraska and then western Nebraska. She said she grew up milking cows at 4:30 a.m.