Casper Star-Tribune from Casper, Wyoming • 14

PAGE ONE EXTRA Sunday, January 27, 2008 A14 Casper Star-Tribune POLL: Lummis is the most widely recognized Republican Gunmen kidnap American woman in Afghanistan StMTribune Poll: Who would you vote for? (GOP primary) Poll taken from 325 likely Republican primary voters If the 2008 Republican primary elections for Wyoming's U.S. House seat were held today, which one of the following candidates would get your vote: language, Pashtu, well and that if Afghans asked about her background she would say she was from the Alakozai tribe 9 well known Pashtun tribe in the Kandahar region. "She is a very patient and calm woman," Gul said. "She was always thinking about Afghanistan's future." Palmer said she has worked for ARLDF on income-generating women's projects in Kandahar for the last three years. "It is our hope that our worker will be released safely and quickly and we are doing all that we can to resolve the situation," Palmer said.

"This is a first for our organization and we're really praying for a quick resolution." Traveling around Kandahar city has turned increasingly dangerous in the last year, as the Taliban insurgency has spread throughout southern Afghanistan. Western civilians who operate there often travel with armed guards and extreme caution. The area is rife with Taliban militants and criminals linked to the country's booming opium poppy trade. A Taliban spokesman said he had no immediate information that the Islamic militia was behind the kidnappings. Kidnappings for ransom are an increasing problem in Afghanistan.

Dozens of Afghans have been abducted in the last year, and heavy rumors persist nationwide of foreign governments paying large ransoms to win the freedom of their citizens. Note: Poll data has a margin of error of 14 percent SfiaHTribune Poll: Statewide name recognition (U.S. House) Recognize favorably unfavorable I neutral I Don't recognize Gary Trauner Wyoming, said he was somewhat surprised to see the number of Republicans who said they'd vote for Trauner. King said that could be a result of residual unhappiness with Cubin, whose unfavorable rating is more than 50 percent. Or it could be that some Republicans, impressed with Gov.

Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, are starting to think that "Democrats aren't as bad as they thought they were." King said this election could be a tougher challenge for Trauner than 2006 because he won't be running against an unpopular incumbent. It will be still tougher if the Republican candidate can prevent party cross-over votes, he said. The key at this point, King said, is the undecided voters. Dave Marcum, political science instructor at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, said Trauner and Lummis should be "tickled pink" about the poll numbers. If the national Democratic and Republican parties inject campaign funds for the race the Democrats have already indicated they will "this could get exciting before it's all over," Marcum said.

Campaigns under way Trauner, who was sipping a malt at Yellowstone Drug in Shoshoni when he learned about the poll via telephone, said the numbers show that voters were impressed with his message in 2006. "We worked very hard to show them that someone wants to represent them as opposed to special interests," he said. "I'm hopeful that the reason that my name recognition is so high is because people remember that we did it that way." Some campaign watchers in 2006 speculated that he might have fared better if he'd been more aggressive or run negative ads against Cubin. Despite that, Trauner said he intends to keep his campaign positive in 2008 but he said he does intend to hold his opponents accountable. "If I don't think it's something my kids would be proud of, I'm not going to do it," Trauner said.

"That's the reason I'm running: to change the way we do our politics, the way we represent the people who elect us." Lummis said she was "humbled and pleased" by the poll numbers. Lummis, a lawyer and rancher, said she is in the midst of building county campaign organizations, recruiting a board of directors for her election committee, creating campaign materials and developing a Web site with help from her daughter, Annaliese Wiederspahn, a former Wall Street stock broker who moved back to Wyoming to help with the campaign. "I intend between now and August to work very hard to earn the support of both those who have indicated thus far that they favor me as well as those who either have not heard of me or lean toward another candidate," Lummis said. Continued from A1 or minus 4 percentage points. If the election were held now, Trauner would receive 41 percent of the vote, while Lummis would get 40 percent, the poll showed.

The remaining 19 percent of voters said they were undecided. Both candidates registered strong name recognition among potential voters. Trauner, 47, had 80 percent voter name recognition. That's even better than 76 percent name recognition he had in a Star-Tribune poll conducted less than a month before the 2006 general election. Lummis, who was recognized by 70 percent of the voters in the recent poll, is by far the best known Republican candidate.

Lummis, 53, of Cheyenne, stepped down as state treasurer in 2006, and was reintroduced to the public last year as a finalist for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Sen. John Barrasso. In terms of name recognition, her closest GOP rival, according to the poll, is longtime Republican activist and former U.S. Justice Department official Tom Sansonetti of Cheyenne, who was recognized by 56 percent of voters.

Sansonetti, who was also a finalist for the open U.S. Senate seat last year, has not announced whether he'll run for office. Other Republicans who have announced their candidacies but registered less than 50 percent voter name recognition were state Rep. Dan Zwonitzer of Cheyenne, retired Navy officer Bill Winney of Sublette County, and Swede Nelson of Cheyenne. If the Republican primary were held today, 31 percent of GOP voters said they would select Lummis.

Other GOP candidates and potential candidates registered the single digits: Sansonetti, 9 percent, Zwonitzer, 5 percent, state House Speaker Roy Cohee, 4 percent, former U.S. Attorney for Wyoming Matt Mead, 3 percent, Nelson, 2 percent, and Winney, 1 percent. The remaining 45 percent said they hadn't made a decision. Democrats favored Trauner over Lummis by a rate of 8-1. Democrat Sally Bloom of Evansville was one of the supporters.

"He just seemed, like he was really for the people and wanted to know what our needs and wants were and was going to work for us," said Bloom, adding that she voted for Trauner in 2006. Lummis didn't receive the same support from her own party Twenty-three percent of Republicans said they would cross party lines to vote for Trauner. Another 23 percent of Republicans were undecided. Trauner, meanwhile, had more detractors than Lummis. A full 25 percent of voters said they have an unfavorable impression of Trauner.

By comparison, only 17 percent of voters said they had an unfavorable impression ofLummis. Independent voters were nearly split between the candidates, with 37 percent support- Cynthia Lummis Tom Sansonetti Dan Zwonitzer Matt Mead Rov Cohee Bill Winney 'EH Dan Zwonitzer (5) Roy Cohee (4) Matt Mead (3) Swede Nelson (2) Bill Winney (1) 1 error of 4 percent more likely to vote for Lummis. 'This could get exciting' Jim King, political science professor at the University of Swede Nelson Note: Poll data has a margin of How the poll was done The Casper Star-Tribune poll was conducted Jan. 18-21 by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Inc. of Washington, D.C.

A total of 625 registered Wyoming voters were interviewed statewide by telephone. All said they vote regularly in Wyoming state elections. There were 394 Republicans (63 percent), 167 Democrats (27 percent) and 64 Independents (10 percent). Pollsters interviewed 317 women, or 51 percent of the sample, and 308 men, or 49 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The margin of error is higher for any subgroup, such as a gender sampling. Those interviewed were selected by random variation of the last four digits of telephone numbers. A cross-section of exchanges was used to ensure an accurate reflection of the state. Quotas were assigned to reflect voter turnout by county. Here is the breakdown: Northwest Wyoming: 150 interviews in Big Horn, Washakie, Hot Springs, Fremont, Sublette, Teton and Park counties.

Northeast Wyoming: 120 interviews in Converse, Niobrara, Weston, Crook, Campbell, Johnson and Sheridan counties. Southern Wyoming: 170 interviews in Goshen, Platte, Albany, Carbon, Sweetwater, Uinta and Lincoln counties. Natrona County: 80 interviews. Laramie County: 105 interviews. By NOOR KHAN Associated Press writer KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Gunmen kidnapped a burqa-clad American aid worker and her driver in southern Afghanistan's largest city early Saturday, the latest in a series of kidnappings of foreigners in the troubled country.

Cyd Mizell, who worked in Kandahar for the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, was snatched from a residential neighborhood as she was on her way to work. Jeff Palmer, the aid group's international director, said the group had not been contacted by the kidnappers and that he did not know their identity or demands. Asadullah Khalid, the provincial governor, blamed the kidnappings on the "enemy of Islam and the enemy of Afghanistan." Khalid said the 49-year-old American was wearing a burqa when she was seized. Several foreigners including 23 South Koreans, two German construction workers and two Italian journalists have been kidnapped in Afghanistan in the last year, but kidnappings of Americans are rare. An American civilian was briefly abducted in Kabul in April 2005 but escaped by throwing himself from a moving car.

A professor at Kandahar University, Mohammad Gul, said Mizell taught English at the university and gave embroidery lessons at a girl's school. Gul said she speaks the local OBAMA Continued from A1 delegate margin. In a historic race, she hopes to become the first woman to occupy the White House, and Obama is the strongest black contender in history. The South Carolina primary marked the end of the first phase of the campaign for the Democratic nomination, a series of single-state contests that winnowed the field, conferred co-front-runner status on Clinton and Obama but had relatively few delegates at stake. That all changes in 10 days' time, when New York, Illinois and California are among the 15 tates holding primaries in a virtual nationwide primary.

Another seven states and American Samoa will hold Democratic caucuses on the same day. "South Carolina voters rejected the politics of the past and they wanted something different," said Robert Gibbs, a spokesman for Obama. Howard Wolfson, a top aide to Clinton, issued a written statement that said, "This remains a delegate fight, with 1,681 delegates at stake on Feb. 5 we are ahead in that fight." Early returns from the state's precincts showed Obama with 51 percent of the vote, Clinton gaining 30 percent and Edwards at 19 percent. All three contenders campaigned in South Carolina on primary day, but only Obama and Edwards arranged to speak to supporters after the polls closed.

Clinton decided to fly to Tennessee, one of the Feb. 5 states, leaving as the polls were closing. After playing a muted role in the earlier contests, the issue of race dominated an incendiary week that included a shift in strategy for Obama, a remarkably bitter debate and fresh scrutiny of former President Clinton's role in his wife's campaign. Each side accused the other of playing the race card, sparking a controversy that frequently involved Bill Clinton. "They are getting votes, to be sure, because of their race or gender.

That's why people tell me Hillary doesn't have a chance of winning here," the former president said at one stop as he campaigned for his wife, strongly suggesting that blacks would not support a white alternative to Obama. Clinton campaign strategists denied any intentional effort to stir the racial debate. But they said they believe the fallout has had the effect of branding Obama as "the black candidate," a tag that could hurt him outside the South. Nearly six in 10 voters said the former president's efforts for his wife was important to their choice, and among them, slightly more favored Obama Champion bull takes drug test than the former first lady. Overall, Obama defeated Clinton among both men and women.

The exit polls showed the economy was the most important issue in the race. About one quarter picked health care. And only one in five said it was the war in Iraq, underscoring the extent to which the once-dominant issue has faded in the face of financial concerns. The exit poll was conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for The Associated Press and the networks. Clinton and Obama swapped accusatory radio commercials earlier in the week.

The former first lady aired an ad saying Obama had once approved of Republican ideas. His camp responded quickly that Clinton "will say anything." First she, then he, pulled the commercials after a short run on the air. Given the bickering, Edwards looked for an opening to reinvigorate a candidacy all but eclipsed by the historic campaign between Obama and Clinton. He went on the "Late Show with David Letterman" at midweek to say he wanted to represent the "grown-up wing of the Democratic party." That was one night after a finger-wagging debate in which Obama told Clinton he was helping unemployed workers on the streets of Chicago when "you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart." Moments later, the former first lady said she was fighting against misguided Republican policies "when you were practicing law and representing your contributor in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago." a 'it ing Trauner, 33 percent supporting Lummis and 30 percent undecided. Women who participated in the poll were more likely to voter for Trauner, while men were But these days, with steroid scandals clouding many top sports, doubts waft like sawdust in the bull ring too, and Big Bucks finds himself facing a question about what makes him a winner: Big Bucks hasn't ducked the issue instead submitting to a needle-wielding veterinarian and becoming the first bucking bull to be tested for anabolic steroids under the Professional Bull Riders' new plan to keep the sport clean.

Dogged by internal rumblings that bull owners seek an advantage in the arena by injecting the creatures with steroids, the association recently decided it was time to ferret out the truth. Despite their pursuit of testing, PBR officials say they don't expect to find many, if any, problems. "I just' don't think there's a lot of abuse out there," said Texas veterinarian Gary Warner, who works closely with PBR and helped develop a bull steroid test. If a bull were given steroids, it would be hard to Be a part of Sally Ann's first Wyoming cookbook By DEEDEE CORRELL Los Angeles Times PUEBLO, Colo. It takes Big Bucks an average of 3.64 seconds to throw a cowboy off his back.

And he keeps getting better. Last season, the 7-year-old, bull shaved his time to 3.48 seconds; this month, he trotted out of Madison Square Garden in New York as the top-ranked bull in the 2008 Versus Invitational, the opening event in bull riding's major leagues. i 0- make it exercise to build up muscle. Even if the bull did bulk up, that's not an advantage in the ring, Warner said. "These guys have to express athleticism more like a dancer.

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