Wyoming United States Senator Craig Thomas, a three-term conservative Republican who stayed clear of attention in Washington and largely worked hard behind the scenes for his constituents, died on Monday, June 4, 2007. He was 74.
A statement was issued stating he died Monday evening at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He had been receiving chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia since early November 2006.
On the eve of the 2006 general national election, Thomas was hospitalized with pneumonia and had to cancel his last campaign stops in Wyoming. He was re-elected to a third term easily, but on November 9, two days after the election, Thomas surprisingly announced that he had just been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia but was determined to continue serving his Wyoming constituency in the Senate.
Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, will appoint a successor from one of three finalists chosen by Republican state legislators. Thomas's successor will serve through December of 2008. The Senate seat will be up for election in November 2008 and again in November 2012. Wyoming's other Senator, Michael Enzi, will also be up for election in November 2008, meaning voters in the Equality State will be choosing both Senators in one election as was done recently in California in the 1990s.
After his first round of chemotherapy, Thomas made an earlier than anticipated return to work in the Senate in December 2006. By March 2007, he said he felt better than he had in a long time. Thomas initiated legislation to protect the sensitive Wyoming Range along the western part of the state to be protected from further oil and gas drilling. However, he returned to the hospital for a second round of chemotherapy in mid-May 2007. He remained optimistic about his medical outlook but was realistic about how it was effecting his day to day life and his future.
Thomas entered the US Congress in a special election in 1989 to replace Congressman Richard Cheney when the future vice president was appointed Secretary of Defense by the President George Bush the Elder. Thomas was re-elected to the US House of Representatives in 1990 and 1992. In 1994, Thomas was elected to a first full term of office in the US Senate after incumbent Alan Simpson opted to retire. Thomas was re-elected for a second full term in the Senate in 2000.
Thomas had previously served five years in the Wyoming Legislature. He was born in Cody, Wyoming, east of Yellowstone National Park in northwest Wyoming, and was raised on a working cattle ranch. He graduated from the University of Wyoming in Laramie with a bachelors degree in agriculture, then served four years in the United States Marines, rising to the Officers' Corps. He later served as vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau and general manager of the Wyoming Rural Electric Association prior to his entry into the Wyoming state legislature in 1984.
Craig Thomas is the fourth United States Senator from Wyoming to die while in office. The other thre were Francis E. Warren in 1929, John B. Kendrick in 1933, and Lester Hunt in 1954.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=t000162
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Thomas_(politician)
Freudenthal will choose a Republican to fill the seat from a list of three nominees submitted by the Republican-led state legislature, with Representative Cubin, former Senator Simpson, and perhaps recent former Governor Gehringer as the leading possibilities. It will be interesting to see who will else will under consideration. Maybe Dick Cheney will resign the Vice-Presidency and take the appointment for this lower profile, less stressful, and more rewarding political office. (Would not that be great and one of the biggest stunners in American History ! )
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Monday, June 4, 2007
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