Spotlight on U.S. House of Representatives, Republican (Part 1)

Ten Republicans running for one House seat in Wyoming, and the paper's answer is to run them through in batches like a livestock auction catalog. That's not a knock on the candidates. It's just funny, and telling, that a state with fewer people than some Denver suburbs has enough GOP ambition for a second and third installment before we even get everybody's name in print.

Say what you want about crowded primaries being messy. We'd rather have this problem than the alternative, which is a party bench so thin that one name gets crowned before voters ever weigh in. Wyoming Republicans clearly aren't waiting around for permission from Cheyenne or Washington to decide who represents them. That's the point of a primary. Let ten people make their case, let the "spotlight" series actually do its job, and let the voters sort it out instead of some straw poll six months early deciding it for them.

The part worth watching isn't the number, it's whether the coverage treats all ten seriously or quietly picks a favorite by giving one candidate more ink than the rest before this series is even finished. A field this size means real differences on spending, energy policy, and how hard someone is actually willing to push back on Washington once they get there. Wyoming voters deserve to see those differences laid out plainly, not buried under a headline count of how many people are running.

We'll take a crowded, argumentative primary over a coronation any day. Just finish the series and give every one of them a fair shake.