CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Matt Mead plans to make an official announcement Tuesday in Cheyenne that he will see re-election to another four-year term as governor of Wyoming.
In an interview Monday with The Associated Press, the 51-year-old Republican governor said he believes Wyoming is in better shape now than it was when he took office.
“In terms of why another four years, I feel like we got started on some good projects that I’d like to see through,” Mead said.
Mead said he wants to continue his administration’s push on a range of energy and technology programs, including improving Internet service to schools around the state.
“Those are things we’d like to see through, because I think we are diversifying our economy, and in doing so, we continue to see good unemployment numbers,” Mead said.
Wyoming’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at about 6 percent when Mead took office more than three years ago. The Wyoming Department of Workforce Services reported recently that the state finished 2013 with a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.4 percent, significantly lower than the national rate of 6.7 percent.
Mead noted that he and other state officials last month approved $13 million in grants to entice Magpul Industries of Erie, Colo., a producer of ammunition magazines for guns, to move its manufacturing operations to Wyoming.
Mead said he wants to emphasize water projects if he wins a second term. “The use of water, the restoration projects, conservation projects for water, I think all of those are critical to Wyoming’s future,” he said.
“Is the state in a better position than it was four years ago? My answer is yes,” Mead said. “And do I have projects going on now that I’d like to see the state continue? Yes. And then, in terms of my track record, I’m comfortable saying, ’Here’s what I’ve accomplished as governor to the citizens, to the voters.”
Mead faces two declared opponents in the Aug. 19 Republican Party primary: State Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill and Taylor Haynes, a Cheyenne doctor who has served on the board of trustees at the University of Wyoming. No Democrat has announced a run for governor.
Mead is grandson of the late Clifford Hansen, a former Wyoming governor and senator. Mead’s mother, Mary Mead, ran unsuccessfully for governor before her death in 1996 in a riding accident. The family has a history of ranching in Teton County.
Mead said Monday he’s not trying to position himself for any other office in the future. “I view this job as an opportunity for service, and a great privilege,” he said. “But over the course of the last few years, I’ve heard people saying that I want to do some other job. I can tell you I have zero desire to run for some other office, and, in particular, zero desire to leave the state of Wyoming.”
Mead said the hardest thing about deciding to seek re-election is the amount of time serving as governor demands. He and his wife, Carol, have two children.
Mead said governors from around the West, both Republicans and Democrats, feel that Washington doesn’t have a full appreciation of what the West is or what it provides to the rest of the country, not only in minerals and agriculture, but in tourism and recreation.
Under Mead’s tenure, Wyoming, the nation’s leading coal-producing state, has faced off with the federal government on a range of issues, including tougher limits from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on air pollution.
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