Candidate eyes governor run... in four years

Kevin Seney is a Republican candidate for governor of Wyoming.

With elections still months away, it may seem a little early. But you don't know the half of it: Seney's not running for governor in 2010 -- he's running in 2014.

Seney, who has run ads on Facebook advertising his candidacy, concedes that it's “way early,” but he says it’s no gimmick.

“We’re serious about it,” said Seney in a Thursday telephone interview. “I’ll definitely run.”

He's already lined up a former co-worker as a campaign manager, and as of this writing, Seney's page on Facebook had 574 fans from across the U.S. For those keeping score at home, that's 246 more than the 328 supporters belonging to Matt Mead, a Republican candidate actually running in 2010.* And Seney has another four and a half years to build support for the 2014 election year.

Seney, who has a background in the real estate industry, said he's been thinking about running for some time.

“I’m 50 years old and I’m kind of at the part where I’ve been there, done that,” he said. “There’s got to be something else to do out there.”

Seney said he likes to aim high, for things that “literally seem unattainable.” Hence shooting for the state's top office without prior political experience.

“I'm not going to run for mayor, I'm not going to run for councilman, I'm going to run for governor,” Seney recalls telling himself.

Though born and raised in Buffalo, until this past summer, Seney had most recently been “out chasing careers and raising kids and doing all that” in California.

That's why running for governor next year was literally unattainable -- to qualify as gubernatorial material, the Wyoming Constitution says you must have lived in the state for the past five years.

“It’s a valid question that 2014 is a long ways away, but it’s the first election I can run in,” said Seney, who now lives in Jackson with time also spent in Buffalo. He's in the process of selling his San Francisco-based real estate business.

The biggest issue of his burgeoning campaign is promoting a business-friendly attitude in the state.

“My feeling is that small business is struggling right now in Wyoming,” he said.

With Wyoming's people and resources and the connectivity of the Internet, he said there are serious opportunities for the state to support long-distance businesses.

For three months in 1924 and 1925, Seney's great-grandfather, Frank E. Lucas, actually was Wyoming's governor, but Seney said he personally has no political connections in the state. Not being a "career politician," and not having a boatload of money to throw at a campaign, Seney said he wants to run a grassroots effort. He notes the success of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in using online social networking tools to gain and communicate with supporters.

Next spring, while he works on a book, Seney plans to hit the road in an RV and start visiting the sometimes-overlooked smaller towns and cities across Wyoming.

The goal is to “find out what people are really concerned with in this state,” though Seney admits the process “might just scare me right out of (running). Who knows.”

Fortunately, he'll have plenty of time to figure it out.

*Ron Micheli, another Republican candidate for governor in 2010 had 788 fans on his Facebook page (where, incidentally, Seney advertisements have occasionally popped up).