Star-Tribune Editorial Board

Wyoming's Republican U.S. House primary is in danger of deteriorating into a "he said, she said" debate about candidates' records. With only a week to go before the Aug. 19 election, we urge both Mark Gordon and Cynthia Lummis to refocus their efforts on how they each plan to serve Wyoming if they win their party's nomination and the general election.

Gordon and Lummis are the perceived front-runners in a four-way primary race that also includes Bill Winney and Michael Holland. Gordon, a Buffalo rancher and businessman, and Lummis, a former state treasurer and state legislator, have blamed each other for going negative in the final weeks of the campaign.

Lummis indicated Friday that there's probably more of the same to come. We hope that's not the case from either candidate. Wyoming voters deserve better.

Do past records matter? Of course they do. They help voters determine how a candidate is likely to react to an issue once in office. But records are not the only factor to be considered. A candidate needs to share his or her vision for where Wyoming should be headed.

Lummis has focused on Gordon's donations to Democratic candidates in past elections, and his ties to an environmental group -- the Sierra Club -- even though Gordon severed that relationship in 1993.

Gordon, meanwhile, has called attention to a vote on veterans' benefits that Lummis cast in the Legislature in 1981.

At a time when the economy is in a downturn, the country still doesn't have a national energy policy, and we're mired in a war in Iraq, aren't there more relevant issues to discuss?

Political observers tell us that candidates go negative because it works, and in a close race it can be the difference between winning or losing.

But we'd like to remind both candidates that it's their party's nomination they're seeking, and Republicans already have their work cut out for them in the general election. Democrat Gary Trauner, who lost to incumbent Rep. Barbara Cubin by only about 1,000 votes in 2006, doesn't face any opposition in this year's primary. He's effectively been running for the office for four years, and he has built a solid campaign network.

Trauner also has an advantage over his eventual GOP opponent: He'll be a member of the majority party in the House. A freshman in the minority party won't be operating from a position of strength.

Wyoming Republicans have occasionally shot themselves in the foot in past primaries, emerging so divided that pleas for unity from party leaders have been ignored. Negative campaigning might be effective in the short term, but there's a bigger election for the GOP at stake.

We encourage Lummis and Gordon to show the courage in this final week to mount forward-looking campaigns to earn their party's nomination.