Keith B. Goodenough (born July 22, 1956) is an American politician who served as a member of the Casper, Wyoming, City Council from 2006 to 2014. He previously served as a Democrat in the Wyoming Senate from 1995 to 2005 and in the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1989 to 1993. In 2008, he ran for the U.S. Senate, but lost in the Democratic primary. Since then, he launched two unsuccessful campaigns for the Natrona County Commission as an independent candidate in 2012 and 2014.
Background
Goodenough graduated from Kelly Walsh High School in Casper, Wyoming, in 1974. After graduation, he attended Casper College, and transferred to the University of Montana, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in forestry in 1978. After graduating from college, he served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala, where he was stationed in San Juan Chamelco. Goodenough's service in Guatemala overlapped with the contentious 1982 presidential election, and Peace Corps volunteers were given the opportunity to leave the country prior to the election. After returning to Casper, he began working as a self-employed woodcutter and timber management specialist at Casper Mountain.
Early campaigns
Shortly after returning from the Peace Corps, Goodenough announced that he would seek the Democratic Party's nomination to oppose incumbent Republican Congressman Dick Cheney in the 1984 election. He faced Laramie attorney Hugh McFadden in the Democratic primary. Goodenough raised very little money, and in announcing his campaign, said "he would finance the campaign by collecting and recycling aluminum cans." McFadden received support from the Wyoming Democratic Party, including some of its more prominent candidates, like former state senator Rodger McDaniel, the Democratic nominee in the 1982 U.S. Senate election. He was able to significantly outraise and outspend Goodenough. Ultimately, McFadden defeated Goodenough by a wide margin, and advanced to the general election, where lost handily to Cheney.
On July 22, 1985, Goodenough announced that he would run for Governor of Wyoming in the 1986 gubernatorial election. He barely met the age requirement, turning 30 several weeks before the primary in 1986. Goodenough was joined in the race by perennial candidate Al Hamburg, rancher Pat McGuire, and attorney Mike Sullivan.
Despite Sullivan's status as the frontrunner, however, Goodenough attracted attention for his campaign platform. He called for the decriminalization of marijuana, diversification of the economy, comprehensive sex education, banning employer drug testing, and raising speed limit to 75 miles per hour. He argued that American society was "schizophrenic" toward sex, as it was promoted and encouraged on television but children were not adequately educated about sex. Toward the end of the campaign, Goodenough unveiled an agricultural plan in which he called for the state to purchase foreclosed land and establish cooperatives for disadvantaged farmers, providing them with "alternative-type housing," like "packed earth and solar homes."
Goodenough also attracted media attention for the unusual nature of his campaign. At the beginning of the campaign, when his only opponent was Hamburg, he held a press conference and declared himself the frontrunner. Goodenough frequently announced his campaign proposals at informal press conferences where he drank beer while speaking. His messaging was similarly informal; he referred to Wyoming as a "Third World state," and announced that if he won the election, he would host a monthlong party at the governor's mansion. To generate publicity for his gubernatorial campaign, Goodenough placed classified ads reading: "Single male gubernatorial candidate would like to meet women (any size, shape, age, color, religion) who are interested in dancing or talking or politics."
But despite Goodenough's unorthodox campaign, he was overwhelmingly defeated by Sullivan, who won 71% of the vote to McGuire's 13%, Goodenough's 10%, and Hamburg's 6%. Sullivan would go on to win the general election by a wide margin.
Wyoming House of Representatives
As Goodenough was losing the 1986 Democratic primary for Governor, he also received enough write-in votes to run as one of the Democratic nominees for the Wyoming House of Representatives in Natrona County. He accepted the nomination and continued his campaign as one of nine Democratic candidates for nine multimember seats in the state house. However, Republicans ended up winning all nine seats in the county.