( CNN ) -- Something I love about American politics : A political candidacy can be sunk by a fishing license . Liz Cheney 's run for the Republican Senate nomination from Wyoming suffered a setback after it was discovered that she bought a $ 24 fishing license last year without having lived in the state for a year . With surreal seriousness , a spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department said of the scandal , `` We have an ongoing investigation . The law is extremely complicated . '' A Republican strategist living in Wyoming added , `` It 's a serious misstep . Allegedly poaching in a state where being a resident sportsman is , by law , an earned privilege . Wyoming people will take this very seriously . '' Will they really ? The primary election between challenger Cheney and the popular incumbent , Sen. Mike Enzi , is a whole year away , and I struggle to believe that it 'll be lost for want of a fishing license . But it is a sign of trouble ahead for Cheney . Polls show that she 's perceived to be an outsider -- and she 's starting to learn that you can make a big name for yourself in national conservative politics but still fail to get traction at a state level . For good reason . Cheney 's only real , substantive link to Wyoming is through her father , Dick , who served for 10 years as a congressman . Otherwise , she was born in Wisconsin , lived much of her life in the D.C. area , went to college in Colorado and Chicago and made her name working for the George W. Bush administration . Not a lot of Wyoming in that CV at all . Instead , her credentials to represent the state are partly political rather than local . Cheney is a talented administrator and activist -- a strong public speaker who can bring a tea party crowd to its feet . The level of respect that she 's engendered speaks to her abilities , but also her links to the national , rather than Wyoming , political establishment . When The Washington Post wrote a friendly profile of Cheney , the Daily Caller ( significantly , a scrappy conservative website ) took the big names quoted in support of her and showed up their hyperbole . `` She was tea party before there was a tea party , '' said Mary Matalin ( that was clever ) . `` She is not just her father 's daughter , '' said Bill Kristol ( what else could she be ? ! ) . `` I was excited about Palin ; I 'm more excited about Liz , '' said Michael Goldfarb ( big shoes to fill ) . The most absurd remark came from Matalin : `` [ Cheney ] really is a cowgirl through and through , and raised by accident in Washington . Babies do n't move wherever they want ; they have to go with their parents . '' Now , Matalin ought to know that cowgirls are raised , not made , and babies rarely show a preference for one state over another . Although the image of baby Liz in a ten gallon hat crying for Wyoming is a beguiling one . So Cheney has arrived in Wyoming with a lot of national conservative sentiment behind her but precious little local backing . That 's reflected in her campaign , which has had a lot more to say about undoing the Obama administration than standing up for her state . Her basic argument is that A ) Republican incumbent Enzi is too nice to Obama and B ) `` obstructionism '' is `` patriotism . '' Perhaps there 's some local right-wing sentiment that agrees Enzi has been bipartisan once too often , but Cheney is mistaken if she thinks that her state will vote for someone who pitches herself purely as a `` Senator No . '' That sort of thing gets a big applause at meetings of the Conservative Political Action Conference , but it might it might not be so attractive to Wyoming voters looking for someone to bring home the bacon . And do we really want yet another senator who refuses to do business with anyone ? It 's not as if Congress is unpopular because it 's too compromising . Finally , there 's the problem of Cheney being an all-round anachronism in this age of tea party populism . Yes , her gender and relative youth make her seem like fresh leadership . But her name is a hindrance and deserves to be . America needs to put its political dynasties out to graze : It 's perverse that a republic of free people should keep voting for the scions of the Kennedys , Clintons , Bushes or Cheneys . The USA is starting to look less like a democracy and more like an aristocracy . Furthermore , Cheney 's politics are a little old-fashioned , too . She might be on the zeitgeist by being for same-sex marriage , but her neoconservative stance on foreign policy is about 10 years out of date . The next generation of Republican leadership is going to be populist , small state , critical of getting overinvolved overseas , civil libertarian and intensely loyal to its birthplace . Carpetbaggers need not apply . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Timothy Stanley .
Mike Enzi : Running for Senate , Timothy Stanley misstepped over fishing license . He says in her challenge to Sen. Liz Cheney , many see her as outsider to Matalin . He says her connection is mostly through dad ; she 's national figure , not local . Mike Enzi : Her no-compromise conservatism a tough sell .