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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>You Still Here? Wednesday, September 20, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

You Still Here? Wednesday, September 20, 2023

 We have no idea what she's saying but it's fair to say she does not appreciate the joke...

Bill Sniffin

Opinion

CSD Columnists

Today is Sunday, Aug. 16. With Election Day just 48 hours away, it is time to put on my prognosticator’s hat and try to figure out who will win Tuesday’s political races.

All the political excitement is in the Wyoming Republican primary. We are a one-party state, so everything happens in the primary.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Predictions And Favorites"}]

Cowboy State Daily columnists have some interesting points of view.

 Eric Barlow for governor and Kevin Christensen for U.S. House.

 Eric Barlow for governor and Steve Friess for U.S. House.

 Brent Bien for governor and Chuck Gray for U.S. House.

 Megan Degenfelder for governor and Chuck Gray for U.S. House.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Here is how I see these races:"}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"U.S. House"}]

A gambling man would probably pick Secretary of State Chuck Gray of Casper to win the race for U.S. House.

Nobody else in this race has his network of followers, and he has been consistent. Considered a lightning rod, Gray has always been in the news. Gray seems to enjoy “just being Chuck.”

For example, how many state officials in history have been invited outside during a heated discussion by a sitting governor who is known to be somewhat mild-mannered? Probably not many.

Longtime political writer Joan Barron calls Gray an “obnoxious grandstander.”

After thoroughly analyzing this campaign, based on my 56 years of watching politics in Wyoming, I came to the conclusion recently that Steve Friess of Jackson might pull off a last-minute upset over Gray.

A lot of Friess’ boosters claim that not since Wyoming sent first-termers Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney to Congress have we had the chance to send someone who can make a big difference like Steve Friess can.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"That argument may very well be true."}]

But there are seven other Republicans in the race, and unless large numbers of their supporters bail out and move over to Friess, this race should go to Chuck.

Those candidates are Jillian Balow of Cheyenne, Bob Biteman of Ranchester, Reid Rasner, Kevin Christensen, and Keith Goodenough of Casper, David Giralt of Mills and Richard Dodson of Sundance.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"It will be close."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Governor"}]

Like Gray, State Sen. Eric Barlow of Gillette has been the leader in his race from Day One. He has put together a tremendous team statewide and has boatloads of support.

As a former Speaker of the House, he was obviously well-liked, based on the number of legislators helping him. Has he heard of the “Speaker’s Curse?”

For some reason, Wyoming voters have not elected a House speaker or Senate president as governor in 50 years.

Megan Degenfelder of Cheyenne is young, at age 37, but has an amazing machine working for her. She has President Donald Trump working hard for her. She can honestly say that she will have the president’s ear if elected.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Folks, this is huge."}]

Her team has spent more than a million dollars attacking Barlow’s record. Based on all the TV ads and fliers, you would almost wonder why he is not in jail.

Barlow has not fired back much, which is commendable, but probably a bad tactic in these crazy political days.

The sleeper is retired Marine Col. Brent Bien of Cody. He has worked very hard and has a huge personal following. He lost the primary to Gov. Mark Gordon four years ago, receiving 48,572 votes.

If those same people vote for him, he just might win.

Despite a huge late surge by Degenfelder, I have a hunch Barlow will hold on and emerge victorious.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"U.S. Senate"}]

You would think this race would be a big deal. There are only 100 men and women in the U.S. Senate.

Current U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman has done an excellent job and has President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

Her biggest rival is 37-year-old Sam Mead of the well-connected Mead family from Jackson. His uncle Matt was governor, and his grandmother Mary Mead ran for governor.

He has worked hard and generated quite a bit of support.

Harriet will win and will do a great job as our next U.S. senator.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Other Races"}]

Longtime Casper State Rep. Steve Harshman should cruise to an easy win in the contest for state superintendent of public instruction. He is a longtime teacher and coach and has been a consistent leader in the state Legislature.

This is a case of one candidate having much better name recognition than the others, Chad Auer of Cheyenne and Tom Kelly of Sheridan.

The secretary of state’s race has been somewhat underwhelming. It is hard to find issues for the candidates to fight about.

Robert Short of Douglas appears to be the front-runner, although Rachel Williams of Cody has the Freedom Caucus folks working hard for her.

CJ Young of Cheyenne and Qwenton Oviatt of Hudson will finish out of the running.

State Treasurer Curt Meier of La Grange should have no trouble defeating challenger Scott Smith of Lingle.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Turnout"}]

Originally, I thought this election would have a small turnout.

Now I have changed my mind totally. We could easily have 130,000 to 150,000 total Republican votes.

The record was four years ago when 172,000 voted. Other recent years have seen turnout as low as 117,000.

The bigger turnout will favor Degenfelder and Friess, in my opinion.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Conclusion"}]

These are just my predictions as a columnist. What do you think?

We want to hear what you have to say. Cowboy State Daily will be running an election quiz, and you can see if you can top our staff. It will be in the Monday morning newsletter.

Managing Editor Greg Johnson won our last quiz two years ago, and Jen Kocher, one of our writers from Gillette, won it four years ago. Six years ago, Tom Lacock of Cheyenne won it.

That quiz will be in Cowboy State Daily Monday.

Sniffin headshot 7 2 25

<title>Bill Sniffin: Barlow, Friess, Hageman, Harshman, Short, Meier, Headed For Wins? | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Bill Sniffin writes: “Who is going to win? This primary election has so many variables. These are the folks I think will win on Tuesday.”

Bill Sniffin: Barlow, Friess, Hageman, Harshman, Short, Meier, Headed For Wins?

Jen Kocher - Headshot CSD

Jen Kocher

Around Wyoming

For the Haux sisters, the enduring mystery of their father’s fate still crystallizes around one stark image: His truck, abandoned in the Red Desert, an image taken from a newspaper article.

Clifford “Russ” Haux of Mills vanished on Nov. 26, 2003, near Wamsutter in south-central Wyoming where he worked as an oil-rig driller. The 42-year-old husband and father of three had gone out with a co-worker to free a stuck vehicle and never returned.

The last image of him is his fading headlights as he drove off into a winter night trying to find a place to cross a ditch.

One minute he was there, the next, he was gone — last seen driving his pickup into a ditch, looking for a place to cross.

For two years, extensive searches turned up nothing. Then a hunter found his purple Ford Ranger less than six miles from where he was last seen. Its front tires were stuck in a washed-out riverbed, with evidence suggesting he’d tried to free them.

His children – Lois, Justy and Chancy – grew up on memories and secondhand stories, left to wonder what had happened to their father.

The story doesn’t add up based on their recollections of their dad: A guy they describe as a “driller through and through” and seasoned “mountain man” who was also a skilled outdoorsman.

“I don’t know what happened out there or the trauma he had to go through,” Justy told Cowboy State Daily. “Anything could have happened.”

The Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office likewise can’t speculate about what might have happened to Haux after he left the vehicle. But there’s no evidence to date to suggest Haux was a victim, said Jason Mower, public information officer with the department.

“Based on the evidence available, including what was found when Haux’s vehicle was later located, the disappearance has been considered accidental rather than the result of foul play,” Mower wrote in an email to Cowboy State Daily.

More than two decades later, Mower said the case remains active and unresolved with no new leads they can publicly release at this time.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Disappearing Headlights"}]

His daughters have many questions about what transpired the night their father disappeared and how his vehicle went overlooked for two years, given the extensive search efforts described in the documentation shared by the sheriff’s office.

All they know is that Haux and his friend and co-worker left the oil rig the night of Nov. 26 to retrieve his Suburban that they’d gotten stuck in a mud bog on Nov. 18.

In the early morning hours of Nov. 19, Haux’s rig mates returned to camp, Mower said. Haux apparently stayed with the vehicle and was rescued on Nov. 20. The sheriff’s office did not specify how Haux was recovered, though his daughters were told it was by a search plane.

It was this vehicle that Haux and his rig mate were going to retrieve the night he disappeared.

The man named in the report was driving the forklift they’d borrowed from the rig to dig out the vehicle. Cowboy State Daily is not identifying him, as law enforcement has not labeled him a person of interest in Haux’s disappearance.

It’s not clear if they were successfully able to free the vehicle, but when Haux tried to cross a ditch in his pickup, he was unable to do so. The co-worker tried “to knock down the bank of the ditch” that was blocking Haux from crossing but couldn’t, according to the sheriff’s report.

[{"type":"text","text":"Instead, Haux headed south along the ditch, looking for a passable route."}]

The co-worker watched Haux’s headlights fade into the night. That was the last time anyone saw him alive.

When nobody could locate him, Haux was officially reported missing two days later to the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office, which launched a 10-day search effort complete with four-wheelers and vehicles, said the report.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Frantic Search"}]

Lois, then 5 and the daughter of Haux’s second wife, Laquana, remembers how frantic her mother was when they got the call that Haux was missing.

Justy, who was 15, learned about it when she tried to call her father to wish him a happy Thanksgiving. She and her brother, Chancy, then 18, lived with their mother in Worland.

The sisters recall the family wanted to help look for him but were told by rescuers to stay put for their safety, given the dangerous terrain.

Meanwhile, the sisters said, Haux’s brother hired a pilot and attempted to search by airplane.  

The temperature the night Haux disappeared plunged from a high of 27 down to 10 degrees with no precipitation, according to historical weather data for Rock Springs from the National Weather Service.

Their dad was a tough man, Lois said, and an avid outdoorsman who they believe would have known how to handle himself safely in the elements. He was also a big guy at over 6 feet tall and just under 200 pounds.

“Our dad was outdoor smart,” she said. “He knew how to start a fire to keep warm and knew not to leave your shelter in a snowstorm or 20-degree weather or colder.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Remaining Questions"}]

This is just one of the details that doesn’t make sense to the sisters as they continue questioning the narrative, including whether the co-worker was thoroughly questioned after Haux’s disappearance.

Lois said her mother was told the co-worker had been acting like a “chicken with its head cut off” and was acting strangely when questioned.

They have never met the man nor had the chance to ask what he remembered, Justy clarified, nor are they blaming him. But they do wonder if he provided a full accounting of the night in question.

Mower said that the record indicates any interview with him “was fairly cursory.”

“I do not see documentation indicating that he was considered a person of interest in Haux’s disappearance,” he stated in an email.

The siblings also questioned the thoroughness of the search, especially since their father’s truck was found 6 miles from his last known location—  two years after he vanished.

Mower affirmed that extensive ground and air searches were conducted across more than 1,000 miles of remote and isolated terrain, efforts formally suspended on December 7, 2003.

When Haux’s pickup was discovered with its front wheels mired in a collapsed riverbank 

, they found a broken shovel and pieces of wood jammed beneath the tires — signs he had attempted to free the vehicle.

A red suitcase with Haux’s clothes was also found inside the unlocked cab.

Though additional searches took place after the truck was located in 2005, Mower stated there have been no further operations in the 20 years since.

He added that nothing at the scene indicated violence or criminal encounter. Nor was there evidence of meth labs or other hazards Haux might have stumbled into while seeking help.

“Given the remoteness and terrain, that scenario does not appear probable based on what we know,” Mower said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Looked Everyday"}]

Ryan Hasbrouck’s sympathy for the Haux children runs deep. His father, Kenneth, was the tool pusher on the rig where Haux went missing, and he took the disappearance to heart.

Hasbrouck says he felt it, too — he’d known Haux, worked for and alongside him over the years. He described him as a great worker and a smart guy who was incredibly well-liked. 

He wasn’t on the crew when Haux disappeared though; he’d left a couple months earlier to train as a directional driller.

Still, he remembers clearly how it weighed on his dad, who felt responsible. Hasbrouck recalls daily phone calls in which his father listed all the places he was still searching, weeks and months after Haux vanished.

“He looked every day, every night, even on his days off,” Hasbrouck said. “It ate at him.”

Hasbrouck was so worried about his own father going missing that he asked him to check in every day.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Roughneck mentality’"}]

Hasbrouck also said it was common for oil-rig workers to cut across the desert — off the oilfield roads, across open country, no matter the risk.

The official roads built for semi-trucks hauling oil and water were passable — mostly unpaved or gravel two tracks. But they were long. Ninety minutes from town to a rig was not unusual, he said. This, coupled with 12-hour-plus workdays, had a way of making the open desert look like an option.

“It’s the roughneck mentality,” he said. “If they think they can save 30 or 40 minutes and they get to go home, they’re gonna do stupid shit.”

It’s easy to get lost and turned around out in the desert, especially at night, he added.

This was back before smartphones. Just flip phones with patchy service, no maps, no extras — nothing to help if you got turned around out there.

The country doesn’t forgive that kind of thinking, though. Hasbrouck put his own odds at about 50/50

“I’ve ended up stuck a few times, thinking, ‘Oh, I can go this way. It’ll save me 20 minutes,’” he said. 

The math didn’t always work out. One shortcut meant to save 30 minutes once cost him 6 hours after he drove into a snowdrift. Still, he’d try it again.

Hasbrouck guessed that Haux would have chosen to not stay with the vehicle because he wouldn’t want to trouble anyone to come rescue him again. Instead, Hasbrouck believes he would have tried to make it back to the rig but got lost or succumbed to the elements.

He doesn’t suspect foul play, he said.  He knew both Haux and the last man to see him and doesn’t believe he would have tried to harm him.

[{"type":"text","text":"“Definitely not,” he said. “Those two were buddies."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Tough Country’"}]

As to how Haux’s vehicle was missed during the initial search efforts, Mike Lujan can lend some insight.

As president of the Carbon County Search and Rescue West division, with 35 years of service behind him, he’s done many such searches on similar terrain.

He was not part of the search efforts for Haux, even though the area straddled his county, where Haux’s vehicle was ultimately found. Given the location of where he was last seen, jurisdiction fell to Sweetwater County.

But he knows that country well — it’s one of his favorite places to hunt elk.

“It’s tough country,” he said. “Desert. Draws. Washouts.”

It also can be dangerous. Dusty and muddy with thick sagebrush that can be as high as 4 or 5 feet high. An elk can disappear in it from 200 yards out.

A person could get lost and never be found.

“Outlaws used to go there to hide,” Lujan said. “There’s a lot of ground out there that will never be covered.”

While he was not directly involved in the search for Haux, Lujan said that standard search and rescue protocol would have led teams to trace the trajectory of the headlights along the ditch, as the last witness described.

The original rescuers did just that, according to the report, asking him to sit in the vehicle and point in the direction that he last remembered seeing the lights.

[{"type":"text","text":"It would have been the natural route for rescuers to follow, Lujan said."}]

“You would kind of get a visual of where he drove the vehicle down that wash and try to recreate his travel,” he said.

In his experience, typically people are found within a mile of their vehicle before succumbing to the weather or getting turned around, he said.

He can’t speak to why the purple pickup would have been overlooked for two years by land and air but said both people and objects are easily hidden in the scrub.

Technology is also much better now, including equipment and training and the use of cadaver dogs and search K9s, he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Finding Needle in Haystack"}]

Still, sometimes, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack in that wild country.

Lujan described one such search for an elderly man who wandered off into the rolling, windswept hills outside Hanna after getting into an argument with a family member.

Despite dozens of people searching on horses, side-by-sides, two helicopters, an airplane and drones, nobody could locate him the first day. It was until the following day that he was found alive, laying in a barrow ditch along a highway outside of town.

It was an area that had been searched, including a helicopter with thermal and heat signatures. Many vehicles had also driven past without spotting him.

It was his dog, Meshach, that ultimately led him to the man within minutes of the search that second day.

[{"type":"text","text":"“In many cases, it’s a matter or luck or prayer,” he said."}]

Thus far, there have been no sightings or other activity to suggest Haux is still alive, but his family said there’s no way he would have just left them.

His DNA and fingerprints are on file in CODIS, the FBI’s national Combined DNA Index System.

Both Justy and Chancy provided their DNA samples along with Haux’s two siblings.

This means if remains are ever recovered that match his profile, law enforcement will automatically be notified.

That hasn’t happened yet — though two skulls have already turned up in the Red Desert area.

, which gave the family a fleeting sense of hope as they waited a year to hear the results.

“I fully believed that was our father,” Lois said, describing the long year of agony waiting for the tests results to come back.

Missing man Wamsutter Zak sign 8 15 26

<title>Daughters Haunted By Dad’s Disappearance In Red Desert Near Wamsutter 23 Years Ago | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Nearly 23 years after Clifford “Russ” Haux vanished in the Red Desert near Wamsutter, his daughters are still haunted. The 42-year-old husband and father of three had gone out with a co-worker to free a stuck vehicle and never returned.

Daughters Haunted By Dad’s Disappearance In Red Desert Near Wamsutter 23 Years Ago

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Political action committees (PACs) attacking Republican candidates in Wyoming’s primary election are twisting some facts and misrepresenting others.

And they’re spending hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars to do it.

The half-million-dollar Wyoming Way Action PAC has been attacking Secretary of State Chuck Gray, a U.S. House candidate, for his record on the State Loan and Investment Board, alleging that fields of wind turbines are “taking over Wyoming because of Chuck Gray" - which is an exaggeration. 

The $1 million Protecting Wyoming Values PAC, funded exclusively Gray’s father, Jan Charles Gray, as of July 29, has been attacking Gray’s opponent Steve Friess by casting him as having a “never Trump” agenda. 

That claim falls out of the bigger context of the Friess family’s long alignment with the president.  

That PAC also asserted Friess was born, married, and raised his family in Connecticut, which Friess says is altogether false.

And the $1.4 million Wyoming’s Turn PAC produced a falsehood against Sen. Eric Barlow this week by asserting he sponsored a gas tax hike in 2020, when in fact he voted against the bill it references.

[{"type":"text","text":"First, Chuck Gray"}]

The claim that Gray is making wind farms take over Wyoming is an exaggeration.

As secretary of state, Gray voted in favor of leasing state lands for at least three wind-farm projects. Those three measure 640, 2,400 and 3,079 acres.

But amid a broader campaign against what Gray called “woke wind,” he later opposed around 37,128 acres of wind farms slated for state lands. Those pertained to two far more controversial wind leases, one of which has landed Wyoming in court.  

Wyoming measures about 62.34 million acres, and about 2.4 million of that is state land.

“Its (sic) just more dishonesty from the Jackson Friess group,” wrote Gray in a Friday text message.

“I was the only member on the State Board of Land Commissioners who voted against and stopped the woke wind leases in Converse and Niobrara Counties,” said Gray. “The first time Governor Gordon threatened to fight me in January was because of my work to stop the woke wind lease.” 

. In the seconds before the confrontation, however, Gray was speaking dourly of Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz, who’s also a former Wyoming Supreme Court Justice.

Just before Gordon asked Gray to step outside, the governor  warned him against casting “aspersions” against Kautz.

Gray has weathered attack ads from another opponent, Reid Rasner, who says Gray has registered Chinese-owned companies. The secretary pointed to 

, when he stripped North Korean businesses of their licenses.

“I've spent a much larger percentage of my life than Friess in Wyoming,” said Gray. 

He said his parents divorced and he was under a custody arrangement he couldn’t control as a boy, and split time between Wyoming and California.

“For Friess to attack that, when he spent none of his youth living here, is hypocritical and dishonest,” said Gray.

The PAC attacking Gray’s California roots is funded in part by Friess’s mother, Lynn, though not registered to Friess.

[{"type":"text","text":"Next, Steve Friess"}]

The ad against Friess asserts he “stiffed” President Donald Trump “while bankrolling never Trumpers like Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney.”

Friess gave money to Cheney in 2013 during her U.S. Senate run, but not when she became a “never Trumper” starting in about 2021, Federal Election Commission filings show.

His donations to Cheney happened “before she went insane,” said Friess in a Friday phone interview.

Friess gave money to Romney during the latter’s presidential run in 2012 – another campaign that pre-dated the pro- and anti-Trump Republican divide.

The Friess family donated to now-Rep. Harriet Hageman in 2021, fueling her successful 2022 U.S. House run against Cheney.

As for Trump’s most recent election, “I might have forgotten to write a personal check, but we hosted a fundraiser that raised $6 million,” said Friess. “So I think I’m OK there.”

Political groups spending millions of dollars on Wyoming's primary election are attacking U.S. House and gubernatorial candidates with fliers and commercials. Some of their claims are exaggerated; some are downright false.

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