Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Dog is unhappy until food is dipped into sauce...."}]

Smile 6 15 24

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

<title>Daily Smile: Saturday, June 15, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Dog is unhappy until food is dipped into sauce....

Daily Smile: Saturday, June 15, 2024

 Dog is unhappy until food is dipped into sauce....

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Tuesday, July 28th.  I’m Mac Watson.

This newscast is brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair. Wrap up your summer at the Wyoming State Fair, August 11th through the 15th in Douglas!

Rodeo, Demolition Derby, live music, entertainment and fair food await. Learn more at W-Y State Fair dot com. See you at the fair! This ad was paid for by Converse County Tourism.

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Just hours after news broke Monday that a Uinta County brand inspector had pleaded guilty to helping torture a moose, the state livestock director fired him. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Gov. Gordon had strong words about the situation.

“Governor Gordon said this is absolutely irresponsible behavior unbefitting a brand inspector, and he said that Martin is no longer working for the state, and you know hours earlier, the Wyoming Livestock Board director Steve True had said that Martin was a brand inspector. So I called True back, and he said, "Yeah, in the couple hours since this story broke, I fired him. True said that it was his decision to fire Martin. The governor didn't influence that decision.”

Martin has not been sentenced and he reserves the right to appeal how law enforcement pulled evidence from his phone. At the preliminary hearing, Evanston Circuit Court Michael Greer said, “this was done for the sheer joy of dominating a wild animal who appeared to be already in poor health and possibly blind.” 

Retired Wyoming employees of Peabody Energy say they feel betrayed by its decision to end a medical retirement benefits program. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that the company says the program no longer fits “market competitive practices.”

“Letters from Peabody Energy started showing up in mailboxes of retirees a couple weeks ago, announcing the termination of their retired medical program, and Peabody Energy is saying that they're doing this because they're terminating this program. Peabody Energy is saying that they're terminating this program because it no longer aligns with the market and the competition. They did not give any more specifics, nor did they answer our questions about how many retired employees does this affect?” 

In 2020, the company cut health benefits and terminated life insurance for retirees older than 65 as part of a cost-cutting strategy. Retirees younger than 65 could maintain their coverage.

Charges on a stolen credit card tracked a Wyoming man wanted on 72 child sex abuse charges to Colorado last week. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that his former landlord reported to the Converse County Sheriff’s Office on July 20 that John Smallbone was using his credit card without permission. 

“When a charge came through from Expedia for hotel rooms down in Colorado. The first thing that hit his mind is he running? Is he running from these charges? And he texted the guy and said, ‘Hey, are you running?’ And he says that the guy texted back to him and says, ‘No, I'm I'm here in town.’ This is what put Wyoming law enforcement on the radar that he wasn't in the state anymore, which is not allowed according to the $250,000 bond that he posted.”

The $250,000 question now is will John Smallbone show up for his arraignment in Converse County District Court on Tuesday afternoon? A call to a phone number linked to Smallbone in his court file went to voicemail. His former landlord isn’t holding his breath.

Scenic boat tours on Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park have shut down two months early due to low water levels as southern Idaho agricultural users draw from the lake. Cowboy State Daily’s Mark Heinz reports that according to park authorities, large boats are unable to get out of Colter Bay Marina onto the main lake.

“They're going to feel it this year because you know they had to quit two months early, and then the Bureau of Rec guys said for folks with like average size motorboats and smaller motorboats, you should be okay kind of until that September timeframe, and then after that, it's going to be pretty much canoes and kayaks. Pretty much by then, the water will have dropped far enough. You're not going to be able to use boat ramps. So, long story short, the boating season on Lake Jackson is coming to an end.”

The natural lake, fed by the Snake River, was already one of the largest in the West when it was enlarged by a dam in 1911. That dam was enlarged in 1916 and rebuilt in 1989. 

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"–"}]

In reflecting on Wyoming's U.S. house race, departed candidate Frank Chapman on Monday said both Chuck Gray and Steve Friess haven't had significant careers. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Chapman says, “We’re being given choices of people that haven’t really achieved anything in life.”

“He said that the candidate that peels votes away from Gray is Beau Biteman, a conservative legislator currently president of the Senate. He casts Friess’ and Gray's professional legacies as unimpressive. He said that Jillian Baylow is doing well, and he also waited on the governor's race, which he said he took pull in for earlier in his own race, and said Eric Barlow is doing well.”

, leaving nine Republican candidates still vying for the GOP nomination to the U.S. House seat Rep. Harriet Hageman is leaving to run for U.S. Senate.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"–"}]

A man accused of triggering an hourslong standoff outside the Casper Police Department refused to appear in court Monday. Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that the judge set William Randall Patricelli’s bond high at $50,000 because his “effect and danger to the community is significant.”

“This was near the police department, just adjacent to it, in David Street in downtown Casper, on Monday he refused to appear before the judge for his first hearing. The sheriff's deputy from the jail said that Patrice Celly was being uncooperative. The judge said she would see him on Tuesday, and declined to tell reporters what his two misdemeanor charges are until he has been formally charged.”

Patricelli was arrested Saturday evening after Casper police responded to what they described as an active incident involving a barricaded subject in the 200 block of North David Street. The response closed multiple streets and intersections for several hours as officers worked to resolve the situation. Police ultimately took Patricelli into custody.

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A Wyoming eagle called Aurum was barely a year old and suffering from lead poisoning when she was hit by a car near Meeteetse. Outdoors Reporter Mark Heinz reports that she somehow survived both and is now beating the odds by raising her young in the Bighorn Basin.

“So I went to Ironside Bird Rescue in Cody and that lady Susan who runs that place she's been for over three decades The bird was in pretty bad shape but fortunately as it been hit by a car but it was bruised nothing was broken so that was a huge plus and then yes it had a serious lead poisoning infection. Like it was, it needed to be treated. But it wasn't so bad that they had to take it all the way to injections. Like the counter, the counter agent. They were able to treat this eagle with pills in the way she did. He said, "I just took a dead rat, cut the belly open, tossed a pill in there, and then fed that to the eagle." That's how you get pills to an eagle.” 

Wyoming is prime golden eagle habitat, both for resident eagles and those that migrate in from the north during the fall to spend winters here. Golden eagles prefer small game such as prairie dogs and rabbits, so they’re drawn to open prairies or vast sagebrush steppes. 

How do you get vehicles stuck up to their axles in mud on the bottom of a lake bed? You call a tow company that has remote-controlled winches, a custom-built winch foot, and hundreds of feet of tow straps. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that the owner of Alpine Redneck Rescue says, “This is a normal situation for us.”

“What they did was they set up their truck pretty far away and used these long 1000, like 30,000 pound capacity tow straps to get the Jeep out using one of the other stuck vehicles as an anchor because you need an anchor in these things, they haul the Jeep out, and then with a custom rig that they have that distributes the energy, they use a 1994 F250 to get those much larger, heavier pickup trucks out of the mud. So I spoke to Jim Cummings, who's the owner of Redneck Rescue, and he said that on every call you have to get creative.”

Redneck Rescue has “yet to be unsuccessful” with any of its calls, Cummings tells Cowboy State Daily. He chalks a lot of that up to being over-prepared with the right equipment but anticipates the inevitable call that won’t go according to plan.

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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 7 28 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Tuesday, July 28, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Tuesday's headlines include:
* Retiree Medical Benefits Cancelled
* Brand Inspector Fired For Moose Torture
* Former Candidate Says Gray, Friess Unimpressive

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Dave Simpson

Opinion

CSD Columnists

By far the best campaign flier of the season arrived in my mailbox this week.

[{"type":"text","text":"It made me laugh out loud."}]

I wrote last week about the blizzard of campaign fliers I've received, almost 30 of them so far, featuring plenty of cowboy hats, pictures of candidates cheek-by-jowl with President Donald Trump, and vow after vow to fight like the devil for us if we'll only send them to Congress.

Then this week a flier landed in my mail from Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who now wants to move up to the U.S. House of Representatives, to claim the seat currently occupied by Rep. Harriet Hageman, who is running for the U.S. Senate.

The ad pictures a middle-aged guy weighing, oh, I'd say about 250

pounds, with lots of body hair, dressed in frilly women's soccer shorts, knee socks and a top that isn't covering nearly enough of his gut, with his foot on a soccer ball and a bewildered look on his face.

Behind this guy are three young female soccer players, arms folded or hands on hips, looking at him with expressions ranging from confusion to disgust.

[{"type":"text","text":"“WOKE LIBERALS Put MEN in Girls Sports,” proclaims the flier."}]

Flip it over and there's a picture of Gray standing behind Trump, with the president extending his fist, and it says “Chuck Gray stands with President Trump to keep men out of girls sports.” It explains that Gray co-sponsored the Fairness in Women's Sports Act, defended college athletes, and “took on Biden” when the former president “tried to gut Title 9 forcing biological men into girls sports.”

A happy female soccer player joins Chuck and the president on this side of the flier, which ends with the words “Chuck For Congress.”

As you know, this comes in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month which green lights

laws in over half the states, including Wyoming, which bar boys from playing girls sports.

You may also have noticed the amazing conversion of Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon on the subject of boys playing girls sports.

On March 17, 2023, Gordon called Senate File 133, passed by the Wyoming Legislature, banning boys from playing girls sports, “overly draconian, is discriminatory without attention to individual circumstances or mitigating factors and pays little attention to the fundamental principles of equality.”

“It sends a harmful message that these individuals and their families do not deserve the same opportunities as others.”

Gordon let the bill become law without his signature, further displaying his displeasure.

 of this year, Gordon added his name to a Republican Governor's Association statement urging the Supreme Court to “protect women's sports.”

And following the June Supreme Court ruling upholding two state bans on boys playing girls sports, Gordon threw off his previous reservations and said, “I welcome today's U.S. Supreme Court ruling which upholds state legislation mandating that student athletes participate on sports teams aligned with their biological sex at birth, as opposed to their gender identity. I believe as a father of girls who competed in high school sports that sports brings real value to young women's lives and they deserve to be protected in that space. This decision does just that.”

Well, better late than never, I guess. Apparently that draconian stuff is now in the past. Maybe the governor wishes his signature was on that law now.

An excellent story by Cowboy State Daily's Clair McFarland reminded us that Sen. Wendy Schuler's effort to address boys playing girls sports began in 2022, when her bill passed easily in the Wyoming Senate, only to die in the Wyoming House. She brought it back the next year, and with backing from the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, it passed in the House and Senate.

Schuler is not a member of the Freedom Caucus, but the group – which now presides the House – supported the legislation.

In a statement following the Supreme Court ruling, the Freedom Caucus said, “The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is proud to have stood up for biological reality even in the face of defeat.”

So, as the primary election nears, and we hear plenty of anti-Freedom Caucus opinions from Weak Sauce Republicans who often vote like Democrats, and who want to recapture leadership of the House, let's all remember that the Freedom Caucus and Chuck Gray were right all along in opposing boys playing girls sports. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Their support helped push Schuler's bill over the top."}]

And, in the end, even the governor decided it wasn't so draconian after all.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wonders never cease."}]

Dave simpson head 10 3 22

<title>Dave Simpson: Chuck Gray Has The Best Campaign Flier Of The Season | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Columnist Dave Simpson writes, “Let's all remember that the Freedom Caucus and Chuck Gray were right all along in opposing boys playing girls sports. Their support helped push Sen. Wendy Schuler's bill over the top.”

Dave Simpson: Chuck Gray Has The Best Campaign Flier Of The Season

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

In the roughly three hours after news broke Monday that a Uinta County brand inspector 

to helping people torture a moose, the brand inspector was fired, a public official says.

Also, Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon condemned the act by Justin Martin, who pleaded guilty June 17 to one count of accessory before the act to felony animal cruelty.

Martin has not been sentenced and he reserves the right to appeal how law enforcement pulled evidence from his phone. Court documents say Martin was featured in a cellphone video encouraging Kylan Platt, as the latter aggressively spurred a female moose in ill health at a Uinta County ranch.

“This is absolutely irresponsible behavior unbefitting a brand inspector,” said Gordon in a Monday afternoon statement to Cowboy State Daily. “I hold brand inspectors to a very high standard. Mr. Martin is no longer an employee of the state of Wyoming.”

Wyoming Livestock Board Director Steve True had confirmed to Cowboy State Daily at about 1:44 p.m. Monday that Martin remained a brand inspector.

Gordon’s statement that he is no longer employed by the state came at about 4:05 p.m.

Pressed for more particulars on who terminated Martin and when, Gordon’s spokeswoman Amy Edmonds referred Cowboy State Daily back to True.

[{"type":"text","text":"True said that he terminated Martin within that more-than-two-hour span."}]

“In that meantime, I have terminated him,” True said, adding that it was his own decision, and that Gordon did not influence that decision.

[{"type":"text","text":"“(It was) my determination,” said True."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"True declined to elaborate further on the personnel matter."}]

Cowboy State Daily reached out to Martin for comment via his attorney Joe Hampton, and will update this story should he comment on the termination.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"About The Case"}]

The case began after Wyoming Game and Fish Department investigators seized Martin's cellphone during an unrelated investigation in 2022. While searching, investigators discovered videos and screenshots that ultimately launched the moose abuse case. 

After getting an additional search warrant specific to the wildlife investigation, officers recovered four videos tied to the May 2021 incidents, court documents say.

 the videos showed a cow moose that appeared emaciated, elderly or sick. She told the court one eye appeared sunken, suggesting the animal might have been blind. 

One video showed Kylan Platt climbing onto the moose's back and digging his spurs into the animal aggressively while smiling.

"He doesn't seem to have an issue in participating in this activity at all," Sterling said, comparing the scene to someone breaking a horse to ride. 

Investigators said ropes were placed around both the moose's neck and one of its hind legs.

Prosecutors said Martin can be heard on the video saying, "Spur that son of a bitch" as he laughed and encouraged Platt.

Sterling testified investigators found Martin had sent the video to more than 20 phone numbers. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Done For The Sheer Joy' "}]

Another video, prosecutors said, showed Range Martin on horseback dragging the cow moose by a lariat through chest-high sagebrush until it fell while struggling to regain its footing. 

Evanston Circuit Court Judge Michael Greer ruled at the preliminary hearing that prosecutors had presented enough evidence for a jury to decide whether the men intended to torture or torment the animal.

"When I look at the context of what appears in the screenshots of the videos and the comments made by onlookers and the photographer there at the time, this was done for the sheer joy of dominating a wild animal who appeared to be already in poor health and possibly blind," Greer said in binding the case over to district court.

, Range Martin and Platt each accepted plea agreements, pleading guilty to felony cruelty to animals. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed wildlife misdemeanor charges.

As part of those agreements, both men acknowledged Justin Martin was the person filming the videos and making statements heard on the recordings. 

Their plea agreements recommend deferred felony sentences, three years of supervised probation, a $1,000 fine and a prohibition on hunting, trapping and fishing while on probation, although Judge Kaste will make the final decision at sentencing.

Justin Martin was the lone defendant preparing for trial until filing his conditional guilty plea.

His plea means every defendant charged in the case has now admitted guilt to at least one offense, avoiding what was expected to be a four-day jury trial next month.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Conditional Plea "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Hampton said the guilty plea does not end the legal fight."}]

Instead, it preserves a single constitutional issue for appeal: whether Game and Fish investigators exceeded the scope of a search warrant when they discovered the cellphone videos.

Hampton said investigators obtained Martin's phone during an unrelated investigation under a warrant authorizing a search of data created between September 2021 and June 2022. 

Because the alleged moose abuse happened in May 2021, he argues investigators should not have been reviewing material outside the warrant's authorized date range.

"If we're successful in the appeal, then the case would be dismissed, and the conviction would be reversed," Hampton said. "If we're not successful, then the conviction sticks."

Hampton said Martin accepts responsibility for the accessory charge and regrets how the incident unfolded.

"They were just trying to get the moose off their property," Hampton said, explaining ranchers wanted to move cattle into the pasture. "Martin agrees that he didn't do it in the right way and regrets that."

Hampton said Martin has changed how he handles similar situations in the nearly five years since the incident.

He also said the negotiated plea calls for two years of supervised probation and that he does not anticipate prison time, though he acknowledged the judge is free to impose any lawful sentence.

Judge James Kaste accepted Martin's guilty plea but reserved ruling on the parties' sentencing recommendation until the Oct. 2 hearing.

Gordon true moose 2 7 27 26

<title>State Livestock Director Fires Brand Inspector After Guilty Plea In Moose Torture Case | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Just hours after news broke Monday that a Uinta County brand inspector had pleaded guilty to helping torture a moose, the state livestock director fired him. “This is absolutely irresponsible behavior unbefitting a brand inspector,” Gov. Gordon said.

State Livestock Director Fires Brand Inspector After Guilty Plea In Moose Torture Case

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Around Wyoming

When a Jeep got stuck up to its axles in mud driving on the bottom of Palisades Reservoir on the Wyoming-Idaho border, a pair of trucks owned by family friends came to the rescue.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then they also got mired in muck up to their fenders."}]

That’s when Alpine’s Redneck Rescue responded to the call to somehow pull all three vehicles out of a multi-person rescue effort that had gone wrong twice already.

“The first vehicle, a Jeep, was driving across the lake bottom, noticed that it was getting soft, went to turn, and got buried,” 

 Nick Cummings said about the call he got about two weeks ago.

Once they realized their vehicle was stuck, the occupants called some family friends to help them out, he said. As their Chevy was on its way to rescue them, it also got stuck in the muddy bottom. Then came a black Ford F-150, which also became mired in the muck.

That’s when they called Redneck Rescue, which “goes to a lot of places the tow trucks don't want to go,” Cummings said.

With remote-controlled winches, a custom-built winch foot, and hundreds of feet of tow straps, Redneck Rescue is equipped to handle situations other tow trucks can't.

“This is a normal situation for us,” Cummings said. “Getting cars out of the mud is a pretty popular call in the summertime.”

Cummings was alerted to the incident by Palisades Towing, another local company that often sends more difficult calls to Redneck Rescue. The company frequently gets recommendations from local agencies when they know there’s a vehicle in a tough spot, he said.

Unlike the stranded drivers, Cummings knew exactly what they were getting into at Palisades Reservoir. It’s a notoriously muddy spot.

“We call it sand on peanut butter,” he said. “Once you break through that sand, you end up in the peanut butter, and you get stuck.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Anchoring And Angling"}]

Once Redneck Rescue reached the three stuck vehicles, Cummings “had to get creative.”

“That's one of the fun parts about this job,” he said. “We don't do any on-road stuff, so each call is its own challenge.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The first was deciding where to anchor and angle."}]

“When you get into situations in the mountains where you're trying to pull something from an angle where you can't park your vehicle to wench from, (the equipment) makes all the difference.”

Cummings parked his F-250 over 500 feet away from the Jeep. The Chevy was used as the anchor to get the Jeep out.

The Jeep was the easiest and didn’t have to drive far to find solid ground. Then, the attention turned to the Chevy and the F-150.

“That Chevy was stuck pretty good,” Cummings said. “Once we got the Jeep out, I went ahead and laid out 360 feet of Rhino straps to my vehicle, winched out the Chevy, and then pulled the F-150 out.”

With high-quality tools and creativity, all three vehicles were pulled out of the peanut butter of Palisades Reservoir in less than two hours, Cummings said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Getting Creative"}]

Cummings knew getting his truck anywhere close to the stranded vehicles would result in another stuck truck. That’s why he came prepared.

“I've got the 30-foot-long, four-inch strap from Rhino USA,” he said. “Those are rated for around 30,000 pounds, and their soft shackles are rated for 44,000 pounds. I like to overdo my equipment versus the load.”

Cummings also has remote-controlled winches that make it safer to operate. Instead of being mounted to a vehicle, they’re receiver hitches attached to a clevis with an adapter, so they’re mobile and, in many situations, more useful because of it.

“Instead of having to put my winch into a receiver hitch, I can actually just hook it to rigging like a strap, a tree, or another vehicle that's stuck, and then use jumper cables that will power that winch off of any vehicle.”

But “the key to (Cumming’s) success” is the custom-built winch foot. On the front of his 1994 Ford F-250 “Miranda.”

“I built it to go in my plow mount,” he said. “That’s the anchor that transfers all the energy to the ground, as opposed to my vehicle. I can pull one-ton dually diesels that are out in the mud with my F-250, as long as I'm on solid ground.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Inevitably Unsuccessful "}]

Cummings noted that this wasn’t the first time he’d saved one of these vehicles.

“The black F-150 was a previous customer from last fall over in Bondurant,” he said. “I had to wench myself out of that situation for the first time ever because it was on a steep, snowy hill.”

Redneck Rescue has “yet to be unsuccessful” with any of its calls, Cummings said. He chalks a lot of that up to being over-prepared with the right equipment but anticipates the inevitable call that won’t go according to plan.

“I'm sure it'll happen one day, but it has yet to happen,” he said. “I would rather take a little bit of extra time and do extra rigging to make sure things don't go south.”

Every Redneck rescue is a learning experience that can be carried forward for future calls, Cummings added.

“Through these experiences, and getting to know different locations, you can really set yourself up for success,” he said. “Even if I'm not the answer, I like to have an answer for somebody because I want to help others out.”

Ultimately, Cummings wants Redneck Rescue to be the best call for people stuck in the mud in and around Alpine. It’s not only about being good at what you do, but respecting everyone and everything involved.

“We do pride ourselves on not damaging equipment and vehicles,” he said. “We rescue snowmobilers in the backcountry and off-road vehicles stuck in the mud, and we’re all about helping others (while) trying to keep it affordable. We treat your stuff like it was our own.”

Trucks in mud 7 27 26

<title>Wrecker Pulls 3 Trucks Stuck To Their Axles In Mud From Hundreds Of Feet Away | Cowboy State Daily</title>

How do you get vehicles stuck up to their axles in mud on the bottom of a lake bed? You call a tow company that has remote-controlled winches, a custom-built winch foot, and hundreds of feet of tow straps. “This is a normal situation for us,” the owner said.

Wrecker Pulls 3 Trucks Stuck To Their Axles In Mud From Hundreds Of Feet Away

Politics

Teton County-based attorney Frank Chapman left his truncated U.S. House run with a few distinct impressions. 

Among those are: Chuck Gray leads the race with support from Freedom Caucus-aligned voters, money isn’t everything, Gray and two others have unimpressive or unknown career backgrounds, and Kevin Christensen is an impressive person.

That’s according to a Monday interview on Cowboy State Daily’s Morning Show with Jake, where Chapman delivered his views from the four months he spent studying the race closely as a candidate.  

Those nine are: State Senate President Bo Biteman, philanthropist Steve Friess, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Casper businessman Reid Rasner, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, combat veteran Kevin Christensen, veteran and congressional aide David Giralt, former legislator Keith Goodenough and singer Richard Dodson.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Haven't Achieved Anything\""}]

Chapman declined again Monday to endorse anyone. He cast the career backgrounds of Gray, Friess and Rasner as either unimpressive or unknown, but said he doesn’t dislike anyone in the race.

“We’re being given choices of people that haven’t really achieved anything in life,” said Chapman. “There's other people that I respect in the race that have careers that have really interesting and hard lives – and they’re being drowned out too.”

He later elaborated, pointing to the three top spenders in the race currently.

“You’ve got Chuck, whose, you know, father has money, and Chuck’s never had a career outside of politics,” said Chapman, clarifying that Gray had worked for his dad’s radio station.

Gray was first elected to the Legislature in 2016 and became secretary of state in 2023.

Then, added Chapman, there’s “Steve Friess who to my knowledge has never had a career anywhere. And says he’s a businessman but is really just the secretary of the family philanthropic entity.”

Friess has said that he worked with attorneys in a thinktank ahead of President Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration to prepare proposed executive orders for the president in advance. Friess and his wife co-founded the Jackson Hole Classical Academy in 2014. 

As for Rasner, Chapman asserted, “Nobody knows what Reid does. I mean Reid’s a nice guy, don’t get me wrong. I’ve met Reid and he’s very polite and nice." 

Rasner, an investment advisor, registered Omnivest LLC as a Wyoming business in 2022. Omnivest’s June 15 application for investment advisor registration says the company provides financial planning services and portfolio management, has less than $1 billion in assets and one employee.

[{"type":"text","text":"Rasner signed the application."}]

Chapman cast himself as a pragmatist and self-made businessman, and said of those three candidates, “I don’t think the decision making matrix in those situations is the same as mine would be.”

Before he left the race Chapman ranked among the 

. He, Rasner, Gray, and Friess each have loaned themselves at least $1 million in their races.

The other six candidates had war chests worth less than $200,000 each as of July 1.

[{"type":"text","text":"But, said Chapman, “Money only goes so far.”"}]

In reflecting on Wyoming's U.S. house race, departed candidate Frank Chapman on Monday said both Chuck Gray and Steve Friess haven't had significant careers. “We’re being given choices of people that haven’t really achieved anything in life,” Chapman said.

Daily Smile: Saturday, June 15, 2024

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