CHEYENNE — Accused by his Republican challenger for Wyoming House District 9 of political “flip-flopping,” state Rep. Landon Brown clapped back he’d rather focus on issues than taking pot shots at people.
That was one of the takeaways from a Wednesday evening Politics in the Park at Lions Park in Cheyenne when Exie Brown threw numerous jabs at Landon Brown, who refused to jab back — at least directly.
“I will not run a campaign that is negative against my opponent,” Landon Brown said. “You will always hear, ‘Why me?’ Not, ‘Why not my opponent?’"
The most mud was slung toward the end of the forum, when Exie Brown accused his opponent of “flip-flopping” on votes, comparing him to 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. During that race, former President George W. Bush frequently accused Kerry of flip-flopping on issues.
Exie Brown threw this dig when mentioning how his opponent voted against a bill prohibiting transgender females from participating in female-designated youth sports in 2022, but then voted to support it in 2023.
“That kind of flip-flop would make John Kerry blush,” Exie Brown said, also questioning whether Landon Brown truly opposes this participation.
Prior to the Kerry reference, Landon Brown had just finished explaining why he doesn’t support transgender females from participating in girls’ youth sports.
When speaking to Cowboy State Daily after the forum, Landon Brown stood behind switching his vote on this issue. The 2022 bill applied to all ages of athletics in Wyoming, including the college level, while the 2023 bill that passed covered grades 7-12.
“If it’s built better it’s easier to vote for,” Landon Brown said. “Original pieces of legislation, when they make it to a final vote and they’re not worth voting for, but they work on it the following year and make it a bill that’s worth it, and it fits the Wyoming model, then yeah, I’ll vote for it.”
Judgment
Exie Brown also accused the incumbent of having poor judgment, mentioning how Landon Brown supported letting Afghan refugees come to Wyoming, rejected a call for a special session this spring and has got into various back-and-forth spats with members of the public on social media.
“We need somebody that’s going to have the judgment and the temperament to be able to legislate effectively and efficiently and represent the people,” Exie Brown said.”Too many times, our legislators on the progressive left are more worried about their special interests.”
Landon Brown then remarked that he had heard the term “progressive left of the Republican Party” about six times throughout the evening. In fact, “progressive left" was only uttered twice, once in the context of the Republican Party.
"I guess if that’s where I land, that’s where I land,” Landon Brown said. “One thing about me is you know where I stand on every single thing that I have done.”
He also admitted to making some mistakes in the past during the forum.
If reelected to a fifth term, he made a commitment to every member of his district, Republicans and Democrats, to represent them. There are no Democrats running in HD 9 so the winner of the Republican primary is nearly guaranteed to represent the district.
“It is not just a Republican voice that gets carried on to that House floor,” he said. “I represent 9,600 people. Those 9,600 people are the ‘We The People’ as well, just like it is everywhere else across the state.”
Public Health Emergencies
Exie Brown referred to COVID-19 vaccinations as “experimental drugs” and said he would support legislation preventing public officials like the governor from enforcing vaccine mandates and emergency lockdowns.
“We in the government do not control the people’s ability to make good judgment on their own personal health,” he said. “That is our call as citizens. We determine what is good for our own personal health and the health of our children, not legislators, not the government, not governors and definitely not the president.”
Landon Brown said although he doesn’t personally support mandatory vaccine requirements, he also doesn’t support bills like these because he believes they come with unintended consequences, such as infringing on the rights of private business owners.
“If an employee doesn’t want to take the vaccine and that means they don’t get a job, there is no constitutional right to a job in this country,” he said. “You do not have the right protected by the Constitution to have a job just because you choose not to get a vaccine."
Property Taxes
The two Browns also greatly differ on the topic of property taxes.
Landon Brown wants the Legislature to delay making any further changes on property taxes until the results of the tax changes made during the 2024 session can be studied.
During the session, legislators put a 4% cap on future tax increases, expanded the state’s rebate program and created a 50% tax exemption for long-time Wyoming homeowners.
Philosophically, the two also disagree on whether the current level of funding for Wyoming’s $11.1 billion biennial budget is deserved.
Landon Brown believes it is and warned that the state needs to insulate itself for economic downturns with this tax revenue. He said it’s much easier said than done to make cuts to the budget, also mentioning the roughly $600 million shortfall the Wyoming Department of Transportation is facing.
“It is not as easy as it sounds to sit there and go line by line and find out which neighbor you want to affect,” he said. “It takes a measured approach."
Exie Brown disagreed and argued that a state with fewer than 600,000 people like Wyoming shouldn’t have a budget as large as it does. He supports a 10-year deescalation plan that involves putting 10% of the state’s surplus in an interest-bearing savings account each year that he believes could eventually lead to the elimination of all property taxes in Wyoming.
“One thing that the progressive left of the Republican Party will tell you is that if we lower taxes, get rid of taxes, we’re going to lose our school funding, we’re going to lose our roads, we’re going to lose our public services, which is not true,” he said. “It is fear mongering."
Exie Brown mentioned how some legislators like his opponent and Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, have discussed the possibility of increasing the state’s sales tax in lieu of eliminating most property taxes, he would not support that because he believes it would actually increase the overall tax burden on residents.
"With grocery prices astronomically high, it is hard for our lower- and middle-income families to make ends meet,” Exie Brown told Cowboy State Daily in an email. "This will hit struggling families and put additional tax burden on them and make it harder to feed their families.”
Recalls And Roll Calls
The Browns were also asked about their stance on roll call votes for every vote in the Legislature, a process when every vote is documented rather than called out by voice with the rest of the group.
Some criticized members of the farther right Wyoming Freedom Caucus for “weaponizing” the calling of these roll calls during this year’s session, often calling for roll calls on standalone amendments on highly controversial bills.
Landon Brown said although he’s never opposed to roll calls, he believes they can become undeservedly time-consuming during Wyoming’s relatively short sessions.
“That’s not an effective time of governance,” he said. “In my opinion, that’s a lot of wasted time and a lot of that’s superfluous.”
Exie Brown disagreed and said he supports roll calls on every vote for better transparency.
Both candidates said they would support instituting recall elections for all public officials in Wyoming.
House District 11 Republican candidate Seth Ulvestad also participated in the forum, sharing a similar view to Landon Brown on most topics. Neither of the Browns criticized his stances, and his Republican opponent, Jacob Wasserburger, did not attend the event.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
