Senate President Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, filed an election complaint against his own county Republican Party on Monday challenging a large donation it made.
Driskill has made a formal complaint with the Secretary of State’s office over a $25,000 donation the Crook County Republican Party made to the Wyoming Freedom political action committee, the campaign arm of the farther right group of Republican state legislators known as the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Driskill also is asking the complaint be immediately forwarded to Attorney General Bridget Hill because he believes Secretary of State Chuck Gray has “an inherent conflict” of interest on the issue.
This is reference to Gray’s chief general counsel Joe Rubino. Rubino is married to Jessie Rubino, Wyoming state director of the Freedom Caucus. As chief general counsel, Joe Rubino is in charge of reviewing all complaints made to the Secretary of State’s Office.
In his complaint, Driskill said when he brought the issue up with Gray in-person, Gray “shrugged it off” and said there was little he could likely do about it, suggesting Driskill contact his own county attorney.
“I think it is imperative that all complaints be followed up on (in) an unbiased manner,” Driskill writes in his complaint. “I am yet to see a referral to the authorities under the current secretary of state.”
Driskill told Cowboy State he has little hope that Gray will hand off the complaint.
“I doubt it,” he said. “They haven’t shown any signs of acknowledging conflict on anything they’ve done. It’s a clear conflict.”
Gray, however, told Cowboy State Daily he considers all complaints “very seriously” and said Driskill’s allegations to the contrary are “false and defamatory,” as he invited Driskill to file a complaint last Thursday and sent him the form to do so.
He plans to accept Driskill’s request to hand off the complaint to the Attorney General’s Office.
“Due to the false, inappropriate allegations Senator Driskill has made toward me, to avoid the appearance of any impropriety, our office is forwarding the complaint over to the attorney general to remove our office from its evaluation,” he said.
The Issue
In his complaint, Driskill references W.S. 22-25-104 of the Wyoming Statutes, which states that political parties in Wyoming can’t give money to candidates for the primary election.
The law states that no political party money shall be spent directly or indirectly in the aid of the nomination of any one person as against another person of the same political party running in the primary election.
When speaking to Cowboy State Daily about the issue late last month, Driskill called the county party’s actions “deplorable.”
“The statute is very clear on its intent,” Driskill writes in his complaint. “Whether giving directly to a candidate or to a PAC, whose stated goal is to pit Republicans against Republicans, it is clear that the donation goes against the statute.”
Sherri Davis, Crook County GOP committeewoman, told Cowboy State Daily late last month that her county party received legal advice before making its donation and that it doesn’t view the Freedom PAC as a candidate.
The PAC has endorsed a slate of candidates in the 2024 election.
Although the law states that a political party can’t give money to “any one person as against another person,” Driskill still asserts the donation was a “clear violation,” as the Freedom PAC has been specifically endorsing candidates in contested Republican primary races.
“I think it’s a clear-cut case,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “The law considers a corporation a person.”
Changing Landscape
In the past, even just a verbal endorsement of a candidate in the primary election in Wyoming was more frowned upon than it is now. But the state Republican Party is different from the past, with a clear divide among those considered more traditional and the farther right, more populist wing of the party.
A handful of legislators, including Driskill, verbally endorsed Sen. Jim Anderson, R-Casper, earlier this summer, drawing criticism from some for doing so.
But Driskill believes giving money is a whole other issue of legality.
During the 2022 general election season, the Crook County GOP gave $27,000 to candidates around the state for their general election campaigns, yet gave no money or endorsement to Driskill despite running in a contested campaign, an act that drew his irritation.
“That was pretty offensive to me,” Driskill said. “They’re putting their finger on races in other counties. If I lived there, I would be pretty offended.”
Driskill also submitted his complaint to Crook County Attorney Joe Barron and his county clerk to consider.
In his complaint, he also submitted a public records request for all complaints filed with Gray’s office over the last two years and all communications made between the office concerning the Freedom Caucus, Freedom PAC any other entity with the name Freedom Caucus and Crook County GOP for the last three years.
“I appreciate your efforts to keep elections and parties free and fair with no bias,” he said in the complaint.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
