Don't look now, but it appears that opponents of the Freedom Caucus have gone to the full-court press.
And they're getting kind of hysterical.
Don't get me wrong. Just because the state participates in some crazy China friendship association doesn't make Albert Sommers a Chinese spy. And I'm appalled that a flier attacking Rep. Bob Nicholas confused a vote some guy cast in Texas with his votes here in Wyoming. (More on that below.)
That said, as a couple living near Cheyenne, having gotten back to Wyoming as fast as possible to retire, some of the commentary over a potential conservative shift in the Wyoming Legislature strikes us as end-of-the-world stuff.
About half of the Republicans dislike the other half much more than they dislike that rarest of birds, the Wyoming Democrat. (Wyoming Democrats are like Big Foot. You hear about them, but actual sightings are rare.)
For the farther-left Republicans in the Wyoming House, their feelings about the farther-right Republicans of the Freedom Caucus border on, well, hate. The Freedom Caucus makes the farther-left Republicans look bad over spending, and on issues many voters support. (Boys playing girls sports, gender surgery, frisky books in the kids' section of libraries, gun-free zones, etc.)
Meanwhile, we're seeing Wyoming Democrats who want to get elected changing their political affiliation to Republican, because being a Wyoming Democrat is box-office poison. One Republican candidate in Laramie County was a Democrat just last February. A friend in Sweetwater County tells me the same thing is happening there. And when Democrats start converting to Republican in Rock Springs, well, expect pigs to sprout wings and fly any minute now.
My prediction: If elected, these born-again Republicans will feel right at home in the farther-left wing of the Wyoming Republicans.
Also under the heading of abrupt about-faces, Rep. Landon Brown of Cheyenne – whose ads refer to him as Wyoming's “Gold Standard” - called Donald Trump “unfit for office” in 2022, and supported the re-election of Liz Cheney. But today he finds Trump's policies “to be very good,” and the guy who was unfit for office two years ago is now a “far better choice” than Kamala Harris.
In the immortal words of Gomer Pyle, “Shazam!”
That “unfit for office” stuff is “old news,” flexible Rep. Brown says today, and he's fallen out of love with Liz Cheney, who is now openly donating to Democrats.
But Brown remains a farther-left Republican. Check his voting record.
The situation as the August 20 primary election nears has gotten so raw that some of my fellow columnists have used words like “liars,” “snake oil salesmen,” and “MAGA patsies” to describe those rocking the political boat in Wyoming.
I guess we're not living in the right neighborhood, but no young people advocating the legalization of drugs have shown up at our door, supposedly working in strange concert with the Freedom Caucus, as claimed elsewhere. And the only attack-type flier we've received was about one of those Zwonitzers, who we wouldn't vote for even if we lived in his district. (Too farther-left.)
(The Zwonitzers are everywhere down here, with two in the legislature and one running for county commission, leading one wag to post on Facebook, “No More Zwonitzers!”)
Seems to me that all this is underestimating the common-sense ability of Wyoming voters to sniff out bull – from either side - and not step in it.
As to the attack on Rep. Bob Nicholas, I thought he handled it effectively, explaining his votes to a good reporter, and putting the lie to an attack. He voted against one of two gender-change prohibition bills, because it was less comprehensive than a second bill that banned both drug treatments and surgeries, a bill he supported. And confusing him in a flier with someone who voted in Texas is inexcusable.
I don't know what's going to happen on August 20th. Maybe the old timers will reject the Freedom Caucus heretics. Or - my preference - maybe the Freedom Caucus will gain enough seats to take over leadership, and we'll get some much-needed populism.
Plenty of opinions are flying around, as tends to happen in elections. But it strikes me as desperation to pin all this anger on the Freedom Caucus.
