Update: As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Rocky Case told Cowboy State Daily he decided to withdraw his petition.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray’s office is scrutinizing a last-minute Independent campaign for the Wyoming House of Representatives, and it’s not looking likely it will be accepted.
Cheyenne resident Rocky Case submitted his final petition to run for House District 43 as an Independent around 4:40 p.m. on Monday, about 25 minutes before the final deadline. If his petition is accepted, Case will face Republican Ann Lucas in the general election, who knocked off 10-term incumbent state Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, in the primary.
Lucas has been endorsed by the farther right Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Case submitted 68 signatures on his petition to run 10 minutes after Gray’s office had given the go-ahead for the petition. Because signatures have to be collected after a petition effort is approved by the Secretary of State’s Office, Gray questions whether Case really collected all of his signatures in those 10 minutes.
Based on the formula for filing Independent campaigns, Case well exceeded the 47 signatures he needed, if they’re deemed valid.
Case said Gray initially rejected the petition, arguing that since he had just approved the signatures, he didn’t believe Case could've collected all of them in that short amount of time.
When Gray’s legal counsel Joe Rubino started getting involved in the conversation, Case said he became uneasy and ended the conversation and didn’t feel comfortable continuing to chat about the matter without his own legal representation.
Under the law for the filing of Independent campaigns, a candidate is supposed to receive acceptance from the Secretary of State’s Office for a campaign before starting to collect signatures. There was no timestamp included on Case’s signatures, something that’s not required under the law, and Case said he does not know the exact time they were collected.
Case, a lifelong registered Republican, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday night that the Secretary of State’s Office should follow the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law and accept his petition.
“Frankly, it would be a disgrace for my name not to be on the ballot because clearly I have a lot of support to be on the ballot,” he said. “To miss something like this because of microcosms of interpretation of law rather than the intent of the law would be a travesty of the election process.”
Gray told Cowboy State Daily he hasn’t officially rejected Case’s petition yet, but did refer to prior historical precedence and the way the law is written.
“We are currently reviewing the status of this filing with the Attorney General’s Office to ensure correct and uniform application of the law, because candidates have long followed this statute,” Gray said.
He also referenced a rejection the Secretary of State’s Office made of another Independent campaign in 2022 that had submitted signatures before an initial petition was approved. This situation was a little different from Case’s however, as that rejection happened in June of that election year, allowing the candidate around two months to recollect signatures.
"We explained to Mr. Case that we follow the law and there are laws that must be followed,” Gray said.
When reached again on Tuesday morning, Case said he is considering withdrawing his petition out of concern for legal liability.
“Some folks I’ve spoken to say I could be at potential risk,” he said. “I do not want personal liability for this.”
What Happened?
After Zwonitzer lost his primary election, whose campaign Case supported, people started reaching out to him to file an Independent campaign.
Case said he believes no Freedom Caucus-supported candidate should be running unopposed in the general election and that the group does not represent traditional Republicanism.
“It would be a travesty to have a self-declared Freedom Caucus member running unopposed in any district in the state of Wyoming,” Case said.
By the end of the weekend, Case had decided to run.
“I said, ‘If you guys can collect the signatures, let’s make it rip,’” Case said.
Wyoming law states that Independent campaigns must be filed no less than 70 days prior to the general election. It was Gray’s interpretation of the law that the end of day Monday was the deadline for filing a petition. A similar interpretation was made in 2022 under former Secretary of State Ed Buchanan.
Case first submitted his petition at noon Monday, to which he was told there was an error. At 1:48 p.m., Case resubmitted the petition.
Despite it being the last day for submitting petitions, the Secretary of State’s Office didn’t respond to Case for more than two hours to tell him there was still a minor error on his petition. Case fixed the error and submitted his new petition three minutes later at 4:06 p.m.
It then took the elections office 21 more minutes to finally accept Case’s petition at 4:27 p.m., leaving him 33 minutes to collect all of his necessary signatures. He turned in the signatures 10 minutes later.
What Does It Mean?
Case, the director of Manufacturing Works and a former Cheyenne City Council member, said if elected, he plans to work in a bipartisan manner to bring good policy to Wyoming.
“I want to win, I want my name to be on the ballot,” Case said.
If Case’s petition is accepted, he will be one of at least two Independent candidates running in the general election, as Casper resident Tyler Cessor is running for House District 57 against Republican primary winner Julie Jarvis. Cheyenne resident Tim Forbis also submitted a petition and signatures for House District 10 in Cheyenne, which is being reviewed.
If his petition ends up being rejected, Case said he will consider challenging the decision.
“If my name is not on the ballot I’m pretty sure there’s going to be some contemplation about the matter,” Case said.
Case said if Attorney General Bridget Hill ends up making a decision on the matter, Case believes he has a 50% chance of being accepted. If it’s Gray’s office, Case feels less confident.
“If the interpretation of what went down today (Monday) winds up in Secretary Gray’s (office), then no, I’m sunk,” he said. “If it goes to the levels it should go to, my name might be on the ballot.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
