Leadership elections for members of the 68th Legislature haven’t happened yet, but a few state legislators have already started lobbying their fellow lawmakers for support for their next round of elections — for leadership posts.
State Rep. Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, is running for Speaker of the House and if elected, will be in charge of selecting members of all the House committees. Neiman is expected to be elected to this role as no one is running against him.
If the Senate leadership elections don’t go the way that Neiman and other members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus would like, he told Cowboy State Daily he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of leaving Democrats completely off critical committees like Appropriations, Education or Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions in order to maintain the strength of conservative votes on those panels.
“Maybe,” Neiman said. “It’s going to depend on the dynamics of the Senate by and large. It’s not all of the determining factor but it is definitely something I have to consider.”
Neiman also clarified that he will still respect House Rule 2-3 of the Legislature that says members should be appointed to committees based on the membership makeup of the body. He said he would still appoint Democrats to other committees with less significance.
Historical Precedent
Keeping Democrats off certain committees isn’t a totally unheard of practice in the Legislature due to the Republican party’s super majority and the small minority of Democratic legislators. There are currently no Democrats on either side of the Joint Agriculture and Transportation committees, the House side of the Minerals Committee, or the Senate side of Labor, Health and Social Services. Getting Democrats in seats on Senate committees is a particular challenge as there’s only two members in the Senate.
But over in the House, Democrats gained one seat for the upcoming session, upping their membership from five to six, and by percentage from 8% to 9%.
Appropriations has seven members from each house, while every other committee has nine members, making it, at least based on ratios and political representation, reasonable that Democrats might get left off a few committees.
But to leave them off Appropriations, one of the most perennial committees of the Legislature because of its role in creating the budget each year, would be a notable move. Since at least 2001, the farthest back the Legislature’s digital records of committee memberships track, a Democrat has never been left off this committee.
Outgoing House Speaker Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, said he worked to get at least one Democrat on at least one committee when making his selections in late 2022 but said he won’t question Neiman before he’s made his choices.
House Minority Floor Leader Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, said he didn’t want to speculate about any potential committee assignments before they occur either, but doesn't believe keeping a Democrat off a committee would help in passing more conservative legislation.
“I get where Chip is coming from but I don’t think it will help them to keep people off committees,” Yin said.
Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, said Democratic state legislators bring an important voice to discussions, even if they are greatly outnumbered by the other members.
“Democrats provide important value to the democratic process by providing dissent,” she said. “That way, our ideas are heard rather than the Freedom Caucus proposals being rubber stamped throughout the process.”
Provenza said she’s trusting House leadership to make the right choice with their selections.
Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, argued that leaving Democrats off Appropriations could actually be a blessing in disguise for the minority members as it would allow them to focus on committees where their voice may be more likely to get heard, rather than getting drowned out by the many more Freedom Caucus members on Appropriations.
“Put their voices on committees where they can actually do something,” Brown said.
Leadership Elections
The fate of the Senate elections will determine many of his House committee selections, Neiman said, and he plans on waiting until those elections and committee assignments for the Senate are made before he makes his final choices.
The Republican caucus will hold their leadership elections on Nov. 23 in Casper. These elections are private and conducted by secret vote.
Who will be selected Senate president is still very much a question that around a dozen lawmakers who Cowboy State Daily spoke with said there still isn’t an answer for. Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, has officially announced he’s running, and a number of sources have told Cowboy State Daily that Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, is also mounting a campaign. Multiple lawmakers have also said they don’t believe either candidate has enough votes yet to be elected Senate leader.
The way caucus elections work in Wyoming is similar to leadership elections in U.S. Congress, where votes are taken by plurality, meaning a candidate must receive a majority of the total votes in order to be selected. This means that votes will take place, not unlike the highly contentious leadership elections in the U.S. House last year, until a winner can finally be declared.
Over in the Wyoming State House, there’s a bit less drama at stake for leadership elections, but still some.
Both Reps. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, and Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, are running for the House Speaker Pro Tempore position. Although technically the No. 3 position in the House and more ceremonial on a day-to-day basis, the Pro Tempore becomes the next Speaker of the House in the event that the person holding that role cannot serve.
“I am confident that I have the background, experience, and skills necessary to fulfill this role,” Haroldson wrote in an email to fellow lawmakers last week. “My heart is to be able to help support our leadership, staff, and fellow legislators. I commit to you that I will serve each of you honorably and help in any way that I can.”
Haroldson and Rodriguez-Williams, the new chairman of the Freedom Caucus, are very similar politically and came into the Legislature in the same year in 2021.
Haroldson said it had been known among legislators for some time that he was running for Pro Tempore and he was surprised to learn his counterpart had recently thrown her name in the ring.
Rodriguez-Williams said her experience and qualifications would make her a great fit for Speaker Tempore during a time she sees as “an incredible opportunity for Republicans to meet the needs of the people.” If elected, she would become the first woman in a leadership position in the Legislature since 2016.
“Furthermore, my experience, education, and skill sets would carry out the duties of this important role with integrity,” she said.
There is little chance these two Republicans would split the vote and allow a third, more moderate Republican candidate to get elected, as the top two vote-getters are still considered in a final vote if more than two people run. As a result of this year’s election, the Freedom Caucus took over the majority of seats in the House.
The Speaker and Pro Tempore picks made in the party caucus are still voted on by their respective chamber before finalized. The Majority and Minority Floor Leader positions are only selected by the caucus.
Other Positions
Rep. Scott Heiner, R-Green River, is running for Majority Floor Leader in the House. He wants to give all House members more say about what bills are debated on the floor.
“I will make it so the agenda is set by the majority caucus as a whole, not just the Majority Leader,” Heiner said.
Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie, is running for House Minority Whip.
Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, is running for Senate Vice President and Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, is running for Majority Floor Leader of the Senate.
Neiman’s Vision
Neiman also stressed that all of his committee selections are still very fluid at this time and nothing has been finalized. He did confirm however that Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, is being considered a likely candidate for chairman of House Appropriations.
Bear said if selected for this role, he’ll try to bring more transparency to the budgeting process so that all lawmakers understand what’s going on throughout the process. He felt that House members of the Appropriations Committee last spring failed to deliver critical information to their chamber during the creation of the biennial budget.
“It really is the premier responsibility of the Legislature to control the purse strings,” Bear said. “I want to allow every legislator to participate in a more real way.”
Other lawmakers being given strong consideration as members of this committee, Neiman said, are Reps. Bill Allemand, R-Midwest, Abby Angelos, R-Gillette, Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, Scott Smith, R-Lingle, Haroldson and Brown.
Neiman said he’ll likely pick less experienced legislators to be the chairmen of committees than what’s been seen in the past.
He also confirmed that he’s received pressure from certain lawmakers to not give Reps. Bob Nicholas, R-Cheyenne, and Steve Harshman, R-Casper, any committee seats, a stunning move considering the seniority of both legislators as the two longest serving members of the House entering the next session. Both Nicholas and Harshman have been a thorn in the side of some conservatives over the years.
Neiman said he won’t give into this pressure for the better good of the body. He wants people to look back at his term as Speaker as someone who was fair, listened, and transparent for the better sake of Wyoming.
“I don’t think at this point saying I’m going to banish people into outer darkness is a good way to lead,” Neiman said. “We need to figure out a way of moving this ball down the field and I’m not going to do it from a retaliatory (action).”
But he does however plan to take into consideration the legislative wins that the Freedom Caucus scored in the election, which he sees as a message from the Wyoming people about a more conservative direction they’d like their Legislature to go.
“It starts with leadership that’s willing to try and look at the bigger picture and to do things that are going to move the ball down the field, but I’m not going to move that ball down the field and ignore what the people of the state of Wyoming did in the primary and general election,” Neiman said. “I recognize that, I see what they want, and I’m going to make decisions based on respecting that.”
Brown, a more moderate Republican not associated with the Freedom Caucus, believes Wyoming voters have spoken and it’s time to let the Freedom Caucus members govern as they see fit.
“It may not be as bad as everybody thinks,” he said. “Wyoming is not going to fail to exist.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
