Dear Editor,
In a Cowboy State Daily article back in November, titled “Bo Biteman Named Wyoming Senate President, Chip Neiman Is New House Speaker,” Cale Case made the following statement: “This is how adults do things.”
I couldn’t help but think, “he is right”! All you have to do is go to the internet and look up “adult content” and you will see numerous depictions of what Sens. Biteman and Salazar did to the conservative side of the senate.
Their betrayal of the conservatives was deliberate, painful, and effective. They plunged the political knife in deep and proceeded to twist the blade.
Essentially, their votes with the establishment legislators gave the liberal establishment the ability to stop all or at least the majority of the conservative legislation that comes out of the House.
It appears that to win their respective leadership positions, they had to crawl into bed “politically” with Sen. Nethercott, promising to give Nethercott the floor leadership position and give up most committee chair positions to liberal establishment senators.
That appears to be how they gained their respective titles. Now, they have the titles, and the liberal establishment has the power! This is unfortunate for those hoping for conservative public policy to be passed through the senate.
This isn’t Sen. Nethercott’s first rodeo. When Senate President Driskill removed conservative Sen. Dave Kinskey from the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee in April of 2023.
He replaced Kinskey with Sen. Nethercott. In my opinion, Kinskey got the political knife in the back, Nethercott got the chairmanship. In the opening days of the 2024 legislative session, the senate took action to correct Senate President Driskill’s actions.
As it stands, Sen. Biteman and Sen. Salazar have opened the door for allowing themselves to be viewed as complete failures in passing any conservative legislation through the Wyoming Senate.
The establishment liberals in the senate simply have to use the committee chairman’s veto or have the floor leader refuse to allow the conservative legislation on the floor. Either way, they can kill conservative legislation in committee or simply not allow it to be introduced on the senate floor.
I have admired both Sen. Biteman and Sen. Salazar for their conservative records but the appearance of betraying long term allies to gain titles is extremely disappointing. I thought better of both of these men.
Is it possible to re-establish a strong conservative caucus in the Wyoming Senate? Possible, perhaps, but extremely difficult!
Sen. Biteman and Sen. Salazar have created some very deep wounds. So, for the conservative side of the senate this legislative season looks bleak.
It will take intense levels of humility on the part of Sen. Biteman and Sen.Salazar and every conservative senator in the Wyoming Senate.
When you need the votes of the allies you betrayed, to get conservative legislation passed, how are you going to approach them?
I suggest that asking for forgiveness and a promise to lay down the political knives might be a good start.
The conservative senators will need the voices of Sen. Biteman’s and Sen. Salazar’s voters to pressure them to return to the conservative “reservation."
We need a restoration of the strong conservative caucus we had last year to have an effective pathway for conservative legislation.
Wyoming voters will need to be very active, participating in, and following, every piece of conservative legislation that comes out of the house and is presented to the senate.
Sincerely,
Ted Davis
Sundance
