The topic of replacing political vacancies may seem relatively boring on its surface but it has been a hot button topic in Wyoming politics as of late.
On Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee advanced House Bill 176, a bill that would return the decision to political parties about who gets to select and fill a political vacancy when a county commission, city council or other political body can’t make a choice to fill a vacancy on their own. Currently, the decision is handed off to a judge.
The committee voted 6-1 in favor of the bill, with only Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, voting against the bill.
The bill sponsor, Rep. Laurie Bratten, R-Sheridan, argues that putting county commissioners and local political parties at odds during an appointment process is unfair and undesirable for all parties.
The issue recently came to a head in Park County when the local county commission refused to select any of three candidates the Park County GOP provided them for a new county assessor because of errors the local party had committed in their hand count elections for the nominees.
The decision was handed off to a Carbon County judge, who last Friday ended up not picking any of the three candidates the party had chosen. Instead, she went with the deputy county assessor Terry Call.
According to the Powell Tribune, Judge Dawnessa Snyder did not explain why she picked Call, writing only that she had “given due consideration to the presentations of the candidates.”
Sordid Past
A similar situation played out in Sheridan County in 2023, with a lawsuit filed over the commissioners’ decision to hand off the choice of a new commissioner to a local judge after finding that none of the three candidates the Sheridan GOP provided were qualified for the job because of a lack of past experience. The Sheridan judge ruled that the commissioners acted under the law and were within their right to make the choice that they did.
The issue of qualification is addressed in the bill, making it clear that as long as someone was registered and eligible to vote they would qualify.
A nearly identical situation happened in Campbell County in 2018. As reported by the Gillette News Record at the time, several residents complained publicly about the Campbell County GOP’s process to select its nominees for a new commissioner. The Campbell County Commission was unable to come to a majority consensus about which party nominee to put on the board, so it turned to a district court judge to help make a decision.
The district court judge opened a new application period and received 13 applications, from which he selected current Campbell County Commissioner Del Shelstad.
A similar scenario also played out in Goshen County where a commissioner replacement was selected by a judge that hadn’t been nominated by the local GOP.
Park County Committeeman Vince Vanata spoke in favor of the bill, saying it authorizes a fair appointment process. Sending the decision to a judge, Vanata said, is when things become problematic.
“I believe we need to take non-elected judiciary out of the process,” he said.
Concerns Raised
Jerimiah Rieman, executive director of the Wyoming County Commissioners Association, believes no county commissioner has ever shirked their appointment duties under current law.
Rieman said there’s also concern among commissioners that there would no longer be a uniform process for appointments if the bill were to pass into law.
He also said local favoritism could come into play during the county party nomination process. During the most recent Park County elections, Call was by far the most qualified candidate for the job yet finished last place in the voting.
“There’s building concern that if you know the secret handshake, then you might get the appointment, or at least a recommendation,”
In certain counties, less than half of the central committee seats are filled, which Rieman draws concern that proper evaluation of candidates is occurring. Filling party precinct positions like these can be a difficult task in some counties where population and political engagement is low.
In two of the three situations over the last six years where a judge made the final decision about an appointment, the person ultimately chosen for the appointment was reelected by the voters later down the road.
A nearly opposite bill brought by Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, that would have enacted special elections for almost all political vacancies in Wyoming did not make the deadline to be referred to a committee and died in the Speaker’s drawer.
