The movie “17 Again” starring Gen Z heartthrob Zac Efron has a scene opening with Effron’s uncle coming to the school office to meet with a particular administrator, on whom the uncle had a crush.
Sitting in the hall with Efron, as the nephew, exclaims, “What are you wearing?!”
The uncle was wearing a Boot Barn cowboy hat, feather boa, and flared 70s polyester pants.
“To the untrained eye I look like a total idiot,” the uncle says. “But it’s actually a seduction technique known as ‘peacocking’. My outfit serves a dual function of ice breaker and attention getter.”
Happy political peacocking season!
As we cruise into an era of gubernatorial announcements and budget session, please expect more confrontation jargon in the news than usual. Please fasten your seatbelts, as there could be a bumpy landing into a divided Wyoming Republican party! New cowboy hats, zealous press releases, and sassy radio interviews, here we go! Nothing like a good peacock season to get the blood flowing and line the defamation lawyers’ pockets.
This was a week of gubernatorial announcement that some believe drew a line between the Harriet Hageman brand of “conservativism” against the more “establishment” crowd.
State Sen. Eric Barlow’s early announcement coincided with a contentious Judiciary Committee meeting where lawmakers debated the judicial selection process, among other topics.
Earlier this month was a Management Audit Committee meeting addressing audit concerns and local spending practices. It's clear: the Republican party is deeply divided on a variety of state issues in Wyoming.
One side wants to protect the way things have always been done, adopting the “this is a solution in search of a problem” line of persuasion.
The other side is more firebrand. They are taking on the establishment and working to dismantle it, and any corruption along with it, brick by brick. Where the corruption is unknown, they seek to bring sunshine to it.
Perhaps a split primary is coming. If that is the case, will Hageman be in it? Will she be able to dominate the field with perspective and experience that she brings back from DC? Will her time as a fierce attorney allow her to cut regulation and red tape to open the Wyoming economy up to thrive? While others opine on micro issues like residential housing in Jackson and sales tax, could she come out swinging with macro solutions that solve the underlying problems hampering Wyoming’s economy?
I believe she could. However, if she chooses not to, others like Chuck Gray, Brent Bien, Megan Degenfelder and Bo Biteman would stand on conservative principles also, I believe. To move the needle forward in the conservative movement, we must put our ego and differences aside to work as a unit.
We need a governor who wants transparency, reform and economic freedom. Similar to the federal government, Wyoming cannot sustain its spending.
Wyoming’s K-12 education spending is expected to outpace its revenue by $104 million for the 2027-28 biennium, and that deficit is estimated to be more than $500 million for the 2029-30 biennium.
We cannot spend like California and tax like rural America should. These two policy notions cannot co-exist.
The problem with the establishment Republicans, while they may be likeable enough on the surface, lies deep within their voting records. They have no interest in your rights over the establishment. They have no interest in changing the way things are because it got them to this exact point.
Nonetheless, the field remains open right now. Let’s hope the conservatives back a candidate jointly, who has no interest in peacocking, but instead is focused on solutions.
Cowboy State Daily columnist Cassie Craven is a University of Wyoming College of Law graduate who practices law in Wyoming. She can be reached at: longhornwritingllc@gmail.com
