Retired Jackson businessman Don Grasso told Cowboy State Daily he wrote checks to Wyoming House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett; Appropriations Chair John Bear R-Gillette; and Reps. Marlene Brady, R-Green River, Gary Brown, R-Cheyenne, Christopher Knapp, R-Gillette, Tony Locke, R-Casper, Darin McCann, R-Rock Springs, Rep. Joe Webb, R-Lyman, and Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper.
Instead of mailing those checks, activist Rebecca Bextel volunteered to drive them from Jackson to Cheyenne, and hand deliver them to elected officials.
When Bextel handed checks from Grasso to legislators on the floor of the House after the first day of the legislative session, she spit in the eye of Wyoming voters.
Upon losing her bid to become state Republican chair, she basically is acting like, “Because I didn’t win, I can now go after every single person that I want to. I can do whatever I want.”
And she did.
She pranced right onto the floor of the people’s House with $15,000 worth of checks burning in her pocket.
As an influence broker, she gathered up another person’s money and personally delivered it to her pet legislators in Cheyenne.
She said in a podcast on Thursday, “I just handed him [McCann] a check not thinking anything about it.”
Uh-huh.
She can do whatever she wants.
Bextel posted on Facebook that she raised $300,000 for conservative candidates last year, and she will be doubling the amount this year.
Talk about influence peddling.
When asked via text by a Cowboy State Daily reporter whether she distributed checks on the floor of the House earlier in the week, Bextel responded, “I have not written any campaign checks so far this year.”
When asked whether she distributed anything on the floor, and if so what it was, Bextel responded, “None of your business.”
Uh-huh.
She can do whatever she wants.
Bextel in a Friday Facebook post said:
“Would it have made you feel more comfortable if I gave someone a check in a closet or in secret? I did it out in the open with cameras all around. I delivered a legal campaign check to a candidate after the session ended for the day. Where was I supposed to find Representative McCann? In a hotel room that night?! Wouldn't that have been a bigger story! Some people are beginning to wonder if the real burn in this controversy might be two-fold: conservative candidates are now on an even financial playing field, and once and for all, unconstitutional housing mitigations fees are about to be a thing of the past.”
Her statement arguably contains both the quid and the pro quo.
She says she delivered a check on the floor of the House and the bill she wants to pass opposing housing mitigation fees is advancing.
It’s a pretty stark admission.
She gathers the funds, delivers them and gets what she wants.
Traveling to Cheyenne with $15,000 worth of checks to give to candidates who have not filed for office yet looks, at minimum, like sloppy influence peddling — particularly when the influence peddler is championing legislation opposed to affordable housing rules in Jackson.
At worst, it’s bribery.
Who makes the decision on bribery is up to people other than me, but there is certainly evidence to consider.
Now we’re left to wonder if it was just a strange coincidence if any of the House members whose names were on those checks also voted for introduction of her bill.
However, Bextel is not the worst actor in this little drama that is embarrassingly unfolding in front of the eyes of the Wyoming voters.
On Wednesday, in opposing the housing mitigation fee bill Bextel wanted, Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, said, “What I would say to you, members — and this is not an accusation — this is solely just optics for the Legislature. My understanding is that that person handed out checks on the floor of the Legislature during the session.”
Bear, popping up like a jack-in-the-box, interrupted Yin.
“I believe the representative is making accusations of an individual that cannot be substantiated, and that accusation is offensive to this body,” he said.
Uh-huh.
Bear and Neiman have made no statements about whether they received checks.
They have chosen their right to remain silent.
Speaker Neiman, sitting in one of the most important positions of trust in the state — perhaps with a check burning a hole in his conscience? — asked Yin if he could substantiate or verify his claims.
Yin, in one of the greatest sandbagging moves of all time, said, “I’m not going to present anything here because I don’t do props in the Legislature.”
Don’t play poker with Yin.
Yin continued, “I don’t think we should have the Legislature be affected. I’d say vote down this bill to make a statement that we won’t have our Legislature be affected by things like that.”
While it is usually unfair to assume anything, any reasonable person has to think Yin had seen the photograph, and he was just spooling out rope to let those implicated hang themselves.
Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams took the floor and accused Yin of making allegations of a quid-pro-quo, and a defamatory statement.
She continued by saying that distributing checks on the floor would essentially be bribery and unethical. She also called on the House to make policies and procedures to respond to or report any type of defamatory allegations made by legislators.
Later in the week, when Democratic Rep. Karlee Provenza made a motion to have an investigation of the issue, Rodriguez-Williams argued her desk on the floor was her office, she did not want anyone turning her in if her husband forwarded her a check.
It’s amazing the turn after a couple of days.
Neiman should have known what was going on.
He demonstrated a complete lack of integrity by allowing Bear and Rodriguez-Williams to make what he should have known to be false allegations against Yin.
Neiman may have betrayed the trust of the people of Wyoming.
If he knew, he committed a lie of omission. Then, through his silence, he participated in Bear’s attempt to cover up the distribution of checks.
He could have been honest.
Instead, Neiman chose to allow Yin to be thrown under the bus.
But Yin knew something they did not. He knew there was evidence. He knew there were guilty actors on the floor of the house.
Yin knew there were other legislators who sat on the floor knowing they received checks. All of them watched Yin be unjustly accused. None of them had the integrity to stand up and admit Yin was right.
They let Yin carry the cross.
But it gets worse.
Nothing more would have happened, but Provenza had taken photos. The photographic evidence foiled the cover-up. I suspect she had shared the photos with certain members of the press early in the week.
Don’t play poker with Provenza, either.
Those reporters, armed with photographic evidence, interviewed legislators to see what their reactions would be.
Don’t play poker with the press.
Brady, when asked about the check by Wyofile, said, “I can’t remember.”
Uh-huh.
Then her story changed.
When told by the reporter she had evidence Bextel was handing out checks, Brady said, “Oh do you?”
The reporter then asked who the donor was.
Brady said, “Well, figure it out.”
Another lie of omission.
In opposing the motion to do an investigation, Knapp said the matter should be turned over to law enforcement. He said the House was not the forum for potential criminal investigations.
Knapp ultimately voted for the investigation. He was fighting a losing cause.
But he never admitted during his speech one of those checks from Grasso may have had his name on it.
He has never publicly admitted receiving a check.
Maybe he did not.
He has been publicly silent on the issue.
The only representative who has shown any hint of remorse is McCann, who admitted he made a mistake and should not have accepted a check on the floor of the House.
I guess it’s pretty hard to do anything else when you are caught in a photo accepting a check. But the admission is admirable.
He shows more class than more experienced legislators.
The Wyoming Ethics and Disclosure Act says a legislator should not use his office for private benefit.
Seems like a lot of that was going on, here.
The act goes on to say that if you violate the act, it is grounds for removal from office.
Neiman has appointed an investigative committee.
That committee owes it to the people of Wyoming to hold public hearings, take public testimony and to make strict conclusions.
If the breaches of public trust or bribery is substantiated, then the House should remove any offending members.
Like Knapp said, law enforcement should also be involved.
If they knew, Neiman and Bear should, at minimum, issue a full and contrite explanation on how this whole situation happened and their participation in it.
I will give the body credit, though. In my column published last week, I said I doubted the House would investigate itself. They did.
Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope that honesty and integrity have a chance in Cheyenne.
Tom Lubnau can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
