Legitimate investigations ask relevant questions of the right people. Witch hunts ask irrelevant questions to put their targets on the defensive.
It is legitimate to look at elected officials, across the board, to see how they voted relative to the interests of their campaign donors. It is a witch hunt to ask that question selectively and based on irrelevant criteria.
These are the principles at the heart of hours of debate in the Wyoming State Capitol. Apparently, a woman from Teton County was a little too excited about the campaign donations that she had secured. And, instead of sending them through the U.S. mail, she delivered them by hand.
This method of delivery drew the attention of Rep. Karlee Provenza (D-Laramie). She snapped a photograph and ran to Wyoming’s version of the Washington Post. This move set off a firestorm for the last fortnight.
Although Provenza alleged no crime or breach of House rules, she called it an “egregious use of the House floor.” Soon thereafter, the allegation broadened to any and all who received campaign contributions by hand-delivery on February 9.
Of course, there is no law or rule about “egregious use” of anything. Neither is there anything in statute about the hand-delivery of campaign contributions on February 9. By excluding hand-delivered campaign contributions on any other day of the year, the stirrers of the teapot restricted the investigation so narrowly as to be ridiculous.
It’s like limiting an investigation only to those who wear a bolo tie. It is as quirky as it is irrelevant. Worse, it is bound to produce skewed results.
Serious citizens would like to see that investigation conducted on a slightly more comprehensive sample set. We would like reporters who scrutinize every campaign donor, from the governor and the education lobby to big pharma and dark-money NGOs.
We recognize, of course, that it’s not illegal to receive sizable campaign donations from Governor Gordon’s $150,000 PAC PAC. But thoughtful citizens should know who and what supports whom.
That’s why it would be a public service for the press to do such investigations across the board - and not just on checks that are hand-delivered on a Monday. Not only is there no law against such behavior, there is not even a rule.
That’s not just my opinion.
The Speaker of the House, Chip Neiman, stated as much before the assembled House.
The Senate Rules Committee, chaired by Tara Nethercott (R-Cheyenne), confirmed Neiman’s claim by working to write a rule ex post facto.
Days later, Gov. Mark Gordon also decided that no rule exists against receiving a campaign donation on the House floor, so he wrote an executive order, hastily.
I suppose we should thank the Senate and the governor for weighing in. But it doesn’t feel very helpful. Instead, it feels like someone poured gasoline on the fire.
I know that it’s a cliché, but haste really does make waste.
Photo-ops make for targets of opportunity. And we all know that politicians can hardly help themselves when a political opportunity appears. It is what it is.
But things got out of hand when Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak took to social media to announce that he was launching his own investigation of the matter. Once an executive branch official launched a criminal investigation into duly elected members of the legislative branch, it effectively quashed the unanimous will of the House.
This county-level interference in the legislative process compelled retired lawman, Art Washut (R-Casper) Chairman of the House committee that was unanimously tasked with investigating the incident to pause all activity. Worse, by his own admission, Kozak did this without probable cause.
Imagine! The county sheriff announces to the world that he is investigating you to see if there is any probable cause to open an investigation. That investigation, which could take months, forces you to second guess every word you speak in the meantime.
Had the sheriff waited a few days for the Legislature to do its work, we would not be in this pickle. Whether intentionally or not, he rolled a burning dumpster onto the House floor. That, in my opinion, is an egregious use of investigatory powers. How does one un-ring that bell?
Here is another idea. Instead of investigating only checks that were hand-delivered in open transparency, we could scrutinize checks and wire transfers that are done behind closed doors. Maybe we should even pass a rule that campaign donations can only be hand delivered on the House floor.
Seriously, hear me out.
That would give the people of Wyoming unprecedented transparency. It would be like NASCAR, where you can see at a glance who are the sponsors behind each driver.
That would be more even-handed than investigating selected targets based on irrelevant but opportunistic optics.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com.
