CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Republican Party's quarterly Central Committee meeting offered the first opportunity for the state party to formally reckon with CheckGate, the scandal that has distracted the Legislature since Teton County conservative activist Rebecca Bextel distributed campaign checks on the House floor Feb. 9.
That reckoning never came.
The Carbon County Republican Party submitted two resolutions — both unanimously passed by its county central committee on Feb. 17 — demanding accountability for the incident that led to nearly 50 pieces of legislation dying on the clock, including more than 30 bills on the Wyoming GOP's own legislative priority list.
The vice chair of the Carbon County Republican Party, Joey Correnti, came prepared to present the resolutions to the body. But he was ruled ineligible to speak by the chair.
In an interview with Cowboy State Daily afterward, Correnti said, "It was made very clear that I'm not authorized to comment."
One of the resolutions called for the immediate resignation of Republican National Committeewoman Rep. Nina Webber, R-Cody, condemning her for "failures of principle, character and integrity that directly contributed to the procedural demise of over 30 priority action items of the Wyoming Republican Party."
Under Legislative Management Council Policy 96-01, the resolution noted, Webber was "fully responsible for the actions of her guests" when she escorted Bextel onto the House floor.
The resolution further condemned Webber for not speaking up when the incident was challenged on the floor by the minority leader and minority whip, stating she never exercised "the honor, integrity, or principle that is expected of an elected official who is conferred the title 'Honorable'" despite having "intimate firsthand knowledge of these transactions."
Shooting Back
Rather than take up the Carbon County resolutions, the body heard from Vice Chair Bob Ferguson, who used his time at the microphone to take aim at the press and Gov. Mark Gordon.
"It's amazing how much ink the CheckGate controversy has gotten in comparison to the fact that the Legislature is passing a two-year budget," Ferguson told the committee. "We've read virtually nothing on the budget, and that process has actually gone on pretty well."
The vice chair acknowledged the optics of handing out checks on the House floor were "terrible," but argued the reaction revealed more about media bias than about wrongdoing.
"The hysteria surrounding this, from the press, really makes it very clear that this has far more to do with who received the checks rather than the act of their delivery," Ferguson said. "It was the Freedom Caucus. And everyone that opposes the Freedom Caucus was thrilled to jump on the bandwagon.
"The press and the media cower at the name Freedom Caucus like a bunch of vampires that just saw sunlight," he added. "It's like throwing red meat into the lion's den."
Despite the poor optics, Ferguson maintained the donations were legal and that the real story was the governor's far larger financial fingerprints on Wyoming elections.
"Most of you know Governor Gordon personally funded about 90% of the Prosperity and Commerce PAC with $150,000," Ferguson said, adding that Gordon gave another $150,000 to that same PAC on Dec. 22, just weeks before the legislative session opened, plus $30,000 to the Wyoming Caucus PAC and over $33,000 in personal contributions.
"That's over $360,000 coming from the chief executive in the state with the sole purpose of influencing elections," Ferguson said. "To think that someone spent $360,000 out of their own pocket and has no idea where it's going or what it's for is preposterous."
The vice chair said he had compiled a list of 22 legislators who received money through Gordon, either directly or through PACs the governor personally funded.
"And two of those members are on the investigative committee that is investigating this issue," Ferguson said. "Just want you to think about that."
Gordon Responds
In a statement to Cowboy State Daily responding to a transcript of Ferguson's remarks, Gordon’s office pushed back.
"The Governor participated in the 2024 election cycle in an open, legal and transparent way, as everyone should, giving to Republican candidates across the state as well as to President Donald Trump. This is all old news," read the statement.
"Vice Chair Ferguson's comments feel like an attempt to deflect from financial transactions that happened on the floor of the Wyoming House of Representatives," the statement continued. "Wyoming citizens deserve a full and fair accounting of that event.
“And Wyoming Republicans deserve party leaders who will hold themselves and those they support accountable. Deflections are not the behavior of leaders."
The governor’s office added that it was "sad to see this kind of mudslinging going on when we should be focused on ensuring transparent processes are in place that avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing. The people of Wyoming deserve confidence in their institutions. We should learn from this and move forward together to build a stronger future for Wyoming."
Epstein Redirect
Teton County Republican Party Chair Kat Rueckert offered a different line of attack on the media — accusing reporters of chasing the wrong story entirely.
"Considering it's now mainstream that the world is now run by satanic pedophiles, or has been run by satanic pedophiles, what is the RNC pushing for with regards to starting to arrest some people?" Rueckert asked, referencing the Epstein files.
Turning to journalists in the room, Rueckert pushed reporters to investigate people named in the Epstein files who may have ties to Wyoming, saying that instead of covering CheckGate, "you should probably spend time putting that in the paper.”
State Party Chairman Bryan Miller noted that, "Wyoming is mentioned in those files a lot, in a lot of different ways."
Chairman's View
In an interview with Cowboy State Daily on Friday, Miller said his position on CheckGate hadn't changed since the controversy broke.
"The investigations need to occur. We are not the body to do those investigations, because it didn't happen in our house," Miller said. "And once those investigations are done, if something needs to be done by the party, then I would assume that we would do something."
The chairman said he had told reporters the same thing from Day One, adding that CheckGate was "not a party issue at the moment" and that acting prematurely could expose the party to legal risk.
"If the investigations proved that there's nothing wrong, and the party went and did something — that's a problem," Miller said.
At the same time, Miller said he had been unable to find any rule or statute that was violated by the act of delivering the checks.
"I cannot find anything where rules were violated," he said. "And I think the press has appropriately reported that. But this goes beyond that when it comes to the impact on the legislation.
“ And how, you know, the public trust. So there's a completely separate component away from the legal component."
The chairman reserved some of his sharpest criticism for the way the controversy reached the House floor in the first place, calling it "a bit disturbing" that Democratic Reps. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, and Mike Yin, D-Jackson, took the matter public rather than filing a formal complaint through House leadership.
"Taking it to the floor and taking it to the press, rather than following the standard process — that's a bit disturbing, because it just looks like they decided they wanted to make a political fiasco out of this entire session," Miller said. "Which doesn't look good to the public."
Buried Procedurally
Despite leadership's efforts to steer the meeting past the controversy, Carbon County made one final attempt.
A motion by State Committeeman Scott Petty of Carbon County to vote on the first resolution — demanding Webber's resignation or removal — received no second. The motion died on the floor.
The second resolution, titled "Demand for Accountability of Republican Lawmakers," did receive a second, and the chair invited Petty to speak to it.
But Party Chair Miller argued that both resolutions were procedurally out of order under Robert's Rules, which he said "requires anything above a censure to go through a trial before the body can condemn or take further action."
The House investigative committee held its first hearing on the matter Thursday, where all four representatives who received checks on the floor and Bextel herself denied any bribery or wrongdoing.
The committee must deliver its findings to the full House within four legislative days. The Laramie County Sheriff's Office is also conducting a separate criminal investigation.
Cowboy State Daily spoke directly with Webber and Bextel during the meeting’s lunch recess Saturday and both declined to comment on the resolutions presented by Carbon County.
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
