RIVERTON — Navigating the questions and pointed observations of a Riverton coffee group known as “The Gentry," has become a proving ground for serious Wyoming political candidates.
A blizzard that shut down much of southern Wyoming on Monday encroached as the group, hunkered in a hilltop events hall on Riverton's airport hill, grilled gubernatorial candidate Eric Barlow.
The core group of The Gentry are men-of-a-certain-age who all drink black coffee, all run politically conservative and all live in the Riverton area.
They didn’t always host high-profile political candidates, but have since about 2020, starting with candidates for the Riverton-based state House District 55 and Senate District 26.
In 2021 they hosted then-U.S. House candidate Darin Smith, whom a national TV crew followed to the klatch. They later hosted U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, and in March, Brent Bien, one of Barlow’s opponents in the GOP bid for the governor’s seat.
“You know, I enjoy hearing them all, and each of them are politicians in their own right,” said the group’s host, former Riverton Mayor Ron Warpness, in a Monday interview after Barlow’s presentation.
Warpness said he hopes these talks spur the group into greater action.
“I want to have morning meetings like this so we can talk about (issues),” he said. “Hell, I want to fix airport road. I want to fix the half-cent tax (Fremont County) failed, and on and on and on. Pick a subject.”
Nearly a decade ago, an earlier iteration of the group would gather weekly in a café within the Riverton airport.
There, they watched cloud banks, sipped coffee and solved the world’s problems.
Some of the group defied gathering bans during COVID-19 to meet in one member’s woodshop. There they debated whether kimchi is worth the gut health benefits, though it conjures memories some of the men have of serving in the Korean war.
And now, Warpness hosts The Gentry weekly at his events hall west of Riverton, Chandelle Events Center.
‘Do Your Damn Job'
Warpness also allows and invites women to attend, a practice that started in about 2018 when a reporter for The Ranger crashed the group.
State Senator Barlow introduced himself Monday morning to The Gentry as a post-Marine Corps, fourth-generation, ranch-raised, service-oriented veterinarian, yak farmer, and legislator of 14 years.
“Limit your government. Do what it’s supposed to do. Stay out of the way the rest of the time,” said Barlow, whom The Gentry required to use a microphone since at least one attendee is hard of hearing.
“(I seek) an economy that works in Wyoming,” Barlow continued, “and then of course a community of people who can get the things they need: education, health care, etc.”
Wayne Dick was a tough interviewer Monday.
“Who do you actually feel runs the state — the Legislature or the governor?” asked Dick, referencing a recent announcement by Gov. Mark Gordon that he’s cobbling together a roughly $3 million summer feeding program for low-income families with kids, which resembles the SNAP benefits already in place.
“So, Article 2 of the Wyoming Constitution is, everybody do your damn job,” answered Barlow. “We have three branches of government. They all should do their respective parts.”
As for Gordon’s maneuver, state law now allows for that. The Legislature can change that if it wishes, said Barlow.
Barlow cast the federal government as much more dysfunctional, saying Congress has not been accomplishing much, leaving a void by which the executive branch has exercised a lot of power.
“But in Wyoming, I believe each branch (should) do your job, respect each other, and work together as best you can,” he said.
Dick parried, asking Barlow where he stands on the Wyoming Republican Party platform planks.
“We have some, they claim they’re Republicans but don’t actually vote along with the Republican Party,” added Dick.
Barlow said he reviews the platform every year before going into the legislative session and balances those tenets with his duty to his constituency in Campbell County on local issues, and the many oaths he’s taken over the years to the U.S. and Wyoming constitutions.
If there’s “daylight” between the GOP platform and his votes on major issues, those other two duties were the reason why, he said, encouraging Dick to check his record.
“I haven’t checked it,” said Dick. “But I will.”
Wind/Solar
One attendee, Butch Branson, leaned forward to ask where Barlow stands on solar and wind energy.
Barlow said he believes industrial solar projects can’t survive long-term without government subsidies, and he doesn’t want to be part of offering those subsidies.
Traditional fuels will “always be the baseline, and should be,” he said.
Barlow said Wyoming has opportunities with respect to uranium and nuclear development, but lacks interest in storing spent nuclear fuel permanently.
Rep. Lloyd Larsen, R-Lander, who attended and spoke in Barlow’s favor, noted that Barlow championed into law a bill to bury old wind turbine blades in reclaimed mines.
“That’s a little justice, right,” said Barlow.
Snow Plows
Fremont County GOP Chair Ginger Bennett sat across two tables from Barlow, next to state Rep. Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton,
Both asked Barlow questions.
“WYDOT (Wyoming Department of Transportation) seems to be getting a little big for their britches,” said Bennett, saying that the agency has “lots of administration” but unsatisfactory snowplow response in a storm.
Bennett referenced a recent controversy within WYDOT’s law enforcement wing, the Wyoming Highway Patrol, where state troopers are capped at 400 miles a week to address overtime overages.
WYDOT is having “significant challenges,” said Barlow.
The agency has been warning of underfunding for years.
As for snowplow drivers and state troopers said Barlow, that’s “dangerous work” requiring competitive pay. It’s a question for the Legislature, whether to pay them competitively, he said.
The Legislature just granted those workers and other executive branch employees raises statewide. Those raises are set to go into effect July 1 with the new budget, however.
As for his purview as the gubernatorial hopeful, Barlow said the governor’s job is to appoint WYDOT commissioners and “hold their feet to the fire,” plus interact with the agency’s director and propose a budget to the Legislature every budget cycle.
Barlow said government tight-fistedness can actually hamper business.
For example, he said the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality isn’t turning out permits fast enough for energy companies’ needs, according to the energy companies.
“We’re not funding enough people to actually do the job,” said Barlow. “I know that sounds like we’re going the other way, but, if you want to have business, either reduce regulations — which I’m fine with — or we give the resources to those agencies that need them.”
Nope
Warpness asked about a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling making race-based voting districts harder to justify in court.
Fremont County has five county commission districts, while other counties in the state elect commissioners at-large.
That’s because five tribal members sued the county in 2005, saying the at-large system was racist. They won that case in 2010 and won appeal in 2012, resulting in Fremont County carving out the district system with a reservation-based district among the five.
Barlow was not overly familiar with the situation, but said that, “if it’s not compliant with the U.S. Constitution, then don’t do it.”
Data Centers
Under a question by Wyoming Community College Commission member Ruby Calvert, who led the Corporation for Public Broadcasting prior, Barlow indicated he doesn’t support an outright moratorium on permitting data centers in Wyoming.
“We have to have good information,” said Barlow, regarding the actual power and water requirements for those. Most of the project leaders are saying they’ll use “closed loop” cooling and demand less water.
Barlow said Wyoming should not allow the projects to harm people with respect to how much they pay for electricity. But he urged curious and cautious optimism, saying, “Where would we be if we said we’re going to have a moratorium on coal mines 50 years ago?”
Montana at that time had a moratorium on coal, of sorts, since it had a much higher tax rate than Wyoming’s, he said.
“Where are all the coal mines?” added Barlow. “They’re in Wyoming.”
Lonnie Woodard presented Barlow with a gift on behalf of the group.
Barlow thanked Woodard as he accepted the gift: the state fossil, and a small portion of jade.
The candidate told Cowboy State Daily after the event that he felt the presentation went well.
‘Great Group Of Guys’
Bien in a Monday interview with Cowboy State Daily recalled his earlier March 4 visit with The Gentry fondly, saying they’re a “great group of guys.”
As for whether the third GOP contender, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, would be welcome, Warpness said in his interview with Cowboy State Daily that, “it’s open to anybody who wants to come.”
Bien said The Gentry grilled him on taxes and energy, but they also swapped tales of “military stuff” since Bien is a retired Marine Corps colonel and a pilot.
“The doc was there,” said Bien, a reference to the retired Dr. Kent Stockton, a group regular and final arbiter of health debates.
Both Bien and Barlow told Cowboy State Daily that they’ve made a habit of dropping in on coffee klatches.
After hearing details of Barlow’s presentation, Bien countered.
The data center expansions are moving too quickly to fit within “consent of the governed,” he said, voicing concerns about consumers’ electric bills, water usage and the power companies’ transmission capacity.
"I would not allow them to be built on agricultural ground — I just wouldn’t do it,” said Bien. “At lot of our agricultural lands are being swallowed up by these globalist interests and that’s kind of what this is.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
