What is driving Wyoming Republican Party leadership toward self destruction?
The Party Central Committee chose to endorse candidates despite multiple calls not to do so. They then batted zero percent on their endorsements of state level candidates.
Zero.
Nine of the ten Republican candidates who took campaign checks on the House floor last session also lost in August. You would think a failure rate like that would prompt some introspection.
Apparently not.
The Sheridan County Republican Party, you know, the home party of Republican Party Chairman Bryan Miller, posted an endorsement of Freedom Caucus Darling and CONSTITUTION Party candidate Rebecca Bextel.
Elected Republican officials used Republican Party social media to advertise the gubernatorial candidacy of the Checkgate figure who handed campaign checks to legislators on the House floor.
What the hell were they thinking?
The position is interesting. The Sheridan County folks treat Eric Barlow as the illegitimate nominee because he won the governor’s primary with 45 percent. They have no such trouble with Chuck Gray, who won the U.S. House nomination with 25 percent. Both are Republican nominees. Only one has his own party’s page turned against him.
Not to be outdone, the Albany County Republican Party let the Jackson socialite, Bextel, film part of a campaign commercial at a county party meeting.
She also showed up at a Republican function in Laramie and donated money to the county GOP. I guess buying loyalty is a consistent pattern.
Is there a term for a Republican official who does not uphold the party’s wishes, but just serves in name only?
This is worse than bad manners. The Constitution Party has said exactly what it is doing, and Wyoming law makes it work.
Constitution Party chairman Joshua Shimkus told Cowboy State Daily in May that running Bextel for governor is part of a strategy to turn Wyoming into a three party state. “We are transitioning from a protest party to a legitimate party,” he said. The number he needs is 10 percent.
A major political party is one whose candidate for any one of three offices, United States Representative, governor, or secretary of state, took at least 10 percent of the vote cast for that office in the last general election. W.S. 22-1-102(a)(xvii). Between 2 and 10 percent makes you a minor party. W.S. 22-1-102(a)(xviii).
Major parties nominate in a primary. They also elect precinct committee people, and those elected people statutorily comprise the party committees, although the Republican Party leadership alleges they are above the law.
Minor parties get no primary at all. They nominate by convention, and the statutes ask of them only a state chairman and a state secretary. W.S. 22-4-301 through 22-4-304.
Some real political power resides in those committees. Vacancies in office get filled from the nominations of a committee of the party the departing officeholder represented. W.S. 22-18-111. In a state where a substantial number of legislators first arrive by appointment, including me, that is worth something.
Then there is ballot position. It runs county by county, in descending order of the vote each party received there for U.S. Representative. W.S. 22-6-121. In 2024 that was Republican 70.6 percent, Democrat 23.2, Libertarian 3.5, Constitution Party 2.1. Outpoll the Republican in a county, and your candidates move to the top line on that county’s ballot.
Small advantage. Still an advantage. Many low information voters simply vote for the first candidate on the ballot.
The thresholds cut both ways. A genuine four way race could drop the Democrats below 10 percent and demote them as well, leaving their vacancy appointments in doubt.
None of that is hypothetical. All three qualifying offices are on the ballot November 3. That count sets every Wyoming party’s status for the next cycle.
So the Sheridan County Republican Party, by their post, stuck out the party’s foot and aimed a gun right at it. To their credit, they eventually took the post down. Albany County handed over the ammunition.
These are elected Republican Party officials. If you cannot support the Republican nominee while holding Republican Party office, resign and join the party of the candidate you support. That is exactly what the Republican Party tells Democrats to do.
Forty five percent of Republican primary voters chose Eric Barlow. He is the nominee. A party officer’s obligation is to represent all Republicans, not the kids with cash.
If you cannot do that job, quit.
Benedict Arnold would be proud of the Albany and Sheridan County Republican Party officials.
