A Wyoming Legislative committee declined via straw poll Thursday to draft a strongly-worded letter to Congress that, if approved, would have urged passage of a constitutional amendment barring dark money in politics.
Dark money refers to anonymous, usually high-dollar, election campaign ads and maneuvers.
Many dark money groups hide their original donors by donating to a number of groups, which in turn donate to many groups, and only one of the intermediary groups donates to the end entity that influences someone’s campaign.
Sen. Ed Cooper, R-Ten Sleep, brought this proposal to the Corportions, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee for the Legislature to author a resolution — which is essentially a strongly-worded letter with the full force of legislative consensus behind it — in 2025 as well.
It died by deadline in the state House of Representatives after clearing the state Senate.
“It’s something we need to look at closely,” said Cooper in a Friday phone interview.
In Wyoming
Millions of dollars of dark money hit Wyoming elections hard in recent cycles, impacting a high-dollar Republican U.S. House primary, the governor’s race, numerous state legislative races and now filtering down to the mayoral race level.
No PAC spent more money in-state in the primary election than Wyoming's Turn, which attacked Sen. Eric Barlow in his successful bid for the GOP nomination for governor.
Another top spender was Virginia-based Make Liberty Win, which backed Freedom Caucus-aligned candidates, Cowboy State Daily reported.
Cooper conceded that a resolution isn’t as forceful as a law change.
“All of what I’m trying to do,” he said, “is really get people to focus on this dark money and understand what a problem it is, and how it does influence our elections in a negative way.”
Cooper said it was “not a big deal” that the corporations committee passed over the bill.
If a committee adopts a bill, that signals to the full Legislature that the bill has been vetted already by state lawmakers before reaching the session.
That can give committee bills an edge over legislators’ individual bills.
Cooper said he’s happy to run this one himself, again.
Though a resolution is limited in power, Wyoming would join a movement by passing one.
Twenty-five states have passed similar resolutions in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision upholding corporations and outside groups' right to spend unlimited money influencing campaigns.
The dark money situation has grown so pervasive in Wyoming, all three Republican candidates for governor condemned it on a debate stage in August.
The Ayes And Nos
The straw poll was informal, and lawmakers signified interest, or lack of interest, in vetting Cooper’s bill by a show of hands not fully depicted on the meeting YouTube video’s narrow framing.
As he counted hands, Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee Chair Cale Case, R-Lander, indicated “nobody here,” to his left, voted in the bill’s favor.
That would mean that Republican Reps. Nina Webber (Cody), Joe Webb (Lyman), and Steve Johnson (Cheyenne) opposed taking up the bill. Another delegate to Case’s left, Rep. Tony Locke, R-Casper, raised his hand during the call for nays, the meeting video shows.
Case and Republican Sens. Bill Landen (Casper) and Dan Dockstader (Afton) voted in the bill’s favor, as did Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson.
Cowboy State Daily has received conflicting reports on how Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Torrington, voted. Steinmetz was sent a request for confirmation and this story will be updated as she responds.
Case said in the meeting that “nobody online” voted yes, meaning Republican Rep. Paul Hoeft (Powell) and House Committee Chair Christopher Knapp (Gillette) didn’t support taking up the bill.
Cooper told Cowboy State Daily that Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, was no longer present when the vote was taken.
Cooper and Yin both said Rep. Gary Brown, R-Cheyenne, voted against the proposed resolution.
Brown did not immediately respond to a text message request for confirmation.
‘Freedom Caucus’
Cooper said that “Freedom Caucus folks” — meaning representatives aligned with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus — had voted against taking on the proposed resolution.
He juxtaposed this against the Freedom Caucus’ recent publications decrying dark money sources working against its members in the Aug. 18 primary election.
“But then here was an opportunity to address part of that problem and they chose not to,” said Cooper.
Mayor Leah Juarez, of Mills, testified alongside Cooper on Thursday, saying an out-of-state entity has been trying to sway her race.
Cooper said Juarez did a "great job" presenting.
Knapp did not immediately respond to a late-day voicemail request for comment.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
