Bruce Pivic is tired of being part of a campaign speech.
Pivic has become a focal point of Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Bextel’s campaign in recent weeks, as Bextel has accused him of accosting her during University of Wyoming homecoming football festivities.
In one iteration of Bextel’s speech, she said a UW trustee, whom she later identified as “Bruce,” was “foaming at the mouth” as he approached her. In another account, she said she thought the man “Bruce” “had short man syndrome.”
And in a version of this story that surfaced Monday on Facebook, she gave Pivic’s full name when identifying him as the man in the story.
“Wyoming doesn’t need any more friends like Bruce Pivic,” she said.
Pivic never accosted Bextel as she claims, he told Cowboy State Daily in a Tuesday interview.
He had declined to interview previously, but as Bextel repeated the story before multiple audiences and on live television during a PBS forum last week, Pivic broke his silence Tuesday.
“I don’t know why she got in her craw that it’s me,” Pivic continued. “I’ve got no idea.”
Bextel’s decision to use his full name pushed him into going public as well, he added.
“Now that pisses me off,” he said. “It’s to a point that I’m going to talk to an attorney about it if I have to. She needs to retract that it was me. She can say it if she misunderstood.”
What Pivic has found most offensive, he said, is the version of the story in which Bextel claimed “Bruce” was “foaming at the mouth.”
“I probably don’t see eye to eye with her – on some things I do – but to say in public I’d just holler and scream at her the way she’s talking, no way, not my personality,” he said.
Bextel faces Republican Sen. Eric Barlow and Democratic nominee Ken Casner in the Nov. 3general election for governor.
The Boards
Bextel has said repeatedly that the accoster, “Bruce,” is on the Wyoming Business Council’s board and the UW Board of Trustees, plus on the “board” of Barlow’s campaign committee.
The Wyoming Business Council and UW Board of Trustees don’t share members currently, except for Gov. Mark Gordon, who serves both.
There is no “Bruce” on the UW Board of Trustees.
Bextel has also said the accoster was about a foot shorter than she.
Pivic sent Cowboy State Daily a copy of his driver’s license showing that he’s 5-foot-10.
Bextel declined to give her height, saying “that’s none of your business.”
Her court file lists her at 5-foot-9.
What Happened?
Pivic said his tailgate setup at the University of Wyoming is on “the very corner.”
He said he witnessed part of the interaction in late September and saw a woman, Kathleen McKinley, take her husband, UW Trustee John McKinley, to talk to Bextel.
Pivic said John McKinley stands about 5-foot-6.
“I was kinda there, and I kinda walked away,” said Pivic, adding that he didn’t watch the whole interaction.
He wondered if Bextel was confused by her proximity to his known tailgate site.
“I just don’t quite understand why, or how she got my name,” he said. “All she really has to do is get on the University of Wyoming website and take a look at all the trustees, and she should she who she talked to, if she remembers the face.”
John McKinley did not return a Cowboy State Daily phone call nor text message for comment by publication.
Bextel
In a series of text messages to Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday, Bextel doubled down and accused Pivic of lying.
“I met Bruce, he was in my face, telling me we needed more money for the university,” said Bextel in a text message. “He was introduced to me by a female, who said ‘this is a trustee for the university of Wyoming.’”
Bextel said the man, whom she insists was “Bruce,” said “we need to do more for business in Wyoming.”
She said she later learned he was on the WBC board and Barlow’s election board.
“He is embarrassed because he lied to me about being a trustee,” said Bextel.
Bextel pointed to an exchange they have since had on Facebook, in which Pivic, who runs Wyo4News, said his staffers have tried to get her onto his radio show.
Bextel said she never heard Pivic ask her to be on his show.
Pivic said during a phone interview Wednesday that it was his staff, not he, who had invited Bextel onto the show.
About The Boards
Bextel said in a Facebook video about the encounter, “We’ve got a guy whose entire job, his livelihood, his identity is passing out your money.”
“He passes your money out as a trustee for the university, he passes your money out on the Business council scams,” she continued, “also making sure Eric Barlow gets elected. Wyoming doesn’t need any more friends like Bruce Pivic.”
Pivic reiterated that he doesn’t serve on the UW Board of Trustees. He serves on the national advisory board for the UW College of Engineering and Applied Science.
Pivic’s “livelihood” has been as a business owner, he said.
Pivic has retired as the longtime owner of the electrical engineering firm Infinity Power and Controls. He is FAA certified as a commercial balloon pilot.
He flies the Wyoming hot air balloon, at his own expense, said Pivic.
The WBC board is a volunteer position, though members receive travel and per diem expenses.
Pivic said he has contributed to Barlow’s campaign.
Their Text Exchange
In an effort to correct Bextel’s story, said Pivic, he’s sent her a photograph of himself.
Bextel confirmed that text thread by sending partial screenshots of it.
“Thanks Rebecca for lying again about me and making me famous,” said Pivic in the exchange with Bextel. He added, “Please correct your dialogue about me. Please! Figure out who you actually talked to!!! It was not me.”
Bextel wrote back to Pivic that she’s starting to think he doesn’t know how to tell the truth, that he is not 5-foot-10, and “I can prove that I talked with you. Now, see what happens next.”
Pivic then sent her a photograph of himself, reiterating that he is 5-foot-10.
Reflecting on this exchange, Bextel told Cowboy State Daily, “Really, it’s all kind of pitiful. Poor Bruce trying to suck up a few moments of ‘fame’, as he claims. I have made him ‘famous,’ he said.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
