What in Dante’s eighth circle of hell is the Wyoming Republican Central Committee thinking?
Just when I think the Central Committee could not get any more ridiculous, they create something else to write about.
Wyoming GOP Chairman Bryan Miller told Cowboy State Daily on Monday the party will not endorse Eric Barlow, the Republican nominee for governor.
Imagine that. The body the Legislature created to run the Republican Party won’t endorse the man 58,825 Republicans picked as their nominee.
To their credit, they aren’t endorsing Constitution Party candidate Rebecca Bextel, Ilhan Omar or Kermit the Frog, either.
They did endorse Harriet Hageman for the Senate and Chuck Gray for the House. So the party can endorse Republican nominees. It just won’t endorse the one who refused to kiss the ring.
Who Are These People?
The state central committee isn’t a private club, now. It’s a creature of statute. Precinct committeemen and committeewomen elected under state law form the county central committees, and each of the 23 counties sends three people to the state committee. That’s 69 people.
Their job is to govern the party. Not govern the voters. Somewhere along the way, these 69 people got too big for their britches. They meet quarterly, play model legislature, and have decided to tell 213,000 registered Republicans how to vote.
The Voters Already Answered.
The Central Committee endorsed Brent Bien. He finished third with 30,850 votes. Barlow got 58,825, Megan Degenfelder 38,746 and Curt Blake 2,161. Nearly 100,000 Republicans looked at the party’s endorsement and voted for somebody else.
Miller blames Bien and Degenfelder for splitting the vote. Maybe. Maybe not.
But the party’s man didn’t finish second. He finished third.
Miller says he wants “213,000 registered Republicans” to “be able to determine who our standard bearers are.” They did. The Central Committee just doesn’t like the answer.
Barlow skipped the endorsement process because, he said, the choice belonged to the voters and the process violated state law. He was right on both counts.
But, the party tipped the scales from the start.
Bien got prime space on the Republican convention floor. Degenfelder and Barlow were shuttled to the back. Bien could post signs outside; others were told to pay the party for the privilege. The Central Committee had its favorite son, and it was going to endorse him come hell or high water.
Then there’s the law. Wyoming Statute 22-25-104 says:
“No political party funds shall be expended directly or indirectly in the aid of the nomination of any one person as against another person of the same political party running in the primary election.”
The party’s defense is that it bought no advertising for Bien. That ignores the word “indirectly.” The hall, the staff time and the website announcing their endorsed favorite son were all party resources spent helping one Republican against another in a primary.
Here’s the tell. In June, state GOP leadership sued Wyoming in federal court to overturn that very statute. Nobody files a federal lawsuit to get rid of a law that isn’t in their way. The party knew what 22-25-104 says, endorsed anyway, and is now punishing the candidate who wouldn’t play along.
The Central Committee is out of step.
President Trump endorsed Degenfelder. All three members of Wyoming’s congressional delegation have endorsed Barlow. When party leadership is crosswise with Trump, the entire delegation and nearly 100,000 of its own voters, maybe the problem isn’t the voters.
Telling voters whom they’re allowed to vote for sounds a lot like the way Vladimir Putin runs elections.
By not endorsing the Republican nominee, what does the party think it will gain?
Do they think withholding an endorsement punishes Barlow? He won the primary without them, and he’ll likely win in November without them, too.
Perhaps they curry favor with Bextel and the Constitution Party. Dumb approach.
Do they expect influence in a Barlow administration? Not likely.
And will a Legislature where voters restructured the power away from the Freedom Caucus feel generous to party leadership out of step with the voters?
The legislature should act this session.
Party central committees currently hold real government power. When a statewide elected official or legislator leaves office mid-term, the party sends three names to the governor or county commissioners, who must choose from that list. Insiders, not voters, fill the seat.
This session, legislature should take a hard look at every statutory duty handed to the parties. Let the voters fill vacancies, not a private club of insiders who think they are above the law.
Let anyone who wants to run as a party candidate do so without a loyalty test from a committee of 69. Let the voters decide.
If the Republican State Central Committee wants to be a social club, let it.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 to 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
