I had to laugh when I heard state legislators advise their colleagues last Thursday to keep politics out of an investigation concerning a conservative activist who gave checks to some far-right Freedom Caucus members on the House floor.
Opinion
Sure, what could possibly be political about that scenario? Wyoming’s “Checkgate” controversy set off a firestorm in the Legislature that has sparked separate investigations by the House and Senate, plus a criminal probe by Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak.
Does anyone think this bombshell story, which is playing out amid the Legislature’s budget session, won’t be on the minds of Wyoming voters when they head to the polls for the Aug. 18 primary?
Many voters were dismayed two years ago when their mailboxes overflowed with explosive, often inaccurate campaign material, but the opportunities for finger-pointing and accusations will likely be even greater with this imbroglio.
Rebecca Bextel, a GOP fundraiser in Jackson and state committeewoman for the Teton County Republican Party, handed out campaign checks on the House floor after adjournment on Feb. 9, the first day of the session.
The incident became a news story on Wednesday during debate on an anti-affordable housing bill that Bextel was lobbying lawmakers to support. Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, questioned voting on House Bill 141, “Fifth Amendment Defense Act,” when one of its prime supporters was seen distributing checks to lawmakers on the floor two days earlier. But he did not name Bextel or any legislators who received checks.
The Freedom Caucus immediately pounced on Yin. Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, chair emeritus of the Freedom Caucus and HB 141’s sponsor, said Yin was “making accusations of an individual that cannot be substantiated, and that accusation is offensive to this body.”
House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, also objected to Yin’s claim and asked him to substantiate it. Yin declined to “present anything here” and added he does not “do props in the Legislature.”
Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, the Freedom Caucus chair, officially protested Yin’s claim. She charged that he made a defamatory statement.
I’m guessing that Rodriguez-Williams now regrets her comment that any check passing on the House floor “essentially would be bribery and unethical.”
Initially, Bextel had nothing to say to a reporter who asked about the checks except a rude “it’s none of your business.” But after the House voted 50-11 to introduce Bear’s bill, she told Yin, while he was being interviewed by a reporter, that she planned to sue for defamation. Bextel went on Facebook later and called Yin a “sore loser.”
While she defended herself, Bextel’s account confirmed what Yin said was true: She gave checks to lawmakers on the House floor. She even wrote that she had “saved paper envelopes and [the] carbon footprint” by delivering them at the Capitol.
Then came the blockbuster news: A photo published Wednesday night by WyoFile and the Jackson Hole News&Guide showed Bextel on the House floor, handing a check (which we later learned was from Don Grasso of Jackson) to Rep. Darrin McCann, R-Rock Springs. The photo was taken by Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie. Appalled by what she witnessed, she picked up her phone and documented it.
“The optics is bad, I agree, absolutely,” McCann said on Thursday, before Povenza’s motion to have a special committee investigate the matter was unanimously adopted. McCann said he welcomed the probe.
“I did nothing wrong. I did not accept any bribe or anything like that. If this were to happen at a motel, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” McCann said. “It happened on this floor, and I made a mistake.”
While Bextel described the checks as campaign donations, no one is an official candidate until the filing period starts May 14.
On Friday, WyoFile and the Jackson Hole News&Guide reported that Grasso wrote checks to Neiman, Bear and McCann, plus Reps. Marlene Brady, R-Green River; Gary Brown, R-Cheyenne; Christopher Knapp, R-Gillette; Tony Locke, R-Casper; and Rep. Joe Webb, R-Lyman. All voted for HB 141.
Grasso also said he wrote checks to Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper, and former GOP Rep. Mark Jennings of Sheridan, who plans to run again in House District 30.
With the exception of McCann and Webb, it’s not known if others received checks or whether any were distributed on the House floor. In the photo, Brady is holding what appears to be a check, but she didn’t directly answer questions about what it was.
The House’s seven-member investigatory panel appointed by Neiman needs to find out what the House speaker and Bear knew about the checks Grasso wrote to them before they challenged Yin’s claim.
I hope that the investigations will quickly determine if there have been any violations of state law or if they constitute House misconduct, because Wyomingites of all political stripes want answers now and they deserve the truth.
To at least partially remove what several lawmakers called a “stain” on the body, both chambers need to pass laws or adopt rules to prevent this from ever being repeated. Banning campaign donations while legislators are in session, as 28 other states do, would be a great start.
Bextel is not an official lobbyist, but she is a credentialed member of the press as co-owner of a new media outlet called The Open Range Record with David Iverson of Cowboy State Politics.
On Thursday night, Iverson interviewed his business partner live on their website. Bextel refused to back down. In fact, she said she was doubling down. I hope she doesn’t triple down when she testifies, or we’ll be hearing even more of this malarkey:
“Let’s be honest. I think what’s really going on here is I’ve helped set an even playing field with the conservatives on the financial playing field,” Bextel said. “The Wyoming Caucus and these Democrats, dark money, George Soros candidates, they raise a lot of money for these candidates.
“You know who gets outfunded every time?” she added. “The Freedom Caucus, the people’s candidates.”
Bextel said the people complaining would object to any check being written to a Freedom Caucus candidate.
Yes, those Democrats — all six of them in the 62-member House — have really created an uneven playing field. And as for the Freedom Caucus being outfunded, that’s not what happened ahead of the 2024 primary, when the group considerably outraised the more traditionalist Wyoming Caucus.
When Freedom Caucus members and Bextel inevitably launch their “we’re getting picked on” defense at the hearings, let’s remind them that the caucus failed Wyomingites last year by going home without passing a budget. If the group wants to stay in power, its members should resist playing political games with this investigation.
Trying to pin blame on Yin, who did his job and thankfully brought this conduct out in the open, is something voters will easily see through. When Freedom Caucus leaders’ tough talk about defamation and procedural protests blew up, it became clear the wheels are falling off their clown car.
Next time, I hope Bextel springs for some envelopes and stamps. She’s an unpaid fundraiser, so why not hit a flush Freedom Caucus supporter up for some postage money?
I tried several times yesterday to respond to this opinion piece by Mr. Drake.
Something was wrong with the Internet, where I live, and it kept going down I believe because of the wind.
However, I’m really glad the wind was blowing yesterday. It kept the stench of the Dumb carcasses from reaching my house . I live up on the north side of town and the wind always blows from the north.
However, I am hoping Bextel can write a check to the Internet providers to help them get better Internet out here.
I’m glad that Governor Gordon and the legislators passed orders that political contributions cannot be made anywhere
On state owned property.
I was born in Wyoming 69 years ago and I’ve seen a lot of bonehead things done, but I think this has to take the cake.
It’s really sad though that a governor has to pass an executive order against stupidity
But the real thing I want to address is the comment about keeping her carbon footprint, low and that that’s why she didn’t use envelopes.
For background during the past 27 years, I have planted hundreds of trees on my property to help the environment and to make things pretty. The majority of the energy I use at my house is powered by solar power I own a hybrid car and I recycle everything I can. In addition to that, I ran a recycling project for Magic city Enterprises for many years . The project also provided employment for many people with disabilities.
I’m not trying to brag, but I’m just trying to point out that I know a little bit about recycling, and carbon footprints
So she saved envelopes. I wonder how much of a carbon footprint she created when she drove down here from Jackson. Or maybe she flew down from Jackson. But she saved envelopes.
But enough on her. I don’t think she was really bribing anyone but we can let the sheriffs department and the legislature figure that out. Stupid is as stupid does
The other thing I would like to address is the really stinky carbon footprint that arrived in my mailbox during our last election.
After a couple of pieces of mail from the
Dumb carcass I started saving it all because I found it really annoying that it was so negative. So full of lies.
I didn’t know at first what I was going to do with it, but I was saving it. When the election was over, I thought why did I save this stuff? So I decided to count it and weigh it. I received 53 pieces of negative lies and it weighed almost a pound. Kind of a big carbon footprint.
But, I guess I just wanted to remind myself what politics has turned into. Politics is now entertainment and is run by the great orange God
People of Wyoming, please join me in trying get these people out of office
I miss the America, and I miss the Wyoming that I grew up in
They’re ruining our country and ruining our state.
Please recycle
Ugh, the achilles heal of a republican form of government bubbles to the surface again. Representatives gotta tie themselves to various donors or you don’t get elected. Remember Gordon creating his PAC last election and then giving collectively $130k +/- Gordo-bucks to hand picked Legislative candidates who would best support his agenda? Talk about separation of powers issues. Not a peep said though. The optics of this one stink I have to admit.
It’s not surprising that the Freidumkopf Carcass is following Der Führer in creating a kakistocracy— “Kakistocracy (/ˌkækɪˈstɒkrəsi/ KAK-ist-OK-rə-see) is government by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous people.” (“Kakistocracy,” Wikipedia) Maybe Rebecca Brextel should pass out checks to the Carcass so they can pay the licensing fee for a renamed airport as historian Heather Cox Richardson noted in her substack piece called “February 16,2026”:
“On February 13 and 14, President Donald J. Trump’s representatives filed
three applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to
trademark his name for future use on an airport. As trademark lawyer Josh
Gerben of Gerben IP noted, the application also covers merchandise
branded ‘President Donald J. Trump International Airport,’ ‘Donald J. Trump
International Airport,’ and ‘DJT,’ including “clothing, handbags, luggage,
jewelry, watches, and tie clips.”
That surely would suck up to Der Führer and his kleptocratic gang. Real patriotism there.
George Soros seems available as a premise for every cockamamie right wing conspiracy argument. The “what about them” maneuver– who can whistle first after munching on styrofoam packing peanuts?) didn’t work in high school forensics competitions either.
The Freedumb Caucus (statefreedomcaucus.org) arrived in Wyoming like a bull in a china shop. Mean-spirited, hate-filled campaign materials disparaging sitting members of the Legislature filled mailboxes and post office boxes – which illustrates that the Freedumb funders are obviously flush with cash. But, who is behind this group?
When asked during a public meeting in Pinedale why Senator Laura Pearson sent out such rude mailings, her reply was “I didn’t do it, I don’t know anything about it.” She’s probably telling the truth.
And here we are, watching mere puppets manipulated by their Washington D.C. marionette masters, brazenly accept cajolery checks in the “People’s House.” Since some have forgotten who put them in office, i.e. WYOMING VOTERS, not some out-of-state lobbying cadre, it’s time to flood the polls and remind them who’s Top Dog in our state – we the people.
Handing out “campaign” checks when there are no campaigns is flat out bribery, but no surprise from freedom’s carcass.
I boggles my mind that some folks are so blatantly, buying Wyoming legislators.
They are “evening the playing field ” with Democrats…in the most deep red state in the country? These Freedom Caucus people are bought and paid for liars. No surprise there though. That seems to be a theme from the Whitehouse down to local politicians who march in line with this dark agenda. May voters finally wake up and purge this mess from all facets of government. True freedom depends on it.
Thank you for this article. The hypocrisy is always quite impressive especially when I read this;
“Let’s be honest. I think what’s really going on here is I’ve helped set an even playing field with the conservatives on the financial playing field,” Bextel said. “The Wyoming Caucus and these Democrats, dark money, George Soros candidates, they raise a lot of money for these candidates.
“You know who gets outfunded every time?” she added. “The Freedom Caucus, the people’s candidates.”
It is too early to laugh loudly but the idea that Rebecca wants to portray the FC as the people’s candidates is hysterical. First off one of the biggest donors to the FC was a couple from Teton county(originally from Chicago). I know Teton county isn’t really viewed as real WY. Secondly groups like “The Club for Growth” who jumped on the Harriet bandwagon for her Senate run are most decidedly not a WY group nor a simple “people’s group”.
I have asked for clarification on the statement about dark money and George Soros donations for the democrats here too. Doubt I will get an answer.
Yep, it’s all slowly tumbling down, from the Epstein Buddy in Chief out in DC, the midwestern ICE murder spree in Minneapolis and here out West for the Free Dumb Clown Car Brigade with their little Checkgate problem. The whackjobs got power drunk and tossed all caution to the wind thinking that buying votes out in the open Cheyenne way was going to be just another stunt that they would’nt be called out on. Wrong. The 2026 mid terms are going to be a blood bath for these arrogant and stupid whack jobs and they’re finally going to know what FAAFO means
While I wholeheartedly agree with what you’re saying Steve, the people of this state have shown a penchant for voting crooks and morons into office lately so I’m not sure about a bloodbath in November, especially in ruby red Wyoming. I’d settle for simply electing some honest people to wipe away the stain that the freedom caucus left. People like Barrasso, Hageman, Gray, Degenfelder…and you can’t forget Reid Rasner (“Mr Tik Tok”-who’s trying really hard to run another con on the citizens of this state) need to go permanently also. I certainly hope that you are right about FAAFO…they all deserve it.