Gov. Mark Gordon signed an executive order Tuesday banning campaign contributions in state buildings, bringing the executive branch into an expanding controversy centered on checks handed to lawmakers in the Wyoming Capitol.
The ban applies to state facilities and commercial buildings where the state leases space, including the Capitol. It does not apply to areas controlled by the Wyoming Legislature, including the Legislative Service Office, committee rooms, and the Senate and House floor, which is where the controversy started last week after a conservative activist was photographed handing checks to lawmakers.
The ban applies to donations made in person by “cash, check, or any other means.” It also applies to online campaign donations when the “solicitation, delivery or acceptance of online donations” originates “within a facility owned or leased by the state.”
The order went into effect immediately.
“Our Capitol belongs to the people of Wyoming, and even the appearance of inappropriateness should never be ignored,” Gordon said in a statement. “My duty is to act to ensure the highest level of integrity is enforced for the people of this great state. I am doing so today in the spaces I have control over.”
The Governor’s Office said the decision followed the recently announced Laramie County Sheriff’s Office investigation into campaign checks that Jacksonite Rebecca Bextel handed out Feb. 9 on the House floor. That happened “while legislation supported by the same conservative political activist was pending before lawmakers,” Gordon said.
“I, like most Wyomingites, believe the House and Senate floors are hallowed places for doing the People’s business, and should never serve as a campaign headquarters,” he said. “Legislators should not be put in the position of being personally approached by lobbyists, activists or others with campaign contributions during the legislative session or when they are working in their official capacities, especially in state-controlled office or meeting spaces.”
The governor also thanked the Senate for “taking immediate action to prohibit this behavior in their chambers.”
The Senate Rules Committee, made up of Senate leadership on both sides of the aisle, has convened multiple times in the last week to draft rules banning campaign contributions to senators in the Capitol any time of the year and entirely during the session. On Monday night, the committee unanimously passed a rule to bring before the entire Senate and, on Tuesday, the Senate voted 31-0 to pass the three-part rule. Senators didn’t discuss the rule before the vote.
The Senate rule bans any person from knowingly soliciting, offering, delivering or accepting “by affirmative action” a campaign contribution in the Capitol. It also bars senators from soliciting or accepting a contribution “by affirmative act” while the Senate is in regular or special session.
Senators will now be barred from knowingly accepting checks in person in the Capitol at any time of the year. It also prevents them from knowingly soliciting online campaign donations or throwing fundraisers outside of the Capitol during a legislative session.
The Senate clarified that the ban will not apply when a senator receives a campaign contribution without knowing about it. For example, the rules would OK a check that arrives in a Senator’s mailbox without them soliciting it or knowing it was coming.
The House, which paused its investigation into the checks pending the criminal inquiry, has not passed any rules about campaign contributions.
Gordon’s executive order will remain in effect until he, as chairman of the State Building Commission, asks the commission to make it permanent.
At a forum in Cody on Monday night, Gordon alluded to plans for the executive order, drawing applause from much of the audience.
In a later interview, Gordon said that he’d been thinking about how to “make it known that probably we should be more respectful of state space.”
“Certainly the optics are embarrassing for Wyoming,” he added. “And, you know, we’re a good state, and we want to make sure that people know our government’s clean and transparent.”
– CJ Baker contributed to this report.