Editor's note
This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between WyoFile and the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
CHEYENNE—The Jackson man who wrote the campaign donation checks at the center of a growing controversy in the Wyoming Capitol says two were intended for the Speaker of the House and the former head of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Whether or not Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, or Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, received or accepted the checks could not be determined by press time. Neither lawmaker responded to requests for comment before publication.
It’s also unknown if conservative activist Rebecca Bextel attempted to give them the checks on the House floor, as she was photographed doing with other lawmakers. Bextel did not respond to requests for comment before publication.
Questions remain about whether the House leaders knew Bextel had been tasked with giving them checks by the time of a tense Wednesday morning debate on the House floor, when word of the Monday night delivery of checks to other lawmakers began going public.
The donor, Don Grasso, a Jackson resident since 2020, spoke with a reporter Friday, giving his name for the first time since the imbroglio began.
“I wouldn’t have done it the way that Rebecca did it,” he said.
While Grasso said he didn’t agree with how Bextel distributed checks he wrote for lawmakers, he shared with a reporter a list of the 10 people he intended them for — including Neiman and Bear, two of the most powerful men in the Wyoming Legislature. He also said Bextel had no ill intent – rather a likely need for “expediency.”
Past comments
Both Neiman and Bear have played notable roles in the response to the controversy.
Both legislative leaders pushed back against another lawmaker, Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, who attempted to daylight the check exchange on the House floor Wednesday. “I believe the representative is making accusations of an individual that cannot be substantiated, and that accusation is offensive to this body,” Bear said at the time.
On Wednesday evening, the Jackson Hole News&Guide and WyoFile published a photograph of Bextel handing a check to a Republican lawmaker on the House floor. The following day, House lawmakers quickly voted to launch an investigation. The motion that launched the inquiry also gave Neiman the unilateral power to decide which lawmakers would sit on the investigatory committee.
The controversy has since spread to the Senate, which is conducting its own investigation, considering changing its rules and state law in the wake of the incident.
The donor
Grasso is a newcomer in Wyoming politics, having only supported a handful of candidates and causes. His first donations came in 2024 and totaled $62,000, according to Wyoming Secretary of State campaign finance reports. The retired businessman is, however, relatively prolific in federal campaign finance, having given over $800,000 since the 1990s.
In January, he said he and Bextel hosted a Teton County meet-and-greet at his home for Megan Degenfelder, the state superintendent of public instruction who is running for governor. Grasso said he helped host a similar event before the session began for Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who is running for the U.S. House.
“I support a lot of candidates,” Grasso said. “You can look at OpenSecrets. But everything I do is very much within the guidelines.”
Grasso also backs charities, he said, and has a passion for the arts.
The retired businessman said he is a friend of Bextel’s and a longtime Republican political donor.
Of the planned donations to the 10 lawmakers, he made each check out for $1,500, the most the state allows one person to give a candidate running for a non-statewide office in Wyoming.
Grasso said that a few weeks ago he gave the checks to his assistant, who handles most of his administrative affairs, and he forwarded her the list of legislators he wanted to support in the upcoming campaign season.
“She sent them to Rebecca because Rebecca was going to mail them out,” he said. “I guess Rebecca ended up passing them out — which I wouldn’t have done it that way — but in any case, I wrote 10 checks.”
Bextel speaks out
Bextel offered her own description of the events Thursday night on a podcast called “The Roundup,” which is run by her business partner, David Iverson. The pair co-founded The Open Range Record, which is styled as an online media outlet producing investigative reporting, opinion and analysis.
Without naming Grasso, Bextel spoke about a singular donor’s generosity — and the process behind receiving the checks and bringing them to the Capitol. Bextel said the donor’s assistant sent her a few checks. But Bextel said the assistant didn’t want to mail them to individual addresses because they knew the Wyoming Legislature was convening soon. Bextel said she offered to drive them down to Cheyenne and deliver them in person.
As of Friday afternoon, Grasso said he had not spoken to Bextel about the issue. He said he was sure she thought it would be easier to drop the checks off in Cheyenne while she was visiting, “for expediency more than anything.”
Grasso said that the checks were supposed to only be for campaign season and had nothing to do with matters before the Legislature.
“Unfortunately, when you do something on the floor — the optics are terrible,” he said.
Besides Neiman and Bear, Grasso intended the checks for eight lawmakers: Reps. Marlene Brady, R-Green River; Gary Brown, R-Cheyenne; Christopher Knapp, R-Gillette; Tony Locke, R-Casper; Darin McCann, R-Rock Springs; Rep. Joe Webb, R-Lyman; and Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper.
Grasso also wrote a check to former Rep. Mark Jennings, R-Sheridan, who plans to run again for House District 30.
Until Grasso spoke with a reporter Friday, it was unclear to the public how many checks he’d written and who may have received them.
In the House, one lawmaker has publicly admitted to receiving a check. McCann told a reporter on Wednesday morning that he accepted a check on the House floor from Bextel on Monday night. He said it came “from one of her buddies in Teton.” He was featured in the photo taken by Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, accepting the check, with other lawmakers nearby, including Rep. Brady.
Asked if he felt that the donation had any strings attached, McCann said, “No one’s ever told me how to vote. Ever.”
Senate leaders also confirmed Thursday that at least one senator was offered a check by Bextel in the Capitol. On Friday, a leader showed a reporter a photo of a check they had in their possession for $1,500 from Grasso.
The committee member blocked out the recipient’s name with their finger to protect their identity. The memo line was left blank.
Grasso’s motivations
Grasso said he wrote the 10 checks in question because he supports the candidates he intended them for.
He said he cares about ensuring Wyoming remains a state without income tax, protecting natural resources and promoting economic growth in the state. He wants candidates that are “going to represent their people well and that’s probably the most important.”
“I’ve been involved in the Freedom Caucus, both nationally and within the state, and I know these people. I’ve gotten involved and think they are good people,” he added.
In 2024, Grasso spent $64,000, giving $35,000 to the Wyoming Republican Party and $10,000 to the Wyoming Freedom PAC — a group that raises money for Wyoming Freedom Caucus candidates in the House.
Unfortunately, when you do something on the floor – the optics are terrible.
Don Grasso
Although Grasso said he never planned for the checks to be handed out on the floor, he said the reaction in the Legislature is “a little overblown.” He said the lawmakers’ offices are their desks, which are on display for the public to see.
Nonetheless, he said Bextel should be more careful how these things are done, “because people can get the wrong impression.”
Grasso said he would cooperate in the House investigation if it came to that.
“I wish that the questions had come to me earlier so that they wouldn’t need the investigation,” he said. “I would have put this thing to bed.”
What’s to come
The House voted Thursday to launch the investigation into the check distribution controversy, less than 24 hours after its members debated the issue.
Rep. Provenza brought the motion, which tasked a special committee of representatives with investigating whether checks were provided to some House lawmakers, and whether that action either violated the Wyoming Constitution or constituted legislative misconduct.
Early on Friday, Neiman named the seven lawmakers assigned to the investigatory panel. He selected Reps. Marilyn Connolly, R-Buffalo, Justin Fornstrom, R-Pine Bluffs, Scott Heiner, R-Green River, Martha Lawley, R-Worland, Ivan Posey, D-Fort Washakie, Reuben Tarver, R-Gillette, as well as Rep. Art Washut, R-Casper, as the committee’s chairman.
None of the committee’s members have received direct donations from Bextel or Grasso in past election cycles, according to campaign finance records.
“They were all more than willing to serve,” Neiman told the lower chamber Friday morning. “I look forward to what we accomplish with this, and that we can do good things for, moving forward, the House of Representatives.”
Multiple committee members spoke in favor of launching the investigation during Thursday’s discussion.
“I spent some time doing internal affairs investigations in my previous career,” Washut, a retired police officer, said. He was speaking against an amendment that would have broadened the committee’s work to include reviewing potential revisions to the state’s public record laws.
“My experience was always that if you had a certain set of facts that you were going to investigate, you kept that tight,” Washut said. “You focused on those facts. You did an investigation and you generated a report.”
‘The toughest fights’
While the House and Senate are trying to figure out what happened in their own chambers, and how to prevent it in the future, Bextel gave her own explanation.
“This is not going to be sexy or glamorous,” she said on “The Roundup” Thursday.
Bextel said she talked with a donor — who she did not name — about writing checks a few weeks ago after talking politics.
“He said, ‘Well, who’s in the toughest fights?’” Bextel said. “I just started listing off candidates.”
Grasso said Bextel is one of the people he listens to about Wyoming politics. She was his real estate agent when he first moved to Wyoming. “She’s a close friend,” Grasso said.
He said he knows Bextel is involved “in some controversies,” but said he’s very happy with her stance on housing in Teton County. He said she’s been “uncovering things.” Bextel is a longtime critic of Jackson and Teton County policies, including mitigation rates that charge developers to fund affordable housing.
“She’s the target, and I think the fact that she passed out the checks magnified that in my view,” Grasso added.
On the podcast Thursday, Bextel said she handed checks to lawmakers when she saw them — including on the House floor.
It was not done in “the dark of night,” she added.
“The dark of night would have been outside the Capitol or in this guy’s hotel room or in an envelope,” she said. “There’s nothing to hide. We’re very proud of Darin McCann’s voting record. We’re proud of a lot of the legislators’ voting record.
“I just handed him a check not thinking anything about it,” Bextel said.
Lawmakers have since criticized the financial exchanges as Bextel backs bills in the House and Senate intended to end Teton County affordable housing programs, like mitigation.
Bear authored a bill to do so, House Bill 141.
The House Appropriations Committee, which Bear chairs, was scheduled to review it Friday night.
But Friday, Bear didn’t oversee the committee. Instead, Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, took the helm. She told a reporter that they are taking turns running meetings. Rep. Abby Angelos, R-Gillette, chaired the panel the day before.
The Committee had not finished its business before publishing time.
People who are against handing out checks on the House floor “are people that would have a problem with any check being written to a Freedom Caucus candidate,” Bextel said on “The Roundup.” She argued that she has helped “set an even playing field” financially between the Freedom Caucus, the more moderate Wyoming Caucus, and “dark money, George Soros candidates.”
The Freedom Caucus is “outfunded every time,” she said. Campaign finance records suggest otherwise.
Bextel also was explicit in her intent to end Teton County housing mitigation fees, which charge developers in order to fund affordable and workforce housing.
“You know what else this is about?” she said. “The end of housing mitigation fees.”