This year’s election is unlike any that Wyoming has seen before. More races are contested this year than at any other time in recent memory, and those races largely break down on ideological lines. Although the action is primarily focused on the Republican primary, Wyoming voters have genuine choices on what the future of our government will be.
Opinion
Along with this, Wyoming is seeing the intrusion of the worst parts of national political campaigns. This is especially true when it comes to the coordinated attack mailers that many of us have received. The mailers have targeted members of the Legislature who are not affiliated with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. They are untrue, personal and poorly done. The people behind these mailers should be ashamed of themselves — both on account of their character and their competence.
One specific Virginia-based group has engaged in particularly bad conduct. They have sent out identical mailers in multiple legislative races that are almost entirely false. Simply put, they are lying to the people of Wyoming. They make false claims about votes that did not happen, they attack in personal and spiteful ways and they try to trick Wyoming voters into believing things about these legislators that are patently false.
The one silver lining surrounding these mailers is that they are so poorly done that it undercuts their effectiveness. In one mailer sent in early July, the card misidentified which candidate was the incumbent, included the wrong dates for early voting and could not even get the picture of the candidate right. Rather than the actual candidate, the mailer included the picture of a U.S. Senate staffer with the same name. The sloppiness of this group would be comical if the misinformation were not so widespread.
Unfortunately, there is not just one bad actor in this year’s election. Wyoming has its own homegrown groups that engage in similarly bad conduct. The Wyoming Freedom PAC, affiliated with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, recently sent out mailers with outright lies on them — accusing multiple legislators of voting to remove former President Trump from the ballot. No such vote ever occurred. Rather, these legislators voted for a budget footnote limiting the Wyoming Secretary of State from expending state funds to engage in litigation based on other state’s election laws. These are very different things and trying to say they are the same is a lie. Those who put out these mailers, and those who continue to push the false statements contained in them, are lying to the people of Wyoming.
These mailers reveal the character of those who back them. When confronted with the lie, both Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. John Bear (R-Gillette) and Secretary of State Chuck Gray embraced it. Not only were these officials willing to lie, but when caught in the lie, they were unrepentant. It shows a willingness to seek power at any cost. They do not care about the truth or about maintaining their moral standards, as long as the result is power in their own hands. They have betrayed the trust the public has put in them, and we should not reward their willingness to deceive their constituents.
While the out-of-staters can be dealt with by merely ignoring them, those closer to home require more vigilance. They have shown a willingness to outright lie if doing so will advance their goals of increasing their own influence. We need to be diligent and decide what type of place we want Wyoming to be. Are we just another battlefield in the culture wars, where national interests control our state? Are we willing to cede our state to those who would lie and cheat to govern it? Or are we willing to push back and reject those who would use unethical and immoral tactics to try to deceive us?
Wyoming needs to hold those who seek power at the expense of truth to account. We deserve more and better from our public officials. Those candidates who refuse to disavow lies told to their constituents have breached the public trust. They harm our state and our social fabric through their betrayal. We must not reward their degradation of our political system. We have the choice, right now, on how to respond to attempts to lie, cheat and deceive. It is up to us to decide what type of state we are. Choose wisely.
It’s shameful that people support such an obvious lying con man.
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/11/nx-s1-5070566/trump-news-conference
Going by the title, deception is ONLY thing the new age gullible ol’ party supports and abides by.
As the first WYCFIS required report is due in a few days, we’ll soon know who has accepted PAC money, “dark” money, and out-of-state money, won’t we?
Regarding “deception,” who will the arbiters of truth be? How will the truth be determined? What about the legislators favored by the Governor and the majority establishment Republicans, who routinely vote with their Democrat colleagues, despite running as Republicans, swearing they are conservative and wholly support the Republican Party platform and even accept campaign donations from the very party whose precepts they abhor?
What about those who accuse candidates of lying without ever naming the lie or presenting a shred of evidence? Does this mean that ALL legislators and candidates to public office would be required to tell the truth? Or just the ones the Governor does not favor?
you have this so right.. the attack pamphlets are scurrilous for certain I only hope that voters can.. with help of comments like yours here, can sort out these lies and deceptive doggerel
Well stated, Khale,
One can only wonder how our Secretary of State, Chuck Gray, who ran on the platform of “election integrity” can look the other way. He was ready to promulgate draconian measures to make it much harder to vote and sought to solve a problem that did not exist in Wyoming, but he sees no issue here. Oh, wait, these organized liars are not attacking Trump, and they are pro Freedom Caucus, so they get a pass.
Most liars and cheaters have a steadfast rule: When confronted with truth, deny, deny, say “what about…” and change the subject.
Mr. Lenhart, as always, is only about half the story. There are plenty of lies in politics and while he wishes to paint one side against the other, the public also knows that the last paragraph of this diatribe could be written this way.
“Wyoming needs to hold those who HOLD power at the expense of truth to account. We deserve more and better from our public officials. Those OFFICIALS who refuse to disavow lies told to their constituents have breached the public trust. They harm our state and our social fabric through their betrayal. We must not reward their degradation of our political system. We have the choice, right now, on how to respond to attempts to lie, cheat and deceive. It is up to us to decide what type of state we are. Choose wisely.”
Mr. Lenhart, this is a political campaign and the flyers in the past 2 elections cycles have been as bad as this cycle, but directed against the other side. There have even been bills in the legislature to try to limit this activity. The past bills were aimed at out of state groups supporting those who serve with high scores on WYRINO and Low scores on the WEA legislative reports. Note: all legislative scorecards in Wyoming look the same, left or right leaning scorecards score relatively the same… but flip based on the left or right leaning perspective of the scorecard.
The nastiness in the Wyoming legislature will clearly continue. Politicians have lied and will lie for the endless cycles of time. What you are seeing through the lens of members of the Wyoming Caucus is the mirror image of those who look through the lens of the Freedom Caucus… and that is division in the Republican party in Wyoming.
North Carolina has the same division. But it is in the Democrat party with DINOs running for office.
It is the division of ideologies within a single party that is the seed for the behavior you are seeing. Those who wish to continue to hold power will have outside groups sending the flyers that you are describing. And those trying to acquire power will do the same. Shocker! Any astute observer over the last 3 election cycles can see this from both sides… why can’t you Mr. Lenhart?
The Capitol building is dominated by republicans and currently the Wyoming Caucus (and like minded associates) dominate. Those in the Freedom Caucus are denied chairmanship, as well as limitations on committees. If the Freedom Caucus gets a few more seats, then it will flip. The result will be that the Wyoming Caucus will not have chairmen and their participation in committees with be limited. And the division will worsen.
This is obvious to the most casual observer that division hurts the people of Wyoming. At this point in time, nearly half the legislature leans Freedom Caucus in the House. And they have NO chairmen. Half of Wyoming citizens have a limited voice in the legislature with their legislator confined to one committee. The other half of Wyoming citizens, who have a Wyoming Caucus legislator, enjoy their voice on multiple committees and possibly a chairman. This becomes the division that drives the nastiness.
We have laws to limit this kind of division, but they are ineffective because they assume it is a division between major parties. Reality is that Wyoming is split in a single party. Democrats can serve in far more committees and have a greater voice than those elected by about half of Wyoming voters. When Dockstader, Driskill, and Sommers remove members from committees or assign a member to ONLY the Journal committee, or remove a chairmen contrary to rule… they increase the division.
If House leadership persists to deny power to republicans that lean one way or the other, then this divide gets worse.
When Dockstader, Driskill, and Sommers remove members from committees or assign a member to ONLY the Journal committee, or remove a chairmen contrary to rule… they increase the division.
Wyoming is enriched, if the power of all republicans is shared between the two sides and robust debate reigns. Or even better, those republicans that are truly lying to the public because they lean democrat, register democrat. A three party system that limits the voice of half of Wyoming surely does not serve well.
The Senate has recently been more generous. The conference committee for the last session budget was composed of Freedom Caucus leaning senators. There are chairmen that are Freedom Caucus leaning. The dynamics are complex. But in the Senate, there are those that have come to realize that denying legislative power to elected legislators stifles the voices of Wyoming in the Senate chamber and is a sure path to division of the party. It ain’t perfect, but it is a start.
Too bad that in the House, the Speaker and Leadership don’t understand that.
So long as there are two minorities in Wyoming (Democrats and Freedom Caucus) one will be denied opportunities to serve on multiple committees, in this case the Freedom Caucus. Deny their voice in the House and they will take their voice to the airwaves and the mail.
I know that the Wyoming Caucus would rather not have the voices of the Freedom Caucus in the House chamber, but denying their voice is exactly the driving force of division. The leaders that have been the worst at driving the division of the republican party are in house leadership.
Speaker Sommers has behaved badly and has the power to pick committees and chairmen. Denying republicans elected by districts representing nearly half of Wyoming a share of committees evenly across the house and perhaps a chairmanship or two is a big source of the division.
Governor Gordon gets an assist in this political game as he has decided to run a PAC to support the current leadership side of the House. What kind of governor wants to pick the legislature? One who likes the division. If he can buy seats in the house, he erodes a pillar of the rule of law (separation of powers) by tipping the scales of the voters with his access to wealth. UNETHICAL! And Gordon adds new political wrinkle to Wyoming politics. The Governors PAC is loaded with out of state money, PAC to PAC money, Jackson money, and political insiders helping the Governor try to pick the legislators he likes. Seriously $25,000 from Thiru Thangaranthinam of Chandler, Arizona? Wayne Hughes, owner of the Cowboy State Daily and supporter of Proposition 47 in California ($1.2 million), gives $5,000?
Could we do more to further the division in Wyoming politics? Sure, old hacks like Bruce Burns will petition to run as Independents against republican nominees that they do not like! Nothing says division better than tossing Reagan’s 11th commandment and running against the voters choice.
I wish I could attach the spreadsheet… so the A-Z look at the voices in bill producing committees examples:
Freedom Caucus Leaning
Allemand (Republican)
(1) Ag
(0) Select committees, task forces, or subcommittees
Jennings, Mark (Republican)
(1) Judiciary
(0) Select committees, task forces, or subcommittees
Wyoming Caucus Leaning
Yin, Mike (Democrat)
(3) Management Council, Corporations, Labor/health
(3) select committees
(1) Task Forces
(2) Subcommittees
Zwonitzer, Dan (Republican)
(3) Management Council, Revenue, Health/Labor Chairman
(1) Task Force
(1) Subcommittee
A full accounting shows the split clearly.
This is the source of division. When voters put people in the statehouse and those people have their voice stifled, the division and nasty games ensue. Mr. Lenhart, you are just joining the bullies on the playground.
That’s a bunch of words to try and justify the freedumb caucus lies.
There is always bending of truths and political hyperbole in regards to elections. But, the freedumb caucus has gone above and beyond in their fantasies. A lie is a lie is a lie. Sounds like you approve of lies.
So very disturbing that you write this whole diatribe just to say you want the outside forces of ALEC, the National Freedom Caucus, the Herritage Foundation and the determination to implement their 2025 plan now called 47 to be given the reigns.
The Freedom Caucus is positioned right-wing to far-right on the political spectrum. The group takes hardline conservative positions and favors social conservatism and small government, along with right-wing populist beliefs such as opposition to immigration reform.
Wyoming has always been conservative and did not, I repeat NOT follow a crowd of anyone. You are comfortable with our state being run by others from outside the state generates a slap in the face of every Native Wyomingite and generations of people who did a fantastic job of electing our citizens who actually represented us at home and in Washington. That is no longer true. The misfits and out of staters must be rejected and run out on a rail.
When our own Secretary of State upholds such shenanigans under cover of free speech, he loses all credibility.
A couple of years ago I asked state Republican Party leader if the party platform phrase ‘eternal truths’ included ‘thou shalt bear no false witness’. His response was to block me on all sites. I’m guessing that the answer was, “no.”
Add Barrasso and Hageman to the list.
If we want to restore decencies in USA. Let’s shut down this DARK MONEY and its 501 donations. The Soro’s/Zuckerbergs/Gates/WEF GROUPS NEED REINED IN. TAX THE GROUPS. EVEN CHURCH’s And no I am not a Wacko. I just have the cajones to speak out about what lot of folks think about but won’t say it. Tax the political parties as well. 35-40% is GREAT STARTING RATE.
Lenhart should consider running for Governor in 2026.
Especially politicians fabricating their own credentials ,supplying false information ,skirting the important points and using verbal ,fodder for condemnation.
Thank you Khale for calling out the truth. Your direct delivery of the facts of this matter are appreciated.