Wyoming GOP takes no action on check controversy

CHEYENNE—As the Wyoming Republican Party Central Committee kicked off its meeting Saturday morning, a local Republican leader sought to address the check-passing controversy that reverberated around the Capitol and the state this month. 

On Feb. 9, the first day of the budget session, Teton County GOP State Committeewoman Rebecca Bextel handed out campaign checks to four lawmakers on the House floor. The photographed exchange led to political and ethical scrutiny, legislative rule changes, an executive order and both a House and criminal investigation.

But it didn’t spur any action by the Wyoming GOP.

Carbon County GOP Vice Chair Joey Correnti stood up ready to speak around 30 minutes into the central committee meeting in a Little America Hotel and Resort ballroom before he was interrupted by Wyoming GOP Chairman Bryan Miller. Correnti planned two resolutions before the state party that condemned lawmakers involved “regardless of the possible legality or constitutionality of their actions and inactions” and asked for their resignation or removal – including National Committeewoman Nina Webber, a state representative from Cody, who invited Bextel onto the House floor on the night in question. 

Those resolutions were unanimously passed by the Carbon County GOP earlier this month and didn’t take action against Bextel, a conservative activist from Jackson. Bextel, along with Teton County GOP Chair Kat Rueckert and State Committeeman David Scheurn, attended the meeting Saturday.

Both Webber and Bextel declined to comment at the meeting.

Miller told Correnti that since he was attending the meeting as a proxy vote, he could not bring any issue in front of the Wyoming GOP Central Committee. Later attempts to pass the resolutions from members of the Carbon County GOP who sat on the committee also failed.

“Just want to let you know that up front, that as a proxy, not a member of the body, your role as a proxy is to vote, not to provide input to the organization,” Miller said. 

Then, he read through Wyoming statute and the state party’s bylaws to explain why Correnti would not be allowed to participate outside of voting on behalf of other central committee members on resolutions and other business. 

Although Correnti is vice chair of the Carbon County GOP, the only members of the state party’s central committee are the chair, state committeeman and state committee woman from a county GOP. There were debates about whether this meant he couldn’t weigh in at all as a proxy. Miller addressed his reasoning again later in his chairman report. 

Correnti left when the meeting broke for lunch and didn’t return to cast his proxy votes on resolutions.

“The work of the body speaks for itself,” he said, when asked to comment on Miller and the executive committee’s enforcement of the rules. 

‘Red meat in the lion’s den’

While Correnti was shut down in his initial attempt to bring the issue to the Wyoming GOP’s attention, the topic was quickly brought up again by Vice Chairman Bob Ferguson. 

“I’d like to start off by talking about the media’s favorite topic this week,” Ferguson said during his report to the committee. “It’s amazing how much ink the Checkgate controversy has gotten in comparison to the fact that the Legislature is passing a two-year budget. 

“We’ve read virtually nothing on the budget and that process has actually gone on pretty well.” 

He said there was “no doubt” that handing out campaign checks on the House floor was not the right thing to do.

“The optics of it are terrible,” he said. “But the hysteria surrounding this from the press really makes it very clear that this has far more to do with who received the checks rather than the act of their delivery.” 

Teton County donor Don Grasso has told journalists he intended the checks for 10 Republicans, all with ties to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus. Ferguson pointed out the focus on the Freedom Caucus, a hard-line Republican faction that has garnered power in the House of Representatives.

“Everyone that opposes the Freedom Caucus was thrilled to jump on the bandwagon,” Ferguson said. He said the press and media “cower at the name Freedom Caucus.” 

“It’s like throwing red meat in the lion’s den,” Ferguson added. 

Following the House Special Investigative Committee’s first meeting Thursday, he said that despite the “unwise” location the checks were handed out, the contributions were “in fact legal campaign donations.” He said there wasn’t a rule, statute or executive order that “called into question any location that a campaign check could be delivered.” 

The investigative committee has not yet issued a report or recommendation for action based on the first hearing. 

What Ferguson wanted to turn attention to was the political influence of Gov. Mark Gordon. At the end of December, Gordon put $150,000 into the coffers of his Prosperity and Commerce Political Action Committee, or PAC, according to campaign finance records at the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office. 

The PAC “supports Governor Mark Gordon and candidates promoting prosperity and commerce in the state of Wyoming,” the sparse website says. These contributions are not limited under Wyoming law. 

Gordon was reported as the largest spender in the 2024 Republican primaries, while he was in the middle of his second term, spending $150,000 on his PAC and $33,000 directly on candidates. 

“Do you think that the senators and representatives that received some of that money immediately forgot about it as soon as the legislative session was gaveled in?” Ferguson asked. “That is incredulous.”

“So, if we’re going to talk about political influence from money, everything needs to be on the table,” he said.

When Ferguson concluded, Miller came up and said, “For the sake of the party and for the sake of our own liability as a party, all of the opinions and comments made by speakers up here today do not necessarily reflect the will of the body of the state party.” 

Ferguson’s speech was one of only three times the checks came up in the nearly five-hour meeting Saturday. 

The second time was after another executive committee member report, when Republicans were welcomed to ask questions about what the Republican National Committee is doing. Teton County GOP Chair Kat Rueckert asked if the RNC would start pushing for people to be arrested now that the Epstein files were released and “it’s now mainstream that the world is now run by satanic pedophiles, or has been run by satanic pedophiles.” 

She turned to the reporters on the periphery of the room and said instead of investigating “Checkgate,” more time should be spent on writing about those people and mentions of Wyoming

Rueckert earned a round of applause.

Resolutions die 

The last mention of the checks came when a final attempt was made by the Carbon County GOP to introduce their two resolutions. State Committeeman Scott Petty brought them, not Correnti. 

The resolution demanding for Webber to resign as national committeewoman because she was the one who invited Bextel onto the floor when the activist passed out checks and because Webber did not address her involvement “in a timely manner,” died because of a lack of a second motion, meaning no one else supported introducing it. 

The second resolution, which condemned and demanded that Reps. Darin McCann, R-Rock Springs, Marlene Brady, R-Green River, Joe Webb, R-Lyman, “as well as any other member of the Wyoming House of Representatives who may be identified and later proved to have accepted a check from Donald Grasso through Rebecca Bextel” or had “personal knowledge” resign from their legislative seats, also failed. 

Since it was seconded, Miller got up and explained that both of the resolutions were out of order.

That, he explained, was because the rules require “anything above a censure to go through a trial,” such as condemnation or asking for resignation or removal. When asked whether a trial would be set, Miller said a formal complaint would need to be filed.

“I personally would recommend that we wait and see what happens with the investigations,” he said, alluding to both the House and criminal inquiries.

And with that, the GOP moved on with its other business. 

Miller said in an interview that he wasn’t going to comment on the issue any further. He said if the Wyoming GOP decides they want to take action after the investigations conclude, then it’s up to them. He said he doesn’t get to make those decisions.

“Why we’re even talking about it at this moment, it’s because of what the press has made of it, not because it had anything to do with the party to start,” Miller said.

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