Editor's note
This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between WyoFile and the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
The Wyoming Legislature’s Management Council decided last week to expand its legislative ethics training after some representatives accepted campaign checks on the House floor this session, spurring controversy.
The group, which consists of the Legislature’s highest ranking officials from both political parties, voted unanimously in favor of the ethics training.
They also may take further action before the 2027 session, including tweaking more House and Senate rules. Some lawmakers are also interested in seeing new laws, which are more broad than legislative rules, that deal with campaign finance and lobbying.
Meanwhile, a former leader of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus wants to look into rules for legislative staff, citing concerns lobbyists were allegedly working as legislative aides during the session. The lawmaker hasn’t yet released evidence of that activity, but said it’s being investigated.
The controversy, which has become known as “Checkgate,” began when conservative activist Rebecca Bextel, the Teton County GOP’s state committeewoman, handed campaign checks to four lawmakers on the House floor after the first day of the session concluded. She also handed checks from Teton County donor Don Grasso to other legislators elsewhere in the Capitol during the first week of the session.
While Bextel denied any wrongdoing, the handoffs spurred political scrutiny, lobbying complaints, an executive order, rule changes, a criminal bribery investigation — which has not yet concluded or been shared with the public — and a House investigation, which wrapped up March 6. The House Special Investigative Committee found no evidence of wrongdoing, but concluded that Bextel’s activity on the floor was “undesirable and must never happen again.”
The Investigative Committee also made recommendations for the Management Council to consider.
On April 1, House Minority Floor Leader Mike Yin, D-Jackson, asked the council to consider some of those recommendations in the “interim,” the time between legislative sessions.
The proposals include adding signage to the entry of the floor of the House of Representatives detailing expectations and guidance to visitors; reviewing other states’ legislative rules concerning political campaign activities during sessions; and creating legislative training lessons about “the institution, the need to avoid appearances of impropriety” and why existing rules make the House floor “a special place.”
Yin helped bring the check-passing incident to light by discussing it on the House floor the first week. He was criticized for doing so, and other lawmakers filed an ethics complaint about his decision to do so. House leadership threw out the complaint, along with others filed against Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, who took a photo of Bextel and provided it to the press.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, backed Yin’s motion.
“I think we can dispose of one particular issue now, which is legislator training,” she said.
The training, as proposed, is set to be for all lawmakers, not just representatives, and address “all of the topics implicated this past year.”
While Nethercott and Yin also wanted to establish a subcommittee to draft and propose new rules in response to the conduct on the House floor, the Management Council asked Legislative Service Office Director Matt Obrecht first to review policy in neighboring states, see what may be appropriate in Wyoming, and present his conclusions at the council’s next meeting. After Obrecht’s report is complete, Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, said the council can consider establishing the subcommittee.
In all, the Management Council spent about five minutes of its all-day meeting last week discussing the House Special Investigative Committee’s recommendations. The meeting, which follows the end of every legislative session, was called to discuss “interim” topics and mull internal affairs, like adding a speed bump in the lawmakers’ parking garage, and establishing a new security fund for the Legislature.
Before the end of the brief discussion, Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, the former leader of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, said the subcommittee should also consider rules for legislative staff, interns and legislative aides. Director Obrecht is now looking into those policies.
“We’ve been made aware of some issues concerning registered lobbyists doubling as legislative aides in violation of legislative rules and policies,” Bear said in a statement to the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
“We have begun investigating the situation and will disseminate information to the public at the appropriate time,” he added.
Bear received a check from Bextel, but not on the House floor. He was one of the lawmakers who criticized Yin for bringing up the checks.
Yin, for his part, is interested in studying campaign finance and election law changes. The Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee didn’t ask specifically to consider those changes during the interim — and Management Council didn’t ask them to do so last week. But Yin sits on the Corporations Committee and said he may propose some ideas.
“I want to make sure that we’ve covered all of our bases with the laws that we currently have,” he said. “I’m curious on how the lobbyist statutes that we have apply and whether we’ve enforced them properly.”
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John Bear will never own up to his mistakes. He will always deflect the blame to someone else. For once, John, admit you were wrong and vow to do better.