The first of three local Republican Party Primary Election Candidate Forums took place last week in Shoshoni, hosted by the League of Women Voters of Fremont County, the Fremont County Republican Party, the Republican Women of Fremont County, and the Fremont County Democratic Party.
All four groups worked together to determine the format and questions for the event, LWVFC Chair Linda Barton said at the beginning of the forum.
“(It was) a true collaboration,” Barton said. “(We’re) eager to learn about the candidates running for public office.”
State office
The first candidates to take the stage at last week’s forum are running for state elected office: incumbent Wyoming Rep. John Winter, R-Thermopolis, who currently represents House District 28, and his challenger Kevin Skates, along with incumbent Wyoming Sen. Ed Cooper, R-Ten Sleep, who currently represents Senate District 20.
Tom Olmstead, who is challenging Cooper in SD 20, did not attend the event.
“He chose not to come,” forum moderator Maggie Miller said. “I don’t know what the circumstances were, but we’re very disappointed in his decision and firmly believe that Fremont County voters deserve to hear from candidates.”
Winter introduced himself to the audience last week as a Cody native who currently lives in Thermopolis.
He is completing his third term in the Wyoming Legislature and said he is “looking forward to a fourth.”
Skates was also born in Cody and now lives in Thermopolis.
He described himself as a “proven leader” who has served as president of multiple local boards and clubs.
He also spent 35 years working “in government jobs,” including for the City of Rawlins and Hot Springs State Park – experience he said would be beneficial if he is elected.
“I think that’s helpful because I worked with everybody when I worked (for government),” Skates said. “I worked with legislators, governors, special interest groups, organizations, and it didn’t matter who they were or what party they were affiliated with – I tried to work with everybody as best I could.” …”
Cooper introduced himself as a native of Thermopolis who was raised in Worland and Ten Sleep, where he now lives.
“I grew up on sheep and sugar beets,” Cooper said, explaining that his family has “been involved in ag in one form or another” since they came to Worland in 1906.
Cooper has worked in the “oil and gas business” since 1972, and he is finishing his first term in the legislature representing SD 20 – a district that spans “a lot of miles” and includes “a lot of diversity.”
“I’ve tried hard to get to know people from one end to the other,” he said. “I think I can fairly represent everybody here.”
Challenges
When asked to name two of the most important challenges facing Wyoming, Skates talked about “our ability to disagree and be respectful.”
“I think collaboration is huge for our state right now, trying to get Republicans (and) Democrats to do what’s best for the people of Wyoming,” he said.
The other challenge Skates mentioned was mental health, particularly among youth.
“The schools and the state need to work on trying to get counselors (and) counseling facilities within the state of Wyoming so that they’re very accessible,” he said.
Winter said he has “a little different idea about that” topic, expressing his opinion that parents need to be more involved in supporting their kids’ mental health.
“That’s where a kid begins to learn,” Winter said. “It’s got to be from their parents and the school system.”
Mental health
Later in the forum, Miller asked a question specifically focused state efforts to address mental health, to which Skates answered: “At this point … we can’t do enough.”
“I think it’s very important that the State of Wyoming (gets) involved with the medical field, the schools, and really try to press the mental health situation,” he said. “We need to have care here, within our state. … If we have a mental health facility that’s operated through the school and the state, maybe that’s an answer. But I think we really need to dive real deep into that situation.”
Again, Winter shared a differing opinion.
“I don’t know much about mental health except that I know that kids, especially, need a job – they need to work, and they need to understand what it means to accomplish something,” he said. “I think that would take care of a lot of our, quote, ‘mental health problems.’”
He reiterated that the issue “goes back (to) the parents, and to the schools.”
“We can all accomplish a lot if (we’re) given the guidance we need,” Winter said. “To me, that takes care of a lot of the mental problems that people have – if they have a goal and they have direction. … I don’t think we need to get too much more involved in it.”
Skates responded by agreeing with Winter about the lack of “direction” among youth and echoing Winter’s call to “put more emphasis on the parents” when it comes to addressing mental health issues involving their children.
When it was his turn to weigh in, Cooper pointed to the lack of in-patient treatment openings available in Wyoming for people experiencing mental health problems.
“Wyoming (has) a massive, critical bed shortage for mental health,” he said. “We’ve got people locked up in jail because we don’t have any place to go with them. They don’t belong in jail – they belong in a facility getting mental health care. That whole system needs a complete revamp.”
Many people struggling with mental health problems are veterans, he added, and currently, “we’re letting these guys down horribly.”
“We really need to reach out to our veterans and give them the support that they need,” he said.
Specifically, Cooper added, Wyoming needs more rural mental health programs to serve people living in remote areas like Shoshoni, where “you’re kind of out there on your own.”
He had listed “rural health” as one of the most important challenges he sees facing the state, along with school finance reform, property tax reform, predator control, local control, and “the continued viability of our extractive minerals.”
Natural resources
Cooper is a member of a multi-state legislative organization called the Energy Council, which meets several times a year to craft policy recommendations to present to the federal government.
He said members of the Energy Council frequently look to Wyoming for “leadership” as the group works to respond to consumer calls for “low-carbon energy.”
“Customers are demanding low carbon energy, and so it’s our responsibility to help develop that low-carbon energy and bring it to our customers downstream,” he said. “That’s pretty critical.”
The Council is also working to “get the government out of the coal business,” Cooper said.
He spoke more about that topic when Miller asked the candidates to share their opinions about the “balance” between state and federal oversight of natural resources in Wyoming.
As of last week, Cooper pointed out, the state is involved in almost 60 lawsuits attempting to “protect our natural resources” from the federal government.
“It’s extremely expensive, (but) the legislature has funded that, and we will continue to fund that to help fight for control of our minerals and to make sure that our extractive minerals do continue flowing,” he said. “We absolutely have to continue to finance these lawsuits and fight every single day against the overreach of the federal government.”
Winter said the problem got worse when President Joe Biden appointed new leadership at the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of the Interior.
“We have got to change those,” he said. “That’s why we need (a) new president, so he can appoint the proper people. Because right now we have a problem. … The federal government is trying to elevate their position and force things on the state of Wyoming that are unnecessary and are not correct.”
Skates said Wyoming has “done a really good job battling the federal government … over the last 100 years.”
“It’s going to come up … over and over again,” he said. “We just have to resist.”
Property taxes
Several questions at last week’s forum focused on property taxes – specifically the recent exemption that the Wyoming Legislature approved for property owners over age 65 who have paid property taxes in the state for at least 25 years.
Noting that the exemption will create a revenue shortfall of almost $50 million, Miller asked the candidates how they’d propose backfilling the loss – or, alternatively, which services they would cut in order to accommodate the decrease in revenues.
Winter said the legislature hasn’t “come up with a solution” yet to address the revenue shortfall resulting from the exemption, which he thinks was “kind of one-sided.”
“We need to figure out a way to give everybody some sort of a relief, and not just older people like myself,” he said. “There must be a way that we can do something to benefit everyone.”
Skates, on the other hand, said the recent exemption was “too much.”
“We cannot afford to (lose) $49 million,” he said. “(Let’s) take small steps. … We have to go slow.”
For example, he applauded the property tax rebate program that was recently established, and he expressed support for the constitutional amendment residents will vote on this fall that would separate residential property from commercial and industrial property for the purposes of taxation.
“Those are two steps that will work well,” Skates said, adding, “We have to have necessary taxes, and property tax is one that we survive on.”
Cooper agreed that “just eliminating property taxes, which some people would like to do … is absolutely the wrong answer.”
“We have to pay our property taxes,” he said. “We’ve become very accustomed to things like a library and a dump and a fire district and a cemetery district … plus our schools.”
He also pointed out that the “bulk” of Wyoming’s property tax revenues “are not paid by residential (landowners)” but by energy companies and other corporations in the state.
“We need to reform residential (property taxes), but we need to be really careful of what we do with a general property tax elimination,” he said. “We need to leave those taxes in place.”
Winter also expressed opposition to the “movement (to) do away with property taxes” altogether in Wyoming.
“I have not signed on to that as yet,” he said. “I’m like both of these fellows: I think that it’s our duty to pay our taxes. … I just don’t like new taxes. So I’m going to be fighting against that all the time.”
Miller asked how the candidates would feel about increasing state sales taxes to help cover the loss in property taxes, and Skates said he would be “all for that.”
Winter disagreed with Skate’s response, but Cooper said the idea “has potential.”
“It’s something we need to continue to look at as an alternative,” he said.
To watch the entire forum click here.