Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
English novelist Charlotte Brontë is widely given credit for the oft-used statement, “Give them enough rope, and they’ll hang themselves.” It’s explanatory when it comes to someone making demands, usually demands that they’re exempt from, but that affect other people.
A more Wyoming version of this comes in this little gem: “He shot himself in the foot.”
It’s often used to point out how someone was in a great position but kept talking, or kept up criminal activity, or simply blew a winning situation with bad decisions.
When it comes to bad decisions, no one can top the “Free Dumb” caucus. They were at it again in Cheyenne at the legislature and this time they were caught red-handed taking campaign contributions from special interest right on the floor of the house.
To be fair, something that’s beyond the mental capacity of the “Free Dumb” crowd, it was after the day’s session was over, but it was still on the floor of the house.
Rebecca Bextel, ostensibly a state GOP committeewoman in Teton County, passed out checks to members of the “Freedom Caucus” after the opening day session had come to a close.
She had press credentials, though no links to any recognized media outlet, and used those credentials to meet and hand members in support of her legislation campaign contributions before the bill in question came up for consideration.
The bill in question opposed housing relief from the astronomically high rent in Jackson and throughout Teton County. It’s an untenable position for workers to find affordable housing in Jackson. Workers routinely pool their resources and cram five, 10, or more people into a two- or three-bedroom house just to survive.
Bextel represented landowners in Jackson who don’t want the interference to affect the high prices they charge these people for sometimes questionable-quality abodes. It’s a modern version of the slums surrounding the Chicago meat packing plants of the early 20th century, as written about by Upton Sinclair’s muckraking classic, “The Jungle.”
But it’s no jungle. It’s simply influence peddling on an open, epic scale. Every “Free Dumb” representative who received a campaign contribution last week in Cheyenne voted in Bextel’s favor to introduce the bill, a bill designed to eliminate any chance of rent control or low-income housing in Jackson.
The first reaction of the representative taking the checks was to deny that it happened. It’s an old political playbook technique, deny, deny, deny. It didn’t work. There were a couple of cell phone shots of these people taking the checks, and once they hit social media, the denials changed to unorganized attempts to explain away the issue.
Democratic Representative Mike Yin of Jackson, no fan of Bextel, called for his fellow house members to not vote to allow the introduction of the bill. Thanks to the “Free Dumb” folks, it was introduced anyway. Like good little Germans, the representatives followed Bextel’s suggestions.
Yin thought voting for the bill just two days after taking campaign contributions, then supporting the bill would look bad for the house. In the words of exasperated teenagers, “You think?”
Representative Rachel Rodriguez-Williams of Park County, the chair of the Labor Health and Social Services committee, the committee that will handle the legislation before it hits the entire house, offered this lame excuse when it was made public that she had taken money from Bextel.
“These are our desks. I live six and a half hours away from home. If there is someone from Park County and my husband sends a check from home to Cheyenne to pay a bill and the minority party takes a picture… Again, this is my office…what’s the media going to allege?
Allege? Nothing is alleged; you were caught taking a payment from a lobbyist on the floor of the house. There is no allegation, just an exchange of cash. In this case, in favor of wealthy landlords in Jackson. As far as the logic involved in her statement. Well, you figure out what she was attempting to say.
Not everyone in Cheyenne is in favor of lobbyists like Bextel. Laramie County Senator and Riverton High School graduate Tara Nethercott posted this on her social media pages.
“I unequivocally condemn the practice of distributing campaign contributions to legislators during the legislative session while measures affecting a donor’s interests are under active consideration.
The integrity of our legislative process depends on the public’s confidence that decisions are made on the merits, grounded in the law, the facts, and the best interests of the people of Wyoming, not influenced by the timing of political donations. Providing campaign contributions in close proximity to committee hearings, floor debate, or pending votes creates, at the very least, the appearance of impropriety and risks eroding trust in this institution.
While lawful political participation is an important part of our democratic system, maintaining clear ethical boundaries is essential. Legislators share a responsibility to uphold the integrity of the institution and ensure that the line between advocacy and undue influence is not blurred.
I remain firmly committed to transparency, ethical governance, and preserving the public’s trust in the work we do on behalf of Wyoming.”
Amen, Senator Nethercott. Imagine what an effective Secretary of State she would have made in comparison to the clown show of Chuckie Gray.
Gray is Johnny One Note on the question of election integrity, a solution in search of a problem. Chuck annoys the dickens out of Wyoming’s 23 county clerks with his incessant, biased banter, but he has no problem taking the endorsement from the “Free Dumb” caucus, which has no moral boundaries when it comes to taking donations.
Tara ran against Gray in 2022 and refused to take the low road; she concentrated on the issues, her experience, and the ways she wanted to help the people of Wyoming.
Little Chuckie wallowed in the mud. He painted Nethercott as some wild-eyed liberal. She was a native, born in Pinedale, attending school in Pinedale, Lovell, Shoshoni, and Riverton. Graduated with an undergraduate degree from the University of Wyoming and then the Wyoming School of Law before beginning a successful legal practice in Cheyenne.
Mud slinging works. Little Chuckie is from California and never worked for anyone aside from his dad. He claimed Tara was going to take away guns, support the far left, and was a danger to Wyoming.
Tara’s late father Jim was a respected sheriff deputy serving in Sublette, Park, and Fremont County. Her brother Todd was a nuclear submarine commander stationed at Pearl Harbor. Her other brother, Troy, was a linguistic specialist in the U.S. Army, serving several tours in the Middle East, and now works as a contractor in military intelligence. To top it off, her grandfather was one of the best hunting guides in Jackson Hole. Not much of a family resume for someone falsely accused of being opposed to gun rights is it?
None of that mattered. Repeat a lie often enough, and people will believe it. That’s Chuckie in a nutshell.
Tara is still taking the high ground, and Chuckie is taking money from the “Free Dumb” caucus as one of their favorite boys.
It’s only six months to the Republican Primary. Remember the names and faces of those taking money for votes and do something about it at the polls.
We need good, honest, viable candidates to oust these clowns this summer. If you’re thinking about making a difference, why not run against them?
Wyoming and our way of life depend on it. Don’t let the book-burning, Bible-thumping, knowledge-hating extremists win.