"Pledge" clash continues at town hall

Four Wyoming legislators answered a host of questions at last week’s town hall meeting in Sundance, but one topic in particular seemed at the front of everyone’s minds.

The event saw further friction between Senator Ogden Driskill and Representative Chip Neiman over a “pledge” the latter asked legislators to sign in support of a bill to introduce run-off elections.

Crook County’s reps were joined by Representatives John Bear of Campbell County and Chuck Gray of Natrona County.

At least the vocal portion of the 50-strong audience appeared to be firmly in Neiman’s corner, meeting the explanations of Driskill and County Clerk Linda Fritz with open hostility.

Run-off Elections

In response to an audience member’s question on election reform, Driskill provided a recap on what happened to the run-off election bill, aiming to set straight the apparent misunderstanding that he is against the concept of changing how elections work in Wyoming.

Driskill stated that he was a co-sponsor but his committee later discovered that it would not be legally workable before the 2022 elections. This, he said, is because there are legally required “windows” for each aspect of an election, such as for early and absentee voting, all of which would have made things difficult even before the issue of redistricting was thrown into the mix.

Driskill stated repeatedly that he is fully in support of run-off elections and of legislation to make them happen, and thinks it will possible to achieve. However, he said, it will take time and work.

Fritz addressed the audience to explain, from the point of view of an election official, why the timing is simply unworkable now that the legislature is no longer planning a special session this summer. She, too, stated several times that she supports run-off elections; however, she said, the timing issue boils down to the fact that trying to put it in place before the 2022 elections would clash with, she said, both the Wyoming Constitution and no fewer than 28 state statutes.

The audience was not pleased with this response; it was mentioned several times that the change to elections is needed by 2022 in order to prevent U.S. Representative Liz Cheney from retaining her seat.

Questions were asked such as why Fritz can’t summarize what can be done instead of what can’t; why the committee is bothering to push through a bill on ranked choice voting; why the bill couldn’t just be passed swiftly so as to become law in time for the technicalities to be addressed and why the bill can’t just apply to the top statewide elected positions (which they felt would bypass the issue of so many types of ballot needing to be prepared in time, though Fritz stated that it would not.)

Driskill responded to a question as to why the legislature can’t just go ahead with a special session this summer, explaining that the considerations were, “time, money and what we were actually going to accomplish.” It costs around $80,000 per day to host a session, he said, and legislators had been assured that Governor Mark Gordon was not going to spend the recent round of COVID-19 stimulus money “willy nilly,” which made it less urgent to meet in order to discuss how to allocate it.

Fritz pointed out that, if Wyoming goes ahead with the changes but makes a mess of it due to timing, the federal government will automatically step in and take over the state’s elections. She asked the audience a question of her own: do you want this change badly enough to risk that happening?

A number of voices around the room responded that yes, they do want it badly enough to take the risk. Voices were raised in the aftermath as Fritz was accused of negativity and of misconstruing the words of spectators.

Against the Pledge

Discussion then turned to the crux of the matter: anger from audience members that Driskill was unwilling to sign Neiman’s pledge. One audience member described himself as “pissed off” and “offended” with Driskill for “spanking” Neiman in the newspaper, while Neiman received a round of applause for his efforts to get run-off election legislation passed.

Though apologetic that the issue was aired in public at a legislative committee meeting, Driskill did not show regret for standing against the pledge. He responded to the criticism by clarifying that his refusal to sign it had nothing to do with his support of run-off elections.

Instead, he said, it was because he disagrees with the concept of a legislator signing a pledge to support a specific bill. Referring to a similar pledge that was passed around at this year’s session asking legislators to support the Second Amendment Freedom Act, Driskill pointed out that the bill in its final form was so vastly different to the original that its own sponsor voted against it.

“Bills change,” he said. “They never come out as what they started.”

Again, Driskill told the audience that he agrees “wholeheartedly” with the idea of run-off elections – just not with the pledge. He later explained that pledges themselves are fine, but when they demand support for a specific bill they cross a line.

Bear expanded on his point, telling the audience that it’s not uncommon for “poison pill” amendments to change the meaning of a bill. However, he stated that he did sign the pledge.

The audience did not seem happy with Driskill’s explanation, with Nancy Morgan commenting, “You either represent us or you rule us, and we are tired of being ruled.”

An opinion voiced from one audience member, to murmurs of agreement from others, is that there is an “elite” group of legislators in Cheyenne doing only what is good for themselves and working behind closed doors, and pledges are a way to circumvent that problem. Several people noted that it’s the spirit of the pledge that matters, not whether the legislator actually follows through, because constituents are able to understand when a bill changes from its original intent and a legislator can no longer support it.

Defending the Pledge

Neiman himself spoke to the pledge at the latter end of the meeting, reading out the email that he sent to legislators in anticipation there would be a special session, which has since been cancelled. In the email, he alluded to the fact that Wyoming has basically become a one-party state and this has created the problems of crossover voting and the winners of a primary race sometimes not receiving the majority of the vote.

He pointed to Cheney’s upcoming race for reelection as highlighting the problem.

“I am sending out this pledge in an effort to gather support for this legislation in the special session that is being proposed as an effort to allow the time necessary to enact measures to defend this situation from coming to fruition,” he read from the letter.

Nothing in that email, he said, questioned the integrity of Wyoming’s county clerks or their ability to do the job. It was about party integrity, he said.

An email circulated through the Wyoming Republican Party contains the pledge itself, which reads: “I hereby pledge to vote for the cross-over vote bill as introduced to the 2021 Legislative session of the Wyoming House and the runoff election bill related to all Wyoming elections for U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate and the top five state elected officials.”

Neiman told the audience that, “This was not a gotcha,” simply an attempt to gauge support before the special election.

“All I knew was that the people of Wyoming and especially of my district want that,” he said. He expressed that he sees no issue with asking for support on a specific bill because voters can be trusted to understand when a legislator cannot later fulfill their pledge because the bill itself has changed.

New Pledge

At the end of the meeting, Crook County Republican Party Chairman Roger Connett asked all four legislators if they would be willing to sign a different pledge. This one, he said, asks them to guarantee that they will support the Republican platform at least 80% of the time.

All four agreed to sign it, although Driskill asked a couple of questions to understand better the intent. In return, Connett confirmed that legislators’ adherence to the pledge would be gauged through an audit of their actions on every single bill, rather than cherry-picking a handful.

Driskill asked if there would be a review process allowing legislators to explain why they voted in a particular way. Connett referred him to “party emails” on the topic of legislator actions.

From the audience, Mark Hughes commented that the pledge is not meaningful. There’s no way, for example, to know what a legislator believes or believed before they took their seat.

“All you’re trying to do is alienate people here, and I think that’s wrong,” he said.

Other Issues

Pledges were not the only items addressed during the meeting, with questions hitting on a myriad of hot topic issues from abortion to vaccine passports, illegal immigrants to transexual women in sports.

“This was a commitment that I made when I ran for this position,” said Neiman of his desire to run town hall meetings, stating that his goal is to build “relationship and rapport” with constituents.

Neiman provided a recap on actions taken so far this year by the Wyoming Legislature, including $430 million in cuts to the state budget to account for a reduction in income.

The education committee will be focusing on a reduction to the school budget during the interim, Neiman said, because no progress was made at the session.

Medicaid expansion has been resurrected through the revenue committee, Neiman continued, but he is unsure how far it will get at the next session. Bear in mind, he said, that a bill requires a two-thirds majority vote to be brought forth in a budget session.

Legislators answered numerous questions from the floor, beginning with one from Ann Marie Mickle on the issue of mandatory vaccines. There’s nothing on the table right now to force Wyomingites to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Neiman said, and Governor Mark Gordon has said there won’t be in the future.

Driskill said he sponsored a healthcare freedom bill in 2013 that should be applicable to this situation, as it’s enshrined in the Wyoming Constitution. “I think, in truth, they can’t do it anyway,” he said.

Gray added that there is a bill draft out there right now to ban vaccine passports.

Legislators were asked about an audience member seeing “unmarked buses” near the Campbell County border. He asked if the governor has allowed illegal immigrants to be dropped off in Wyoming.

Bear responded that the governor has recently stated he is not going to allow illegal immigrants in Wyoming and he takes his word on that statement. That doesn’t mean they won’t come here of their own volition, he said, but Wyoming is among just three states not participating in the program.

Bear said he supports this because the immigrants would have an impact on the state’s resources and on jobs and because Wyoming wouldn’t get to pick who came here, so could not, for example, request “persecuted Christians.”

Legislators were also asked whether there will be a continued effort to control education spending and the answer from all four was an emphatic yes.

“We’ve got to,” said Neiman. The injection of federal stimulus money this year helped, but it’s a temporary thing – the deficit is still there, the can has just been kicked down the road.

Driskill called it the “biggest issue we have in the legislature” and said Wyoming is looking at a billion-dollar shortfall within the next decade. All the state is doing right now is taking from the general fund to use on education, he said, and that means highways get worse, fewer services for seniors and more.

“My belief is they can do more with less,” he said, asking if anyone has noticed much of a difference to state services since efforts began to slash the overall budget. While that’s been going on, he added, the education budget has actually grown.

Driskill also stated that he does not support the solutions proposed by Wyoming school districts that involve raising further revenue.

Why is education so expensive? Gray took this question, explaining that the block grant model works on “average daily membership,” which means there is little incentive to control costs because the funding is guaranteed either way, and there are built-in “escalators,” such as for health insurance.

“It’s on auto-pilot and it’s really damaging our state,” he said, taking the opportunity to also note that there is a need to ban Critical Race Theory in Wyoming.