By William P. Schwartz
Mr. Schwartz, a third-generation Wyoming lawyer raised in Casper and now living in Jackson, representing voters challenging the constitutionality of Wyoming’s “crossover voting ban.” He is a registered Republican opposed to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
In August, Chuck Gray won the Republican nomination for Congress with only 25 percent of the vote. Roughly 3 of every 4 Wyoming Republicans who voted chose someone else; not one of the eight Republicans he defeated has publicly endorsed him. These Republicans all had good reason to reject Gray. I’m asking them, and others, to trust that judgment again in November.
Gray’s partisan posturing for higher office offends most Wyomingites, but it is his performance as Wyoming’s chief election officer that should disqualify him from becoming our sole representative in the U.S. House. Though voter fraud is virtually non-existent in Wyoming, his proudest achievement as Secretary of State has been working against our most sacred right as citizens: the right to vote in free and open elections, unfettered by needless government conditions.
He has made it harder for Wyoming citizens to vote. Echoing unsupported claims of voter fraud from right-wing extremists, Gray pushed one “election integrity” law after another, now making ours among the most restrictive election codes in the nation. Thanks to Gray, we are now one of only six states requiring voters not only to show photo identification but to prove their citizenship with specific paperwork many don’t have. He is equally proud of leading the effort to take away our historic freedom to change our party affiliation up to election day so we could vote in the primary of our choice. None of this fixed a real problem. Wyoming elections have always been clean and well run. The effect of Gray’s laws is simple: fewer eligible Wyomingites voting with less opportunity to vote for the candidates we prefer, or don’t.
He handed our private information to Washington. Unlike the Republican Secretaries of State in surrounding states, Gray was the first in the nation to turn over the voter records of roughly 280,000 Wyoming citizens to the federal Department of Justice, including our driver’s license numbers. Our election code forbids public officials from disclosing that confidential information. No court ordered Gray to do it, and twenty-six federal courts have since rejected the same federal demand. Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese, a Republican who has run elections there for three decades, pointed out that state law bars clerks from giving out anyone’s private information, yet Gray handed it to the feds without so much as a written agreement, and without telling a single clerk. The clerks and Wyoming voters were angry, she said, and she doesn’t blame them. Wyoming people guard their privacy and are rightly suspicious of federal overreach. Yet our own election chief opened the file cabinet to the feds anyway.
He turned a blind eye to federal agents intimidating our election officials. On primary day, Justice Department agents made a surprise appearance at Laramie County polling places, approaching poll workers and saying they intended to interview voters. Gray’s office had advance notice but kept it to itself, catching Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee completely off guard. “This was a poorly managed exercise and one that showed complete disregard for our state laws and administration of our elections,” Lee said. Republican Gov. Mark Gordon called the federal conduct “aggressive” and asked for an investigation. A chief election officer’s first duty is to protect the people who run our elections and the voters who use them. Gray did neither.
Gray’s diminishment of our sacred voting rights while seeking to elevate himself to higher office through our votes should not be acceptable to any Wyoming person.
What should we ABC (“anyone but Chuck”) voters do?
If we split our votes among several candidates as we did in the primary, Gray wins with a minority again. So we need to unite behind one candidate who can actually beat him.
That candidate is Lisa Kinney.
Yes, Lisa is a Democrat. But she is also a person with great courage to stand by her party even as its national brand has become so tarnished in Wyoming. She is also a Wyoming native, a longtime Wyoming lawyer, librarian and educator, and a ten-year veteran of the state legislator who learned to work across the aisle. Former Republican colleagues Rex Arney, Mike Massey and Patty Macmillan have publicly endorsed her, as has former Gov. Mike Sullivan. She is a commonsense centrist, not an ideologue, and she does not march in lockstep with her national party, particularly its “Democratic Socialist” faction. She will win the votes of virtually all Wyoming Democrats. If independents and common-sense Republicans join them, she can win.
Crossing party lines for the right person is a Wyoming tradition, not a betrayal. Not so long ago, our Republican-dominated state elected Democrats Ed Herschler, Mike Sullivan and Dave Freudenthal as governor for a combined 24 years. We judged the person, not the party label, and Wyoming was well served.
One-party control of every office has made Wyoming government more extreme and less accountable. Centrist candidates of both parties do best in a real two-party system that rewards competence over loyalty. We need that back.
Most Wyoming Republicans already said no to Chuck Gray and his Freedom Caucus compatriots. This November, let’s finish the job. Don’t reward Chuck. Vote for Lisa Kinney. Your Republican friends won’t even need to know.