Legal counsel for the Wyoming GOP advised county parties to disregard state statute and a Wyoming Supreme Court ruling when considering who should be allowed to vote in local party elections, according to a letter obtained by WyoFile. Instead, the attorney advised county Republicans to follow a contested party bylaw since the matter involves a private organization.
“I understand some have alleged county officers who are no longer precinct persons may not vote in your upcoming elections,” attorney Brian Shuck wrote in a March 17 letter to Weston County Chairman Karen Drost. “They argue that, if there is a conflict between a GOP bylaw and a state statute, the statute controls,” Shuck wrote. “I disagree.”
Shuck’s letter arrived in the midst of victories for Republicans less aligned with state party officials in several county GOP leadership elections. Former Speaker of the House Albert Sommers, for example, was elected chair in Sublette County, while former representatives Tony Niemiec and Lorraine Quarberg were selected to lead their parties in Sweetwater and Laramie counties respectively.
In recent years, harder-line Republicans, including Shuck and Chairman Frank Eathorne, have dominated the party, while infighting and legal battles sapped its coffers. But some pundits and political observers see the recent victories by more moderate Republicans as a sign of the party turning back toward its big-tent ethos of the past.
“I just think maybe this tide might be starting to turn a little bit,” Curtis Rankin, a Weston County committeeman, told WyoFile.
Precinct people
When Rankin, a third-generation rancher, ran for precinct committeeman in August, it was his first time doing so. What drew him to the race — which he handedly won with 68% of the vote — was simple.
“Well, because I don’t agree with what the Freedom Caucus is doing,” Rankin said.
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which aligns with the further-right wing of the state’s Republican Party, won control of the House in the Legislature last year after a meteoric rise that began in some respects in the local party positions that Rankin now finds himself in.
The Freedom Caucus, Rankin said, “they talk about all this transparency that they want and fairness, and then when they get control down at the Legislature, there’s like half of the committee bills that they worked on during the interim that never even got out of the speaker’s drawer to be discussed.”
Committee bills accounted for 14 of the 95 bills that Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, kept in his drawer and thereby unilaterally killed during this year’s session. Last week, former Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, told lawmakers that was to be expected after the 2024 election resulted in an “ideological shift.”
“There’s probably about six of us out of 21 that’s not Freedom Caucus [aligned] on that committee,” Rankin said of the Weston County Republican Party’s precinct members. “So it’s kind of an uphill battle.”
Every two years, the public elects precinct committee members for both the Republican and Democratic parties as part of Wyoming’s primary elections, as outlined in state statute.
The responsibilities of precinct members vary, but arguably their weightiest duty involves selecting nominations for political vacancies. In 2022 alone, Republican precinct committee members were tasked with selecting nominees to replace outgoing Secretary of State Ed Buchanan and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Ballow — two of the state’s top elected officials.
It’s also up to precinct members to elect party leadership — including their chairman and secretary — and to develop the party’s platform, which in turn often shapes legislation.
When Weston County held its leadership elections in March, it followed Shuck’s advice to allow precinct members who had lost their August elections to cast a ballot. That included Chairman Karen Drost, who voted and was reelected to the county party’s top post after losing her race in August.
But that’s not right, Rankin said.
“They claim, you know, being that they’re a private entity, that they don’t have to follow other rules, and so evidently the Supreme Court case in their minds does not affect them, which I just totally disagree with,” Rankin said.
Neither Drost nor Shuck returned WyoFile’s request for comment.
Who gets to vote?
In his letter, Shuck wrote that the argument against allowing ousted precinct persons to vote “relies heavily on the Uinta County case and their interpretation of a state statute.”
The Uinta County case involved a dispute within that county’s Republican Party over who could vote in its 2021 officer and state committeeperson elections. A party bylaw adopted that same year allowed outgoing precinct committee people to vote due to their past positions in leadership.
That was a violation of state law, according to the plaintiffs — a group of Republicans on the outs with the further-right Uinta County GOP leadership — who filed suit in district court. The defendants, which included former Secretary of State Karl Allred, argued that the issue was not for the state to decide but rather the party since it’s a private organization. They also argued that the party’s constitutional right to freedom of political association would be violated if it was prohibited from adopting and using the bylaw in question.
In 2023, the Wyoming Supreme Court sided with the plaintiffs “because the voting procedure used in the election and the party’s bylaw violated clear and unambiguous language” of state law, according to the ruling.
The high court did not decide on whether the state law violated the party’s constitutional right to freedom of association since it was “not properly presented and the Wyoming Attorney General was not notified of, or allowed to participate in, the litigation,” the ruling stated.
Shuck argued in his March letter that since the Wyoming Supreme Court “dodged” the constitutionality question in the case, the party bylaw — and ultimately, the U.S. Constitution — supplants state statute.
“I will see your statute and raise you a Constitution,” Shuck wrote.
What now?
Ultimately, at least a handful of counties allowed ousted precinct committee members to vote in leadership elections, including Washakie County.
“We did a provisional vote, but it didn’t matter in the results,” newly elected Washakie County GOP Chairman Mike Greear said.
Greear, an attorney, previously served in the Legislature as House Speaker Pro Tempore. He said Shuck advised his county party over the phone after a committeewoman raised the issue at its election meeting.
“I would disagree with [Shuck’s] advice, I can say that,” Greear said. “It’s not the kind of advice I would give.”
Had allowing ousted precinct committee members to vote been enough to tip elections one way or another, Greear said it may have been a different discussion.
“Fortunately, we weren’t in that position,” he said.
But the debate over who is legally qualified to vote in GOP leadership elections could play out again in May when county precinct members and officers meet in Cody to elect the state party’s leadership.
Don’t private organizations, and even individual residents, need to follow Supreme Court rulings?
This seems like a bizarre attempt to bypass the rule of law.
Former SOS, Karl Allred, sees the Republican party as a private organization, exercising their right of freedom to associate. So, let’s go with that. The Wyoming GOP is a private organization and they like to make their own bylaws without regard for the Wyoming Election Code. Fine. As a private organization they can do what they want. They can meet, host events, design a logo, choose their leaders, sell raffle tickets, have a blog, etc. The Election Code does not recognize private organizations as political entities. It recognizes minor and major political parties. Therefore, the “Republican” private organization does not have any responsibilities or rights as a political party, as outlined in the Election Code, including filling vacant elected county offices. Political parties belong to all voters registered with the party. A political party organization is not a private organization, but a public organization operating at the pleasure of the SOS as outlined in the Election Code, and answers to the voters who are registered under the party.
The Wyoming state and our U.S. government are representative, beginning with the registered voters and funneling up through elections to the President. A completely democratic system would be unwieldly and no decisions would ever be made. Condensing power makes it more efficient. Voters elect Precinct Committeemen and women who represent them on the County Central Committee. Those elected party officials choose the leadership team as described by the Election Code, which allows for variations per bylaws. The leadership team includes folks who then vote for representation at the state level. Allowing a person who has lost their seat on the County Central Committee to function as though they are an elected official is not logical. The former Precinct Committeewoman or man was not re-elected for a reason. Voters in the precinct did not want them in office. They no longer represent those voters. Imagine if President Biden was able to share the Resolute Desk with President Trump “due to his past position in leadership”? Would Mr. Allred think that was a good idea?
Just like the orange menace, the republican party likes to make its own laws.
My HOA, a private non-profit organization, has to follow the Wyoming Non-Profit Act, or at least I thought so. Perhaps my HOA can ban, and even confiscate, firearms from the premises?
When Brian Shuck gets appointed to the supreme court his opinion will have weight. The Republican Party seems intent on burdening itself with more litigation it will lose. I’ll keep that in mind next time they ask for money.
It’s odd that the WYGOP considers itself a “private organization” when its biennial state convention is a creation of state statute. It also gets its authority to recommend three choices from which the governor must choose to replace anyone who leaves one of the Top Five elected positions or our national delegation in Washington DC before their term runs out.
If the WYGOP wants to truly be “private,” then I suggest repealing Title 22 – Political Parties in its entirety.
Let the parties choose whomever they want to put up for election, but also make them pay for all their primaries throughout Wyoming.
This freedum caucus has broken all the rules. They have no desire to govern. They wish to destroy all of our electoral processes. I actually believe they think they are going to run this nation. I assure you they will receive no support from their “peers” in the federal government. That is obvious as not one elected senator or our representative will lift a finger for Wyoming unless they gain something of value. Greed is their only mantra and approval from trump and the 2025 minions.
I am not sure our Nation will survive this, at least not as the Constitutional Republic we knew. Tyranny is everywhere
You people vote in the biggest bunch of goofs. Well, at least Frank (oral) Eathorne isn’t standing next to a picture of the pope.
General Juan Peron, the populist leader of Argentina said, “to our friends we give everything but to our enemies not even justice should be given.” The WY freedom caucus is about a lot of things; however, freedom and democracy are not on the list. Wake up, WY. The world is aligning against us.
“Secretary of State Karl Allred, argued that the issue was not for the state to decide but rather the party since it’s a private organization” “the attorney advised county Republicans to follow a contested party bylaw since the matter involves a private organization.” OK, there you have it straight from the horses mouth. If, as they maintain, the GOP is a “private organization” then why do the citizens of Wyoming foot the cost of primary elections for “private organizations” Let them nominate the candidates and we’ll vote in November. Save Wyoming some $$$, we don’t need to do the work for “private organizations”