With Wyoming’s election season officially underway, it seems like a good time to share some opinions on the election in general and speak specifically about the incoming rhetoric and possible disinformation that may soon be inserted into our politics.
Opinion
This year’s candidates have now been finalized for the party primary elections, and there will be over 70 contested state and federal races (out of a possible maximum of around 80 this year), a rather impressive feat of candidate recruitment and organization in a state where incumbency and single-party dominance tend to discourage challengers. It’s important to remember that for Republican candidates the Aug. 20 primary is the big race because many winners will not face a challenger — Democrat or otherwise — in the general election.
Prepare yourself for a wave of advertising and election paraphernalia, bombarding us with ideas about each of the candidates — some good, many bad. And while the political arena will once again become flooded with labels like RINO, conservative, patriot, liberal and the like, we should all focus on the actions of these actors more than the words they try to sell us on. For each political mailer voters receive attacking a candidate, there should be a healthy amount of skepticism about the makeup and motivations of the organizations sending them. If you don’t recognize the sender, that might be your first sign in a small state like ours. We all know who the long-standing organizations are across Wyoming.
We’re seeing a good deal more dubious entities popping up to tell citizens how to vote in recent years, with the Freedom Caucus and its national origins being a prime example. Groups like “Honor Wyoming” have been trying to convince you this year that some candidates have “low integrity” by using some rather stereotypical “Western” cartoon renderings of rodeo clowns frowning unhappily for those bad legislators, while the “good hats” get a cowboy riding on a horse and the “fence sitters” get … well, I think you can follow. While some might find that kind of kitsch appealing, it’s just a tactic to try and fool people into thinking they are hearing from a fair and balanced group with deep Western roots. But that isn’t the case. Good people will be lied about: That is a fact we should all consider when we ponder the “low integrity” allegations of Honor Wyoming.
Honor Wyoming, a nonprofit, is the latest website to rank lawmakers according to how they vote on certain bills. The mysterious organization has spent thousands on social media ads and billboards, but little is known about who is writing the checks or calling the shots. (Screenshot/honorwyoming.org)
After all, integrity is a rather humorous word to be used to cast stones at someone from an organization that, according to multiple media accounts, hides its identity behind people who say they have no idea who runs it or don’t want to reveal that information. (Any of you ever take a job from someone and have no idea who you were working for? Yeah, me neither.) Integrity clearly means something very different to them.
At the same time, there’s also a trend within the Wyoming Republican Party itself to turn a blind eye at party officials who run for wider elected office without giving up their current posts within the party. More low integrity it seems.
One example is the current state party Executive Director Kathy Russell, who announced she is running for the Wyoming House while still holding her current job with the state GOP. This would never have been allowed in the past, when the party’s long standing principle of neutrality included either staying out of primary races or stepping down from key power positions.
Wyoming GOP Executive Director Kathy Russel and CO2 Coalition Executive Director Gregory Whitestone visited the University of Wyoming Feb. 14, 2024. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile)
This liberalization of party rules has also trickled down from the state heads. Some current county party chairs are running for additional office as well, a notable example being the chairman of Laramie County GOP, Taft Love. He ran for and lost a race for Laramie County Commission recently, before becoming county party chair. Now he’s filed to run for a Laramie County State Senate seat, again, without stepping down as chair of the county party.
These do not provide a very good look or appropriate ethical statement for the county or state party, but I highly doubt they care, given their obsession with making sure the voters don’t see anything good about candidates except the ones they approve of. That goal trumps any moral compunction. If you are the right person in the party’s eyes, and you have power inside the GOP, no one expects you to have a moral compass and step down. Again, a whole different definition of “integrity.”
One of integrity’s main meanings is “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change.” Some points of Wyoming’s Cowboy Code of Ethics reflect these ideas such as “when you make a promise, keep it,” or “remember that some things are not for sale.” These are moral principles, and integrity is acting and following through in a way that is consistent with those moral principles. Moral principles can also include things like honesty, courage, kindness, fairness, accountability and respect.
Integrity, rightly understood, isn’t willing to hide, lie or cheat to advance a cause. Integrity, rightly understood, holds to the moral compass of honesty, and even more importantly, admits when it’s wrong and accepts accountability.
Integrity has nothing to do with the policies an elected official votes for or against. Integrity has nothing to do with whether someone is conservative or liberal, but whether their words and actions conform to their stated beliefs. So, calling an elected official someone of “low integrity” because they don’t vote the way you want them to vote is a new low in the world of unscrupulous political campaigning. But then again, is there any bottom?
My most important piece of advice to candidates is simply: Don’t take campaign advice from people who don’t win elections. And to the voters: Don’t take moral advice from people who do not live out their declared moral imperatives.
Voters can honor Wyoming and her traditions by voting for people they know and trust, be they incumbents who’ve worked hard to get things done for their communities or those who are known to have lived lives of personal integrity as private citizens. That’s the Wyoming way.
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