Cowboy State Politics

The Wyoming Association of Sheriff's and Chiefs of Police has been loudly advocating against the Second Amendment Protection Act Amendments (SF101).  A lot of their testimony has not been entirely accurate. The House Appropriations committee, when hearing the bill, exposed a lot of it. The Cowboy State Daily has played right along with them publishing an article full of inaccuracies.  No surprise...

In a rare Thursday episode, the results of the Special Investigative Committee.  Surprise there's nothing there.  What's more interesting is what the Washut's committee DID NOT investigate. While the check incident was going on, Senate President Dennis Biteman allowed a lobbyist access to the Senate floor. The Sheridan Press used a photo of a slain Sheridan police officer to push a political narra...

Kylie Wall is the Natrona County High student who faced massive backlash from school staff for starting a TPUSA Club America chapter.  Her signs were torn down, she was told what she could and could not do--even in her free time.  Now, her chapter is up and running.   A bill she is supporting, HB159, is making its way through the Wyoming Legislature.  She joined me for an interview over the weeken...

Wyofile and Wyoming Public Media went to great lengths to paint conservatives as liars in the "Special" Investigative Committee.  It would be one thing if the two of them weren't in the room but Wyofile and WPM sat through the grueling 4 hour spectacle.  Really, they're activists masquerading as journalists. In other news, Correnti's resolutions rightfully met a quick death at the WYGOP Central Co...

Finally, I got to sit down with Rep Pendergraft, Agent 29, and talk about the session.  It's been really hard to schedule time with him. The conversation begins with a discussion of how he views representation.  Some legislators look at their emails and make decisions based on how popular one side or the other is.  Really though, according to Ken, this job is about being able to make the hard deci...

On the Floor of the house Art Washut accused another member of reading a script that had been given to them.  There are a bunch of people who read from their phones and their computers but Art never says anything about that.   Here's the link to the article I mentioned in the show: https://www.openrangerecord.com/news/999ab213-5dcf-4d39-8a7f-6ae34f2f7fd0  

There are several gun bills moving through the Wyoming Legislature.  Mark Jones, National Director for Gun Owners of America joins me to run through all of them. He joined me on the new Open Range Record program, The Roundup.  It's a full hour of gun talk!

Governor Gordon issued an exec order banning political contributions on state grounds.  The only problem is he really can't do that--he can't even accomplish that inside the Capitol Building itself.  It is a political stunt.  And there's a little problem of him transferring $150,000.00 to his Prosperity and Commerce PAC.  Yes, it's named PAC PAC. A lot of what you're seeing is political theater; m...

There was a rally Friday at the Capitol that was billed and permitted as an "Equality Rally."  Really, it was an anti-ICE, anti-law enforcement rally.  Sarah Burlingame of Wyoming Equality submitted the permit.  What transpired was over 100 people--mostly school children screaming, impeding traffic and denigrating law enforcement.

It's Valentine's Day, and I certainly can't let the day pass without giving a present to my favorite group of people, the Redcoats.  Marilyn Connoly, Julie Jarvis, Elisa Campbell, Ken Clouston and others have gone full blown Democrat.  When the final session numbers are done, Democrat Mike Yin will have voted with the Republicans more than this group. AND, Landon Brown thinks he's a Ronald Reagan...

Rep Hageman joined the program this morning.  Today, she has U.S. Atty General Pam Bondi in front of her committee.  Though I haven't really been interested in talking about Epstein, this seemed like a good opportunity to get the scoop on it.  Turns out, there's a very good reason why a lot of those records haven't been released.  Also, I asked Rep Hageman "Why haven't we seen a bunch of people in...

The legislature kicked off today with the usual pomp and circumstance.  The only remarkable thing about Gordon's speech was what he didn't talk about--climate change.  He probably thought that'd be unpopular so instead he lectured legislators how they should do things his way.  He also promised that he would always defend Wyoming's right to export our resources.   Too bad, the legislature gave him...

Sen Eric Barlow helped found the non-profit 501c(3) Edible Prairie Project.  Its goal is to get locally sourced goods into the hands of needy families.  A laudable goal to be sure.  The problem is that Eric Barlow is a sitting Wyoming Senator, was on the board of EPP and used the non-profit to buy meat from his own sheep! This is exactly the type of insider behavior that voters are sick of.

The Freedom Caucus has been accused of being told how to vote by some shadowy figure in DC.  It's been said that all of their political activities are run out of a clandestine office in our nation's capitol.  None of it is true.   I tracked down the President of the State Freedom Caucus Andy Roth to get to the bottom of all the smears the likes of Sen Ed Cooper, Ogden Driskill, Albert Sommers and...

The Wyoming left is apoplectic about the possibility of their vote buying machine going away.  For years, the Wyoming Business Council has funneled millions of your dollars to dubious projects--often losing millions.  In one case, they lost $20M on a berry farm.  In another, they gave $2M to a cosmetics company that already sold their products at Sephora. Now, Albert Sommers and Gail Symons are cl...

Appropriations Chairman Rep John Bear, also known as Lex Luthor, joined me for the entire 2 hour live program on Friday.  Anything you want to know about the hot-button budget issues, we probably talked about it. Gubernatorial candidate Brent Bien called in to talk with Rep Bear.  He was conspicuously absent from a Wyofile article about all those running for governor.  This is a great, really long...

There are a lot of problems at the University of Wyoming; not the least of which is how they've been hiding really destructive courses from the legislature.  After publishing the most recent episode on it, I got what I thought was a random social media message. Turns out, it was from a member of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.  Dr. Jenna Robinson is the president of that organizat...

I spoke with Rep Hageman right before she was to cross examine Jack Smith.  We had time to walk through her decision to run for the U.S. Senate and discuss some of the bigger issues happening right now. In previous interviews Harriet has called herself a "free speech absolutist."  So, I wanted to ask her about the the Trump Administration's FCC's decision to 'go after' talk shows that favor libera...

Earlier this week, J.D. Wasserberger of Lusk, WY distributed a deceptively edited video of Rep Ken Pendergraft.  It purports to show the EXACT OPPOSITE of what Ken said in committee.  This is the type of politics that most of us really despise--the politics of personal destruction. Using my sources, I tracked down Mr Wasserberger and called him.  He claimed that it was he who was sent the video an...

Governor Gordon claims that the Appropriations Committee took a chainsaw to the budget with no rhyme or reason.  The Cow Pie's headline claimed the JAC "defunded" WYPBS.  But, neither of those things are true.  To cut through the media's bullcrap, I talked with Reps Pendergraft and Haroldson--both of whom are on the legislature's Joint Appropriations Committee.  Shocker, there's a big difference b...

Don't worry if you don't know what Eco-feminism is, just understand that you are paying for it at UW.  The Appropriations Committee called UW for one more discussion on January 9 to discuss some of the course offerings at the school: among those, Eco-feminism, global climate governance and environmental justice. When asked to explain them, President Ed Seidel basically said the programs aren't off...

The 1,000th EPISODE of Cowboy State Politics!  Megan Degenfelder sat down with me earlier this week to discuss her recent gubernatorial announcement. It's a wide ranging discussion in which I, once again, did the job the mainstream Wyoming press won't do.  I asked her the hard questions: everything from windmills, to her time in China and why Wyoming school test scores are mediocre.  Nothing was o...

With the legislative session starting in a couple of weeks, you can bet the WEA will swear up and down that we don't spend enough on education.  But school districts have proven that we already do.  Here's a replay of a great episode from this past September.  Don't forget that when we gave raises, they spent that money on other stuff. 

Communists haven't confined themselves to NYC.  There've been some rumblings about Albert Sommers considering a run for Superintendent of Public Instruction.  Bad news.  I thought that since Christine and I are dealing with communists in NY, I'd remind you that their influence absolutely made its way here.

Governor Gordon asked Chuck Gray if "he wanted to step outside."  Everyone knows what that question means.  Everyone, that is, except Amy Edmonds, the governor's spokeswoman.  According to her, Gordon just wanted to go have a conversation.  Uh huh.  The real question is WHY did Gordon say that?  No, not the conversation that led up to it, but why was that the last option that Gordon have?  He got...