Wyoming
Wyoming Senate Overturns Driskill, Boots Nethercott And Reinstalls Kinskey As Approps Chair
An emotional Wyoming Senate President Ogden Driskill told the members of his chamber Monday to not overturn a decision he made in the interim to remove the chairman of a committee, saying it would amount to a vote of “no confidence” in his leadership.
But despite pleas from Driskill, R-Devils Tower, and other legislators, the Senate voted to overturn the removal of Sen. Dave Kinskey, R-Sheridan, from his position as chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
Driskill had appointed Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, to replace Kinskey, who retained his membership on the committee. Since last April, Nethercott has served as co-chairman of the Appropriations Committee, overseeing with the House co-chairman from the House all discussions of the 2025/2026 biennial budget.
In a 17-14 decision, the Senate voted to revert the original appointment Driskill made in 2022 to have Kinskey chairman, which the chamber ratified shortly after. Monday’s vote also essentially stripped Nethercott of the position.
The Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) is one of the integral committees during a budget year as it is most directly involved in crafting the state’s biennial budget.
Driskill made the decision to replace Kinskey in April 2023 after what he described as a recurring pattern of poor communication from the Sheridan legislator.
An Apology, And A Plea
His voice choking with emotion at numerous points, Driskill apologized for putting the Senate in a position to question his decision, but also expressed grave disappointment his fellow legislators would consider overturning his decision, which basically amounts to a vote of “no confidence” in his leadership and decisions for the Appropriations Committee.
“You effectively told me I don’t make good decisions as far as that committee, and we have a personality problem between me and the chairman,” he said. “It’s on all of us.”
He urged the Senate to vote against the motion and asked what benefit it would serve the state of Wyoming and the Legislature to reverse his action.
“You’re going to fix a wrong that I did, at least that’s what this vote is, you’re going to fix a wrong I did, I take ownership of that,” Driskill said. “And by fixing it, you’re going to create another one.”
Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, made the motion objecting to Driskill’s move Monday and reappointed Kinskey as chairman. Steinmetz and others who supported the motion said they did so not as a personal slight against Nethercott, but because they believed the rules did not allow Driskill to make the decision he did.
“I object on the basis of process, not personalities, or the people this will affect today,” Steinmetz said. “We only steward the public trust for a short time and must preserve the institution for the people and their representatives in the state to come.”
Sitting about 10 feet away from Steinmetz as she made her motion was Nethercott.
Nethercott took the high road when reached by Cowboy State Daily after the vote.
“I was honored to serve as chair of Appropriations and have a conservative practical budget bill for the Senate,” Nethercott said. “I look forward to assisting the vice president in fulfilling our constitutional obligation to pass a budget.”
Kinskey said he was “gratified” to receive the support of the majority of his colleagues.
“The effort to remove me as JAC chairman was unfortunate, and now it’s time to put that behind us and get to work delivering a fiscally responsible budget for the state of Wyoming,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
Point Of Divide?
Legislators on both sides of the vote Monday expressed concern that it could create a divide within their chamber.
Whether the vote is a sign the well-documented division in the Wyoming House is starting to trickle over to the Senate remains to be seen.
“I’ll leave that up to everybody’s self determination,” said Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, who voted in favor of the reversal.
Those against the motion spoke about the importance of keeping relationships in the Senate and warned that re-inserting Kinskey would be disruptive. While the divide in the House has been well documented, the Senate has been a more united body.
Laramie Democrat Sen. Chris Rothfuss said Steinmetz’s motion was inappropriate because of its timing and argued against even having a floor debate on the matter.
“This is not the time, this is not the method, and this is not the place,” he said.
Rothfuss also warned that the move could take away from what he sees as the balanced and humble nature of the Wyoming Legislature.
“This is a challenge to that sensibility,” he said. “It’s certainly not a way to start the day off, start the Legislature off this session.”
Shouldn’t Be Personal
The vote to reject debating the motion was defeated 18-13. Nethercott was one of the 18 people to vote in support of having a debate, but later voted against removing herself as chairman.
Sen. Charlie Scott, R-Casper, also expressed disappointment that the Senate was being asked to handle this matter, but voted to return Kinskey and told Cowboy State Daily afterward he believes Driskill didn’t rule correctly.
He urged the Senate to start and end the debate as friends.
“I really dislike the personal aspect of this,” Scott said.
Hicks and Scott later told Cowboy State Daily they saw the vote as purely a reaction to the move Driskill made, which they didn’t believe was allowed by the Senate rules.
Nethercott apologized to the chamber for having to take the vote and offered full support for Kinskey after he was made chairman again.
“I am confident that we will all move forward with our history behind us,” she said on the Senate floor. “We are the Senate, and we will move forward.”
Kinskey, who endorsed Nethercott’s 2022 campaign for secretary of state, said he told his committee on Sunday that no matter what happened in Monday’s vote, he would hold no hard feelings.
Driskill also apologized to the Senate for the situation they were put in, but implored his fellow lawmakers to choose maintaining the status quo and stability by voting against the reversal. He and others commended the job Nethercott did chairing the Appropriations Committee, which Driskill said was a responsibility she never wanted.
He apologized to Nethercott during the discussion and expressed fear he had harmed her life. Driskill urged the Senate to consider removing him as president rather than taking the vote to remove Nethercott.
“I’m the one who caused this and I’m responsible for it at the end of the day,” Driskill said.
How It Got To That Point
Driskill said four members of the Appropriations Committee approached him last session and complained about Kinskey’s performance as chairman because of a lack of communication. When he approached Kinskey about the issue at the Capitol, Driskill said it did not go well and resulted in a shouting match.
After the session, Driskill said he continued receiving complaints, so he drove to Sheridan to meet with Kinskey to try and resolve the issue in person. Kinskey was not able to meet with Driskill at this time and Driskill eventually informed him he was removing him as chairman.
When he got home to Devils Tower, Driskill said he received what he said were “a dozen” voicemails from the press already asking him about the situation at Kinskey’s behest.
Further and recent attempts to meet with Kinskey, Driskill said, went unanswered.
“What will be better for the state of Wyoming and our state budget, and our relations with the other side and the people of the state, by changing chairmen again?” Driskill questioned.
After speaking with several past governors, former committee chairmen and a Senate president, Driskill said they all backed his decision. The only person from the Senate who complained about the move, Driskill said, was Steinmetz.
“I don’t want to fuel any hate or discontent, but I feel very compelled to put facts out there,” Driskill said. “I still made the right decision, folks.”
Although Steinmetz said never in the history of the Wyoming Legislature has a chairman been removed, Driskill said that’s not right. He said when Diemer True was president of the Senate, he removed former legislator and future state governor Jim Geringer from his role as a committee chairman in the early 1990s.
Driskill also mentioned a commitment he received from all his committee chairmen upon becoming Senate President in late 2022 that they would immediately resign if Driskill didn’t like their performance.
The Rules
Although Senate Rule 2.8 clearly states Driskill is not allowed to remove a senator from a committee without a majority vote from the entire Senate, there’s nothing that prevents him from removing a chair while keeping him on the committee, as that scenario is not specifically addressed.
“We need clearer rules, clearer concise rules,” Hicks told Cowboy State Daily. “The ambiguousness on rules is in itself its own poison pill.”
Hicks later brought a rule proposal that states no changes can be made to committee membership without a vote from the full Senate.
The Senate’s rules committee will discuss this issue at a later date.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at Leo@CowboyStateDaily.com.
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyoming (KUTV) — A man was hospitalized with critical injuries after he was reportedly shot by a deputy responding to reports of a disturbance.
Deputies with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Rock Springs Police Department responded to the Sweetwater Heights apartment complex in the 2100 block of Century Boulevard just after 4 a.m. on Monday to investigate reports of a disturbance involving an armed individual.
Information that dispatch received indicated that the individual had shot himself. When officials arrived, they found the individual on the balcony of an upstairs apartment “who appeared to have a gunshot wound consistent with the initial report,” a press release states.
MORE | Officer-Involved Shooting
During the encounter, a deputy discharged their weapon and struck the individual.
Emergency medical personnel rendered aid, and the individual was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.
No law enforcement officers or members of the public were injured during the incident.
The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation will conduct an independent investigation.
The deputy who fired their weapon was placed on administrative leave per standard protocol.
_____
by Maggie Mullen, WyoFile
Albert Sommers, former Wyoming Speaker of the House, announced Thursday he will attempt to reclaim a seat he formerly held for more than a decade in the statehouse.
“Leadership matters,” Sommers, a lifelong cattle rancher, wrote in a press release. “Right now, the Wyoming House is too often focused on division instead of solutions. We need steady, effective leadership that solves problems—not rhetoric and political theater.”
Voters in 2013 first elected Sommers to House District 20, which encompasses Sublette County and an eastern section of Lincoln County. As a lawmaker, Sommers largely focused on health care, education and water issues. Over six terms, he rose through the ranks, serving in leadership positions and chairing committees focused on education funding and broadband.
In his announcement, Sommers highlighted his legislative work to establish funding for rural hospitals, prioritize “responsible property tax relief,” as well as the creation of the Wyoming Colorado River Advisory Committee within the State Engineer’s Office, “to ensure our water users have a voice in critical decisions affecting the Green River Valley,” he wrote.
As speaker, Sommers was a frequent target of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus as well as the DC-based State Freedom Caucus Network, even getting the attention of Fox News and other national, conservative news outlets. They often accused Sommers of not being conservative enough, and criticized him for keeping bills in “the drawer,” which has long been code for the unilateral power a speaker has to kill legislation by holding it back. (The practice of holding bills has been used to a much higher degree under Freedom Caucus leadership.)
In 2023, Sommers used the speaker’s powers to kill bills related to a school voucher program, banning instruction on gender and sexual orientation from some classrooms and criminalizing gender-affirming care for minors. At the time, Sommers defended his decision to hold back “bills that are unconstitutional, not well vetted, duplicate bills or debates, and bills that negate local control, restrict the rights of people or risk costly litigation financed by the people of Wyoming.”
He reiterated that philosophy and defended his record in his Thursday campaign announcement.
“I am a common-sense conservative who believes in getting things done. I support our core industries—oil and gas, ranching, and tourism—and I will continue to fight for the people and natural resources of Sublette County and LaBarge. I am pro-gun, pro-life, pro-family, and pro-education,” Sommers wrote. “I also take seriously my oath to uphold the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions, which means I didn’t support bills that violated those constitutions. I read bills carefully and I voted accordingly.”
Following his term as speaker, Sommers stepped away from the House to run for Senate District 14 in 2024. He lost in the primary election to political newcomer Laura Pearson, a Freedom Caucus-endorsed Republican from Kemmerer, who also won in the general election. Her Senate win coincided with the Freedom Caucus winning control of the House.
“That race didn’t go my way, and I respected the outcome,” Sommers said in a Thursday press release. But “the direction of the Wyoming House,” since then, he said, has “raised serious concerns.”
Sommers pointed to the Freedom Caucus and its budget proposal, which, despite a funding surplus, included major cuts and funding denials. Ahead of the session, the caucus said its sights were set on shrinking spending and limiting the growth of government.
In his Thursday press release, Sommers criticized “decisions that cut food assistance for vulnerable children, reduced business opportunities, slashed funding to the University of Wyoming, eliminated resources for cheatgrass control, denied raises for state employees, and removed positions critical to protecting Wyoming’s water rights.”
Most of those proposals did not make it into the final budget bill.
Sommers also pointed to a controversy that dominated the 2026 session after a Teton County conservative activist handed out campaign checks to lawmakers on the House floor. Lawmakers in both chambers unanimously voted to ban such behavior before a House Special Investigative Committee found that the exchange did not violate the Wyoming Constitution nor did it amount to legislative misconduct. A Laramie County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation is still underway.
But “controversies like ‘Checkgate’ undermined public trust, and decorum in the House deteriorated,” Sommers said.
“Transparency and accessibility will remain central to how I serve,” Sommers said. “As I’ve done before, I will provide regular updates on legislation, seek your input, and clearly explain my votes.”
Incumbent bows out
Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge, currently represents House District 20, but announced Thursday morning that he would not seek reelection.
“It has truly been an honor to serve as your State Representative for House District 20. When I first ran, I had hoped to serve up to three terms and continue building on what I learned during my first term,” Schmid wrote in a Facebook post. “But life can change your priorities. Over the past year, my family has gone through some difficult times. My wife is dealing with serious health issues, and the death of my brother, Jim, just a few short weeks ago have made it clear to me where I need to spend my time.”
In March, Bill Winney, a perennial candidate and former nuclear submarine commander, announced he would run for House District 20.
The official candidate filing period opens May 14.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
Related
The following is a news release from the Wyoming’s Rock Springs Police Department:
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — The Rock Springs Police Department is investigating a fatal incident that occurred early this morning in the parking lot of the Flying J Travel Center.
At approximately 5:00 a.m., a Flying J employee was working to direct commercial vehicle traffic within the lot. Initial findings suggest that as one semitruck began to move, the employee was positioned between that vehicle and a second stationary vehicle. The employee was subsequently pinned between the two units.
Rock Springs Fire Department and Castle Rock Ambulance arrived on the scene and coordinated life-saving measures. Despite the rapid response and medical intervention, the employee was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The identity of the deceased is being withheld at this time pending the notification of family members.
The driver involved in the incident, a resident of Idaho, remained on-site and has been fully cooperative with investigators. Following an initial statement and questioning, the driver was released. While the investigation remains open, the incident currently appears to be a tragic accident.
We extend our deepest condolences to the family of the deceased and the staff at Flying J. We also want to commend the rapid response and professional life-saving efforts coordinated by Rock Springs Fire and Castle Rock Ambulance during this difficult call.
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