Wyoming
Bill Winney Has Lost Six Times For Wyoming… | Cowboy State Daily
Bondurant resident Bill Winney is one of the more recognizable faces at the Wyoming Legislature even though he’s never been part of the body as an elected official.
Winney is steadfast in his desire to be involved in Wyoming politics, so much so that he’s testified on almost every topic that’s come up at the Legislature over the last 15 years.
He’s now making his seventh attempt to win a seat in the Legislature over the last 14 years, running in the Republican primary for Senate District 14 against House Speaker Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, and Kemmerer resident Laura Taliaferro Pearson. This is his first time running for the Senate.
Winney may have had an easier path to victory if he ran for the House in District 20, with two newcomer candidates looking to fill Sommers’ role, but he told Cowboy State Daily that he believes the Senate is a better place to try and enact property tax reform.
A 30-year Navy veteran, Winney was in charge of large-scale budgets while working as a program coordinator at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Upon retirement, Winney could have easily devoted his time to more leisurely pursuits, but said “it wasn’t in my heart” to do that. Instead, he’s been closely observing and participating in the Legislature since 2005.
Winney has spent most of this time attempting to draw a bridge between his Navy and federal government experience and a multitude of Wyoming topics over the years at the Legislature. Simply put, if there’s a bill being considered by a committee, you’re likely to see Winney give his input on it.
Winney credits himself for helping convince legislators to pass multiple bills into law, such as rangeland studies and computer science programs since he testified for the first time in 2009.
“A private citizen in Wyoming, if you speak well and speak from the heart and speak from experience, you can affect what they do,” he said.
He was officially recognized by the Legislature for his participation in 2019.
Too Much Spending
Integral in Winney’s campaign is a belief that Wyoming state government is spending too much money. Winney said it’s not that any single department or program is wasteful as a whole, but more that the government could be spending its money more wisely.
“There’s a lot of places they could cut spending if they just took a good hard look at what they’re doing,” he said.
Winney was in charge of making many fiscal decisions during the six years he spent working at the Pentagon. He also wrote the equivalent of laws for the submarines he was a commander on.
He cited the example of a local school district in Sublette County his wife worked at spending $25,000 on a set of reading and literacy books it never used.
“That’s money that came out of taxes and it did nothing,” Winney said. “How do you get down into that level of detail? I’d like to try and do that.”
Winney still supports local control and wants school boards to be property trained so they know where to look to prevent future incidents like that.
“It’s the part and parcel of bureaucrats, superintendents, principals, vice presidents to know how to do things and get the school board to want them to do,” Winney said. “How do you get the school board to be able to recognize it?”
Property Taxes
Winney said most retired Wyoming residents don’t get cost-of-living pension increases like he does with the Navy that have doubled in 20 years. As a result, when their property taxes increase, they don’t have extra income to cover the bills. He’s already seen this happen to a few former Teton County residents who had to move to cheaper residences further south.
“We have to remember that if we push elders out of their homes, they’re going to end up in the elder care facilities, which is a lot more expensive in the long run,” Winney said.
If elected, Winney said he’d look at putting inflationary caps to help curb the rising property taxes the state has been dealing with the last few years. He also firmly supports a constitutional amendment going before the voters this fall that, if passed, would separate residential property as a separate form of taxation in Wyoming. This would allow for a reduction of the assessment rates in the state.
Although Winney didn’t have much to criticize about his two opponents, he was disappointed by the lack of interest from a slim majority of legislators this spring in calling a special session to override Gov. Mark Gordon’s vetoes. One of the most upsetting vetoes for Winney was on Senate File 54, a bill that would have provided 25% property tax relief on home values worth up to $2 million in Wyoming.
Sommers had been one of the most vocal in opposing the special session effort at the time, arguing that it wouldn’t be worth the time and effort spent convening when the bills could be brought back again next year.
“I thought the response particularly of the House leadership was underwhelming,” Winney said. “I thought the House and Senate should have come back into session and they kind of faded out on that.”
During his time as speaker, Sommers has had a relatively cold relationship with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, a group of farther right House Republicans. Winney said the Freedom Caucus gets a “bum rap” and their members are actually much more dynamic than other groups of the Legislature. He supports their fiscal approaches, but said the group’s members also have a tendency to get “a little doctrinaire.”
“Spending — that’s a big deal for those Freedom Caucus guys, but I think it should be a big deal across the broader part of the Legislature,” Winney said.
Other Issues
Winney also wants to look at cost-of-living pension increases for retired state employees and to make emergency medical services classified as essential in Wyoming.
“Our EMS out here, people can be an hour or more away from some kind of trauma care,” Winney said. “That’s going to be a tall order but I got it.”
Certain Republicans have opposed pension increases, saying the state can’t afford it. Sommers said this could be easily remedied by pulling money from savings.
“We can’t afford to not do that,” he said.
Pearson is a sheep rancher and school bus driver who has often testified before the Legislature over the last few years on a variety of issues, consistently expressing farther right views.
Pearson said the people of Wyoming are “fed up” with the way the state is being run.
SD 14 also encompasses the new TerraPower small nuclear plant that will be built in Kemmerer. Winney said he wants to pass legislation to help better support the facility. Because of his past experience working with submarines, Winney has strong knowledge on the topic of nuclear energy.
“There are folks that are anti-nuclear out there and I’ve found that they typically tell only one side of the story,” he said.
On education, he believes there hasn’t been enough focus on providing scholarships for students to attend community colleges or receive vocational training.
Winney’s Chances
Winney has run in every election cycle in Wyoming since 2010, six times for the Legislature and one time for Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2014, only winning one contested primary and no general elections.
His closest race came in 2020 when he lost to former Independent state legislator Jim Roscoe by 366 votes.
Winney said he plans to engage in more door-knocking, mailers and text messaging to make his seventh bid for the Legislature the charm.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
LARAMIE — Nasir Meyer converted a three-point play with 35 seconds remaining to give Wyoming Cowboys men’s basketball the lead for good, and Wyoming held Air Force Falcons men’s basketball scoreless over the final two minutes to secure a 66-62 victory Saturday night.
The win marked the 13th home victory of the season for Wyoming, which improved to 16-13 overall and 7-11 in conference play.
“Air Force deserves all the credit and let’s talk about a team that has every reason not to fight, but thats why they are Air Force and the cadets and I have a lot of respect for them,” Wyoming coach Sundance Wicks said. “They were not going to quit, and I didn’t drive that message home enough and hats off to Air Force because they deserved to win. We snuck away with a win. Adam Harakow showed when we need him and he was massive for us. Simm-Marten was made big plays and Naz was clutch for us late.”
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Wyoming shot 35% from the field and went 7 of 28 from 3-point range, making just two from beyond the arc in the second half. Air Force shot 49% overall and 44% from 3, hitting eight shots from long distance. The Cowboys made 13 of 16 free throws (81%) and scored 22 points off 15 Air Force turnovers while holding a 39-36 edge in rebounding.
Damarion Dennis led Wyoming with 16 points and three assists, going 7 of 8 from the free-throw line. Meyer finished with 14 points and tied a career best with eight rebounds. Adam Harakow added 14 points off the bench on 5-of-6 shooting, his first double-figure scoring game since the first meeting with Air Force. Simm-Marten Saadi had nine points in 13 minutes, and Kiani Saxon grabbed seven rebounds.
Air Force opened with back-to-back 3-pointers to take a 6-0 lead. Meyer scored Wyoming’s first basket, and Leland Walker added a 3-pointer to make it 8-5 with 16 minutes left in the first half.
Wyoming responded with a 9-0 run over nearly four minutes, with Saadi and Harakow each connecting from beyond the arc to give the Cowboys an 11-8 lead with under 14 minutes remaining. Air Force regained a 12-11 advantage as Wyoming went scoreless for more than two minutes.
Harakow’s second 3-pointer pushed the lead to 22-16 with nine minutes left in the half, and Wyoming used a 6-0 run while holding the Falcons without a field goal for more than four minutes to build a 28-18 lead with six minutes remaining. The Cowboys closed the half on a defensive stand, keeping Air Force scoreless for the final two minutes to take a 35-25 lead into the break. Wyoming scored 15 first-half points off turnovers.
The teams traded 3-pointers early in the second half, and Air Force cut the deficit to 40-31 with under 17 minutes left before trimming it to seven 90 seconds later. Walker answered with a 3-pointer to make it 43-33 with 15 minutes to go.
Air Force used a 9-0 run during a stretch in which Wyoming went more than 3 1/2 minutes without a point to pull within one with nine minutes left. The Falcons later tied the game at 51-51 with 5:30 remaining after forcing six straight missed shots.
A pair of free throws by Meyer and a basket from Saadi gave Wyoming a 57-53 lead with under four minutes to play. Air Force answered with three consecutive 3-pointers from Kam Sanders to take a 62-59 lead with two minutes left.
Meyer scored with 90 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to one. On the next trip, he converted an and-one to give Wyoming a 64-62 lead with 35 seconds left. The Cowboys added late free throws to close out the 66-62 win.
Sanders led Air Force with 16 points and nine rebounds, going 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Eli Robinson added 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
Wyoming closes its home schedule Tuesday against Nevada Wolf Pack men’s basketball at 8 p.m. as part of a doubleheader with the Cowgirls.
The 2-time defending champ Tongue River girls, along with both teams from Big Horn will represent Sheridan County in the small school version of March Madness.
Click here to see results from the regional tournaments.
2A Boys:
First Round:
Thursday, March 5th: (All games played at Casper College)
(#2E) Big Horn vs. (#3W) Shoshoni – Noon
(#1W) Thermopolis vs. (#4E) Sundance – 1:30pm
(#2W) Wyoming Indian vs. (#3E) Wright – 6:30pm
(#1E) Pine Bluffs vs. (#4W) Rocky Mountain – 8pm
Friday, March 6th: (All games played at Ford Wyoming Center)
Consolation Round:
Big Horn/Shoshoni loser vs. Thermopolis/Sundance loser – Noon LOSER OUT!
Wyoming Indian/Wright loser vs. Pine Bluffs/Rocky Mountain loser – 1:30pm LOSER OUT!
Semi-Finals:
Big Horn/Shoshoni winner vs. Thermopolis/Sundance winner – 6:30pm
Wyoming Indian/Wright winner vs. Pine Bluffs/Rocky Mountain winner – 8pm
Saturday, March 7th:
Friday Noon winner vs. Friday 1:30pm – Noon at Ford Wyoming Center Consolation Championship
Friday 6:30pm loser vs. Friday 8pm loser – 3pm at Natrona County High School 3rd Place
Friday 6:30pm winner vs. Friday 8pm winner – 7pm at Ford Wyoming Center Championship
2A Girls:
First Round:
Thursday, March 5th: (All games played at Casper College)
(#2W) Wyoming Indian vs. (#3E) Big Horn – 9am
(#1E) Sundance vs. (#4W) Shoshoni – 10:30am
(#2E) Tongue River vs. (#3W) Greybull – 3:30pm
(#1W) Thermopolis vs. (#4E) Pine Bluffs – 5pm
Friday, March 6th: (All games played at Ford Wyoming Center)
Consolation Round:
Wyoming Indian/Big Horn loser vs. Sundance/Shoshoni loser – 9am LOSER OUT!
Tongue River/Greybull loser vs. Thermopolis/Pine Bluffs loser – 10:30am LOSER OUT!
Semi-Finals:
Wyoming Indian/Big Horn winner vs. Sundance/Shoshoni winner – 3:30pm
Tongue River/Greybull loser vs. Thermopolis/Pine Bluffs loser – 5pm
Saturday, March 7th:
Friday 9am winner vs. Friday 10:30am winner – 9am at Ford Wyoming Center Consolation Championship
Friday 3:30pm loser vs. Friday 5pm loser – 10:30am at Ford Wyoming Center 3rd Place
Friday 3:30pm winner vs. Friday 5pm winner – 5:30pm at Ford Wyoming Center Championship
Mention of bird hunting might conjure up images of hunters and their dogs huddling in freezing duck blinds or pounding the brush in hopes of kicking up pheasants. But crow hunting is a thing in Wyoming too.
“It’s about the sport of it,” Dan Kinneman of Riverton told Cowboy State Daily.
He started crow hunting when he was 14 and is about to turn 85. He’s never tried cooking and eating crows or known anybody who has.
Instead, shooting crows is essentially nuisance bird control, as they’re known to wreak havoc on agricultural crops.
“All the ranchers will let you hunt crows. I’ve never been refused access to hunt crows. They all hate them,” he said.
In Wyoming, crow hunting season runs from Nov. 1 to Feb. 28. No license is required, and there’s no bag limit. Hunters can shoot all the crows they want to.
It’s a ball for hunting dogs too, Kinneman said.
“My yellow Labrador retriever, he doesn’t care whether it’s a crow or duck. In fact, he likes crow hunting more than duck hunting, because there’s more action,” he said.
Don’t Expect It To Be Easy
Kinneman said that in the days of his youth, crow hunting was as simple as driving around and “shooting them out of trees with rifles.”
However, as the number of people and buildings potentially in the paths of bullets grew, such practices fell out of favor. Crow hunting became more regulated.
And it evolved to resemble hunting other birds, such as waterfowl.
Meaning, hunters started setting out decoys, hiding in blinds and using calls to tempt crows to within shotgun range.
Kinneman is no stranger to hunting of all types. He’s taken numerous species of big game in Wyoming and elsewhere. And in July 2005, he shot a prairie dog near Rock Springs from well over a mile away.
He hit the prairie dog from 2,157 yards away. A mile is 1,760 yards.
But bird hunting has always been his favorite.
“It’s my life,” he said.
He has a huge collection of duck, goose and dove decoys. And two tubs full of crow decoys.
The uninitiated might think that going out and blasting crows would be a slam dunk.
That isn’t so, Kinneman said. He likes crow hunting for the challenge of it.
“Hunting crows is hard. They are a lot smarter than ducks and geese,” he said.
Pick Up After Yourself
Even though he doesn’t eat crows, Kinneman said he never just left them littering the ground where he shot them.
“I never let them lay out there. I always picked them up and disposed of the carcasses,” he said.
That’s good ethics and it shows respect for the ranchers, he said.
“Leaving them (dead crows) out there would be no different than just leaving all of your empty shotgun shells out there,” he said.
“You have to pick up after yourself, or the ranchers won’t let you back onto their land,” he added.
Slow Year
At his age, Kinneman isn’t sure how much longer he’ll be able to get out crow hunting. And this year has been a total bust.
“I love doing it. But this year there are no crows,” he said.
The Riverton area is along major crow migration routes.
Picking a good hunting spot is a matter of “finding a flyway” that the crows are on and then setting up a spread of decoys and a blind along the route.
But with an unusually warm winter, the crow flyways have been practically empty, he said.
Migrations Are Off Everywhere
Avid birdwatcher Lucas Fralick of Laramie said that warm, dry conditions much of this winter have knocked bird migrations out of whack.
“I do know that because of the weather, migrations are off all over the place,” he said.
One of his favorite species is the dark-eyed junco, a “small, sparrow-like bird,” he said.
They usually winter in the Laramie area and leave right around March. This year, they were gone by November, he said.
“They’re a cold-weather bird,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
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