Wyoming
Tom Lubnau: Once Upon A Time, The Wyoming Republican Party…
Once upon a time, the Wyoming Republican Party Organization had integrity. These days, not so much.
For example, the Crook County Republican Party Organization donated the whopping sum of $25,000 dollars to the Wyoming Freedom PAC.
This donation was made despite the fact that Wyoming Statute §22-25-104 says “No political party funds shall be expended directly or indirectly in the aid of the nomination of any one person as against another person of the same political party running in the primary election.”
When a Crook County Republican Official was asked about the donation, Sherry Davis, a Crook County State Committeewoman said, “A PAC is not a candidate.” As a result, the donation was legal.
Everyone in the world knows what candidates the Wyoming Freedom PAC supports. If donations are made to the Wyoming Freedom PAC, they will go to support candidates in the primary who are running against other Republican Candidates.
How this is not “indirect” support of one person against another person in a primary is hard to comprehend. Even if the strained interpretation of the statutory language made sense, a party organization with integrity would have followed the spirit of the law.
What was the reaction of the ultra-conservative Wyoming Freedom PAC, who argues on their website they want to uphold the “rule of law”? Of course, they took the money.
Why? One could assume that obtaining power by any means is more important than following the law. For the Wyoming Freedom PAC, it appears the rule of law is negotiable depending on who benefits.
What was the reaction of the Wyoming State Republican Party Central Committee – the organization responsible for governing the county parties to this donation? By all accounts – crickets. Why? One could argue the Wyoming Republican Party does not care about the spirit of the law.
The State Republican Party has their own issues with complying with this law. Let’s examine just one example.
Kathy Russell is paid the Executive Director of the Wyoming Republican Party. She is in charge of the day-to-day administration of the Wyoming Republican Party.
She is running against Bob Nicholas, the Republican incumbent in House District 7.
There was a time, when a party with integrity would have asked Ms. Russell to step down from her job to run for office. She still has her job.
One wonders, hypothetically, if Ms. Russell is using her knowledge, position of power and influence within the party to advance her campaign, while never missing a paycheck from the Wyoming Republican Party.
Doug Gerard, for example, was chair of the Campbell County Republican Party. He stepped down from that position to run for Wyoming House. Doug Gerard demonstrated integrity.
Was there any action taken regarding this conflict of interest in advancing the interests of all Republican candidates? None to my knowledge.
What if a Republican wanted to complain to the party about any of the Party’s actions or non-actions in these matters? What recourse would they have?
The Wyoming Republican Party developed their own secret court system to manage disputes between Republican persons or entities.
Look it up. You can find the party bylaws on the Wyoming Republican Party website. It’s frightening. Article II Section 2 of the Wyoming Republican Party Bylaws creates their own private secret court system.
A committee of not less than 5 nor more than 9 members of the State Central Committee are appointed by the Chairman of the Party, Frank Eathorne.
These rules purport to bind every Republican. They meet in secret. They have no rules of evidence or procedure.
They get to hire an attorney. They get to choose who your attorney can be. They can render a money judgement and take your property.
I personally do not submit to this process. You should tell them the same thing.
What could possibly go wrong with this process?
When the top-secret arbitration panel is made up of party insiders, selected by the Chairman of the Party and allowed to meet in secret, the result is a fait accompli. Whatever the party insiders want, they get.
Another avenue for complaints for these violations should be to the State’s Chief Election Officer, the Secretary of State, Chuck Gray, to enforce the integrity of the election. He has his problems, too.
Tons of black money are funneling into the state, with campaign mailers that say, “Representative So and So, voted with the Radical Left to remove President Trump from the ballot.”
What really happened was Representative So and So voted not authorize Secretary of State Chuck Gray’s slush fund to litigate matters in other states. So, apparently, opposing a slush fund for the Secretary of State is tantamount to opposing Donald Trump.
Legislators are being punished for opposing Secretary of State Gray’s slush fund with deceptive mailers, and some have even filed a lawsuit against the publisher of the deceptive mailers.
What has Secretary of State Gray’s response been to the black money mailers? Crickets.
It used to be the party, and party officials had integrity. Not so much anymore. All we see is the unbridled pursuit of power – power over our daily lives. And who is worse to wield power over our daily lives than those who lack integrity?
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2005 – 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House.
He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
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Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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