Wyoming
Tom Lubnau: Out Of State Money Flooding Into… | Cowboy State Daily
Election season is upon us. Like manure in a barn, mailers, social media ads and billboards are beginning to bury our view shed in piles and piles of stuff we need to shovel out of the way.
In Idaho, out of state influences spent $1.2 million dollars of dark money to influence Idaho elections.
Much of the dung dropping contains totally untrue statements about candidates. There is no real recourse for the outright lies, half-truths and derogatory statements in this new era of provocative negativity
Well-financed interest groups, from out of state, are trying to influence our elections.
Why is it so dang important to these out-of-state interests to influence our elections?
Perhaps, they want to influence Wyoming policy. But to what end?
Maybe to affect broader policy discussions?
Wyoming’s political decisions can have broader implications. For instance, senators from Wyoming can impact federal legislation. Influencing state elections could help shape the national political landscape.
Businesses operating in or dependent on Wyoming’s resources and industries may seek to ensure that local policies favor their economic interests, such as favorable tax rates, subsidies, or environmental regulations. Perhaps, that is where the benefit lies.
Another consideration might be Wyoming has a significant amount of federally managed public land. Policies and decisions regarding the use of these lands (for conservation, recreation, or resource extraction) can have wide-ranging effects beyond state borders.
But a deeper analysis of these proposed reasons doesn’t seem to reveal any true economic justification for meddling in Wyoming elections to the degree we are seeing out of state dollars flood the state.
The candidates who are largely supported by these interest groups are not typically pro-business, pro-development folks. One has to wonder what the real reasons people invest significant money to meddle in our elections from out of state.
What big money interests would benefit from Wyoming taking an ultra-conservative, low government, low tax government?
One possibility is billionaires who want to treat Wyoming as a tax haven might want to invest in keeping Wyoming’s taxes law, regulations minimized and keep government from intruding on the people.
They certainly like our low-tax environment. They like a weak government that does not stand up to their whims. They like an environment where they can come to the state and not be bothered by the government.
A few of those billionaire folks have shown up and wanted to change Wyoming to the way they see it should be. (See “Little Jackson Hole” for example.) But, no real evidence exists they are financing the electoral meddling, unless it is occurring on the sly.
Another possibility is someone who is already here, who is using shills to act in their stead to influence politics the way they want them to go.
Wyoming has a disproportionate representation in the United States Senate. If they can change the training ground for Wyoming senators, they can obtain influence over candidate beholden to them?
One might suspect blowhards with extra money trying to change politics, and Wyoming is an easy target due to low population.
This possibility seems implausible. Cynicism would dictate that no one spends the kind of money that is being dumped into Wyoming from outside the state without some ulterior motive.
It’s funny, a disproportionate number of candidates who are endorsed by these out of state groups have only lived in Wyoming a couple years. What does that tell us?
More questions than answers arise. Typically, this column tries to provide researched answers, but none are readily apparent that justify the volume of dollars dumping into our state.
And, given our current chief elected official, I suspect answers as to the motives behind out-of-state dollars flooding into Wyoming’s elections are not going to be answered soon by that office.
For someone who is ostensibly concerned about election integrity, he is noticeably silent on inquiring why out of state dollars are flooding into our elections.
I’m sure we’ll hear arguments that it is their constitutional right to participate financially and anonymously in our elections. And, these organizations have the right to participate in the elections.
But someone and some level should be asking why this money is flooding into Wyoming to sway our electorate.
Historically, these tactics work. And they are not going to stop until we make them stop.
We need to do a next-level inquiry on what people stand to gain by influencing our vote. The answer is not some political platitude.
And, until we know why out-of-state actors are spending their money to sway our vote, we should vote for every candidate that is NOT endorsed by these out-of-state actors. Send a message their excrement is not welcome in Wyoming.
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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