Primary Election 2022

A special supplement to the

PRIMARY ELECTION August 16, 2022

VOTER’S GUIDE

The Equality State

How to cast a ballot this primary election

2 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

For the first time, all Wyoming residents need to bring ID to vote.

A Wyoming driver’s license will do the trick, but if you don’t have one you can use another official ID like a driver’s license, a passport, and others listed at TetonWyo.org/268/Elections.

Voters can cast their ballots at any of five polling places on primary election day. These vote centers will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.: • Teton County Library, 125 Virginian Lane.

• Teton County/Jackson Recreation Center, 155 E. Gill Ave. • Old Wilson Schoolhouse Community Center, 5655 Main St. • Teton County Weed and Pest building, 7575 Highway 89.

• Alta Branch Library, 50 Alta School Road.

Voters can register to vote on election day. If you haven’t registered in advance, be sure to bring a form of identification.

The primary election determines which candidates from each party advance to the general election on Nov. 8. Voters can register as a Democrat

“I believe in strong and considerate representation for our Lincoln and Teton County communities.”

or a Republican and vote in that primary. Voters can also register as unaffiliated and vote in nonpartisan races, such as the Jackson Town Council primary (if you live in town). You can change your party affiliation the day you vote.

Early and absentee voting is open now. Anyone can vote early, but it’s especially recommended for those who may be out of town or otherwise unable to vote on primary day on Tuesday, Aug. 16. Early voting is available at the Teton County clerk’s office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

If you want to vote early or absentee and you haven’t yet registered, you can still register before primary election day, but you must cast your ballot the same day you register.

To register and vote in Teton County, residents must be 18 years of age, a U.S. citizen and a bona fide resident of Teton County. They must withdraw voter registration from other jurisdictions and cannot be a convicted felon or have been adjudicated mentally incompetent.

Editor’s Note: The following section has been compiled from Jackson Hole News&Guide questionnaires, interviews and candidate forums. Local forums were a collaboration between the League of Women Voters, Teton County Library and local media. Find links to videos of the forums at TCLib.org/candidates. For statewide races, this section features a mix of questionnaires from the Wyoming League of Women Voters, reported stories by WyoFile.com and News&Guide reporting to give voters a comprehensive look at competitive races.

Index Jackson Town Council . . . . . . . . . 3-6 County assessor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Teton County commissioner . . . . . 8-13 Clerk of District Court . . . . . . . . . . 16 House District 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Uncontested legislative races . . . . . 18

Governor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-20 Secretary of State . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Treasurer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Superintendent of Public Instruction . . . .23 U.S. House of Rep. . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

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WORKING FOR WYOMING By promoting reasonable and timely property tax reform By keeping public lands in public hands By supporting our small business owners and local entrepreneurs “I feel truly grateful for the opportunity to serve the people of House District 22.”

CONNECT WITH ME www.abhd22.com • @ABforHD22 • andrew@abhd22.com PAID FOR BY ANDREW BYRON REPUBICAN CANDIDATE FOR HOUSE DISTRICT 22

PUBLISHER Kevin Olson ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Adam Meyer EDITOR IN CHIEF Johanna Love MANAGING EDITOR Rebecca Huntington PHOTOGRAPHERS Bradly J. Boner, Kathryn Ziesig, Reed Mattison EDITORIAL DESIGN Andy Edwards, Samantha Nock COPY EDITORS Jennifer Dorsey, Mark Huffman, Addie Henderson WRITERS Billy Arnold, Sophia Boyd-Fliegel, Kate Ready, Timothy J. Woods CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Sarah Wilson ADVERTISING DESIGN: Lydia Redzich, Luis F. Ortiz, Heather Haseltine, Chelsea Robinson ADVERTISING SALES: Karen Brennan, Tom Hall, Megan LaTorre, Katie Brierley DIGITAL CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Tatum Mentzer PRODUCTION PRODUCTION MANAGER: Chuck Pate PREPRESS MANAGER: Lewis Haddock PRESS SUPERVISOR: Dale Fjeldsted PRESSMEN: Steve Livingston, Robert Heward, Nick Hoskins, Gunner Heller CIRCULATION MANAGER: Lewis Haddock CIRCULATION SUPERVISOR: Jayann Carlisle ©2022 Teton Media Works Jackson Hole News&Guide P.O. Box 7445, 1225 Maple Way Jackson, WY 83002 Phone: 307-733-2047 Web: JHNewsAndGuide.com

PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 3

Town Council: 7 candidates; 4 advance Jackson Town Council is a nonpartisan race. Four candidates are running for two seats, held by incumbents Arne Jorgensen and Jonathan Schechter. Answers culled from News&Guide questionnaire.

Arne Jorgensen

increase of meaningful property tax relief programs structured to provide relief to those on limited or fixed budgets, renters and small business owners. This would then permit both the town and county to strategically use the current unassessed property tax. These programs could include a homestead exemption, capped or limited rate of growth in tax increases, create different classes of residential property, and more robust refund options for small businesses and lower income renters.

This being said, an optional property transfer tax should take priority. This is the tool that most directly targets the source of the issue, high property values, and can be structured to reduce impacts on the vulnerable in our community.

Lives: East Jackson Years in Jackson: I am a Jackson native and have spent a total of 43 years in Jackson, I was fortunate to return home permanently in 1989.

Occupation, and how it has prepared you to be a town councilor: I’ve been an architect working in Jackson since 1989. I’ve also served on multiple public and nonprofit boards; including a founding board member and emeritus member of the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust, a Wyoming Community Foundation emeritus board member after serving on the board for over 20 years, past governor-appointed member of the Wyoming Board of Architects and Landscape Architects, where I served for 12 1/2 years, and many committees of the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.

Each of these experiences prepared me to be a thoughtful and effective member of the Town Council, including awareness of both the intent and implementation of regulations and working with widely diverse groups of public and private stakeholders to efficiently implement appropriate policy direction.

What is the most important conservation issue facing Jackson?

About the candidate Jackson’s housing crisis is at the top of the list of items Jackson Vice Mayor Arne Jorgensen wants to keep working on if he wins a second term on the Town Council.

Jorgensen lives in East Jackson with his wife, Teresa de Groh, and is the son of longtime state Rep. Pete Jorgensen. He has witnessed firsthand the difficult challenges facing a town where many cling to Jackson’s Western heritage and character, and the amount of wealth is driving longtime residents from the area.

“During my four years in office — and especially in the last two years — I have seen the real-life stressors and pains of making ends meet in an increasingly more expensive region,” he said. “I will continue to provide a thoughtful, positive voice to our dialogues in a way that improves the place that we have been fortunate enough to call home for all community members, not just the loudest in the room.”

He added that with the challenges come opportunities.

“Throughout much of our history, our potential is really a combination of our community and the amazing place, the environment where we live, the place where we live, and that hasn’t changed,” he said. “It also represents the challenges, right?

How do we maintain that community? How do we respect the place we’re in?

“So I think we’re poised well to take advantage of our opportunities, but there’s a lot to do.”

While Jorgensen cited housing as one of the greatest challenges the town faces, he also listed progress made since his election in 2018 on housing among the achievements of which he’s most proud.

“One of the things I’m most proud of is the lowincome [rental] tax-credit project on West Snow King,” which will break ground in August after the Teton County Fair. “That one took a lot of effort, working with the state of Wyoming to unlock those funds, those federal funds. And this is providing new housing, rental housing, at a truly affordable level. It’s something we’ve not been able to do at this scale in the past.”

Jorgensen also emphasized ecosystem stewardship; the town’s ability and willingness to connect failing wastewater treatment systems outside the town’s service area to the town’s wastewater plant; successfully navigating pandemic-related issues; and effective and efficient budgeting processes as other points of pride during his current term.

Why are you running for town councilor?

I am running because Jackson is a community of people in an incredible community of place, and it is critical that we retain a sense of — and protect — both communities. When I was growing up in Jackson my parents instilled in me an awareness and deep appreciation of our environment.

While spending time both in and out of Jackson, I have come to recognize the uniqueness of our people and that many are not represented in our political discourse. I have the appropriate interests and skills to ask the unasked questions and would be honored to continue to serve on the Jackson Town Council.

Arne Jorgensen

What will you do as councilor to make headway on our affordable and workforce housing shortage?

I’ve worked hard under the guise of “all of the above” when it comes to a discussion of housing tactics. My efforts with affordable housing for nearly 33 years have been based on four guiding principles from which I have never wavered: 1) Provide opportunities to those who are committed to our community, 2) Develop and support efforts that deliver housing security and stability, 3) Ensure that any homes that are presented as affordable or available to community members are protected as such over generations of residents, and 4) Be respectful. I support the three-pronged approach our community is pursuing: 1) Shift density to appropriate locations, 2) Mitigate for impacts of our individual actions, and 3) Wide community-based efforts such as private donors and public tax support.

What is the first initiative you would work to put in action to ease traffic congestion?

Possibly, more than our other challenges, easing traffic congestion is something we can all impact with the personal choices we make about how we move around our valley. As a community we should be considering how we incentivize fewer singleoccupancy vehicles, how we use the corridors we have, expand alternative means of transportation, and address redundancy, particularly related to public safety and acceptable levels of service.

Using federal dollars and unexpectedly high sales tax revenue, I am proud of the efforts to invest in additional START services in South Park, on commuter lines, to Teton Village, and to increase the level and quality of town service.

What would be your strategy to manage growth in Jackson Hole?

Our first Comprehensive Plan was adopted in the late 1970s and, along with subsequent Land Development Regulations, has been updated to reflect our community goals of managing change in Teton County and Jackson. These documents, with town and county budgets, serve as foundational documents that should be reflective of our community priorities and should establish our community vision. They are not static and require ongoing review and work to ensure that our path forward achieves the goals we have set for ourselves. It is critical that LDRs should be designed to achieve clearly articulated goals; we should not rely on intended or unintended consequences of regulatory action to achieve indirect growth and change related outcomes.

Should the town look to more property tax as a revenue source? Why or why not?

Yes. Although this should be dependent on an

We need to do better on recognizing that we are at the center of the largest intact ecosystem in the lower 48 states. This fact, along with a history of large landscape conservation, is what distinguishes us from nearly every other gateway or resort community. Our stewardship of this place must always be in the forefront of our policy discussions.

How we balance the needs of our ecosystem with those of our community is our greatest challenge — the new Housing Preservation Program is a great example of how this can be done. This is a voluntary program that purchases restrictions on existing homes, thus providing ongoing affordability and access while removing an existing home from the speculative market without the addition of a new home.

Do you support implementing paid parking downtown? Why or why not?

Yes. Any such implementation must be based on a community-wide effort to actively manage our parking infrastructure. The town currently has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our parking and street infrastructure. Such investment should be more actively managed. Whatever the details of long-term solutions are, they should be based on the most updated tested technology.

What can the town do to improve its pathways network?

Address “last mile” connectivity, infill missing segments, and improve budgeting to better account for maintenance and management.

What else should voters know?

I’ve sat down with business owners, nonprofit directors, town staff and community members to hear about our collective goals for Jackson’s future. One critical element that is consistent that has been barely addressed with this questionnaire are questions related to budget. These are the resources needed to provide our core services along with investing in our priorities of housing, conservation, transportation, and health and human services. Our discussions need to be more than policy goals and have to include budget impacts.

I am proud of the increased transparency of the budget process and presentation of town programs in a way that provides for a much higher level of clarity than we have seen in the past.

The other budget reality that the town is beginning to highlight is the challenge faced by our reliance on sales tax revenue that is just not keeping up with the community’s expectations for addressing our priorities. I will work to continue to raise these budget questions and focus on longterm budget improvements.

A second topic barely touched on in the questions are issues related to COVID. We have lived through a worldwide pandemic and are arguably in a transition from epidemic to endemic. For the most part I am proud of how our community conducted ourselves: how we supported each other, how our institutions of government, nonprofits, health care, and businesses conducted themselves, and how we stepped up to support our residents and visitors. I am particularly proud of how the town of Jackson gave voice and weight to our local and state public health experts. Yes, there were disagreements on how we were responding yet we have been very successful as a community that hosts literally millions of visitors in keeping in check the most harsh outcomes such as deaths and hospitalizations. Any death or significant hospitalization is a tragedy; our rates of occurrences are lower than national or state averages.

4 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Town Council: 7 candidates, 4 advance Jackson Town Council is a nonpartisan race. Seven candidates are running for two seats held by incumbents Arne Jorgensen and Jonathan Schechter. Answers culled from News&Guide questionnaire.

Katherine ‘Kat’ Rueckert

Execute on projects within the allocated budget.

For sustainable growth the town government should operate within its means — as in, complete the prioritized projects when it has the funds to do so. This helps keep the government — and spending— in check while giving the community what it needs most.

Lives: East Jackson Years in Jackson: 4 Occupation, and how it has prepared you to be a town councilor: I am a project engineer for a local construction company. I believe my skills for budget management and project organization will be beneficial as a town councilor to balance the budget and manage the operations of the Town of Jackson.

Should the town look to more property tax as a revenue source? Why or why not?

About the candidate

Absolutely not. How can we expect to retain working families in our town if we tax them into oblivion? After reviewing our town’s budget we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. Instead of raising taxes I propose we cut spending.

Rueckert did not respond to multiple requests for an interview but did fill out the candidate questionnaire below.

Why are you running for town councilor?

I believe our representative government flourishes when elected offices are a revolving door of new people, new ideas and fresh perspectives. I see running for local office as my civic duty, not a career path. I’d like to get in, get stuff done and get out.

What will you do as councilor to make headway on our affordable and workforce housing shortage?

Jackson has available land that is designated for housing. It’s time we develop northern South Park with affordable, high-density housing and affordable, single-family homes for local families.

What is the first initiative you would work to put in action to ease traffic congestion?

I will remove the bollards lining Willow Street. It is an immediate action that will open up more park-

What is the most important conservation issue facing Jackson?

COURTESY PHOTO

Katherine “Kat” Rueckert

ing and, in turn, help alleviate traffic congestion.

What would be your strategy to manage growth in Jackson Hole?

Prioritize the most pressing issues (examples: housing, traffic and infrastructure).

Review the town’s budget to determine how much money we have to work with, and reprioritize if funds aren’t available.

Deliberate on appropriate solutions, and allocate budgets, with stakeholders and community members.

Conserving the character of Jackson. This means upholding our Western heritage, revitalizing the community of Jackson, embracing our land and wildlife and encouraging local, longtime residents to remind/educate us of the small-town way of life.

Do you support implementing paid parking downtown? Why or why not?

Nope. I think there are a lot of unintended consequences that will come with paid parking. For one, the extra policing needed will be substantial and, frankly, the police in our community have much more pressing issues than writing citations for expired parking slips. Also, there will be drivers who will not want to pay for parking, and I foresee parking spillover into the neighborhood side streets, which will not be welcomed by homeowners.

Council candidates cite town budget as a key issue At forum they discuss rising property taxes, gentrification, child care and more.

By Timothy J. Woods Town Councilor Arne Jorgensen and challengers Elliott Alston, Katherine Rueckert and Devon Viehman fielded questions on issues from housing to property taxes, traffic congestion to parking, and their own personal strengths during an online forum coordinated by the League of Women Voters, Teton County Library, KHOL radio, Buckrail and the News&Guide.

Town Councilor Jonathan Schechter, running for reelection, was unable to attend due to a previous family commitment, but he had a three-minute statement read at the beginning of the forum. Candidates David Scheurn and Joel Smith did not attend the forum, though both were expected by organizers.

Among the policy questions asked was what is the most critical issue facing the town.

Responding first, Jorgensen said, “One of the challenges is that it isn’t any one thing, it’s many, many of them.”

Jorgensen went on to list housing and providing core services — housing, transportation, conservation, and health and human services at the top of that list — among the items he’s prioritized in his first term on the council. Jorgensen said that while the town does a great job providing core services to residents, it has to look to a new, sustainable “revenue package” to continue providing other services Jacksonites have come to expect.

Alston acknowledged that he “can’t say that I’m an expert in any one of those four parts of our community, though I do truly care about this community, and I’ve given a lot to it.”

He said there are enough educat-

ed people in the community that he hopes “we don’t continue down this road that we’ve seen of some of these cycles of what some communities would call ‘hyper-gentrification.’”

Rueckert pointed to a community trying to pull itself out of the COVID-19 pandemic and said that from what she’s seen of the town’s budget, the council could better serve residents.

“Our expenditures are expected to outweigh our revenues for the adopted budget in 2023, and I don’t really see how that’s viable in a town that’s already dealing with increased property taxes, already dealing with increases everywhere else,” Rueckert said.

As a councilor, she said, she would try to ensure that only items that have sufficient funding would be included in future budgets and that the character of the town would be preserved.

Viehman, meanwhile, said that “our town is fed up … and they don’t like what’s going on” regarding a laundry list of items. Included among those are downtown developments, child care and keeping Jackson’s senior residents from being pushed out of town.

“We’ve got to have decision-makers at the helm who are ready to make those decisions and have those uncomfortable conversations and move forward,” Viehman said.

Later she added that she is prepared to make prompt decisions to help move the community forward.

With the town levying a half-mill property tax in 2021 — the first time the town has had a property tax in about 40 years — and overall property tax bills skyrocketing this year, the candidates had plenty to say about whether an increased town levy is a viable revenue stream.

“No more property tax, period,” Viehman said. “We’ve got to find other ways to look for money. … I’ve seen so many local families this year get their tax bills, and they have to leave. They’re selling their homes

that they’ve had for 30 or 40 years because they can’t afford it anymore.”

Viehman and others pointed to the state and legislators in Cheyenne to provide relief programs to help the working class and those on fixed incomes remain in their homes.

“The real core response to that question is at the state level,” Jorgensen said. “They are making some progress. There’s state Constitution changes that have to happen, as well as legislation.”

He said Teton County has three tax-relief programs for qualifying residents and noted that only about 25% of property tax money stays in the community, with the rest going to the state.

“We’ve been talking to the state about this for 20 years, and they ... don’t understand why this is an issue,” he said.

Alston said he has seen a number of local families who have had to leave Teton County in the past couple of months as a result of spiking property tax bills.

The next step, he said, is working with the state as best as possible, imposing a lot of restrictions and “trying to make it viable so that people in this town can retire or that you can have the ability to come here and raise a child,” he said.

Rueckert acknowledged the problem at the state level but again pointed to the town’s deficit budget and said the approximately $250,000 raised by the town’s half-mill property tax means little when looking at the town’s overall expenses.

“What are we looking at as a deficit in [fiscal year] 2023?” Rueckert said. “We’re coming in short $6 million, [and] $250,000 isn’t going to do much for that. So I don’t know why this was voted on in the first place.

What it looks like to me is we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.”

While the candidates addressed several other issues, including traffic and paid parking, they also revealed what they believe to be strengths

they have that separate themselves from the rest of the field.

“I’m 25 years old. I think I bring an energy and a fresh perspective,” Rueckert said. “I understand that the town has operated in a certain way for a certain amount of time, and I think it’s time to stir it up a little bit” with new ideas.

Viehman pointed to a recent conversation she had with a friend about the various leadership roles Viehman has taken on and her mentorship of future leaders.

“She said, ‘Devon, you lead with your heart and make decisions with your smarts,’ which is really true,” Viehman said. “I’m a human being; I don’t always use the perfect words.

I care deeply about this community, though.”

Jorgensen talked about his and his family’s history, not only as Jackson Hole residents but also serving the community in various ways, from the state Legislature to his wife’s 20 years as a volunteer for Jackson Hole Fire/EMS. “I was born and raised in this community,” Jorgensen said. “This is home, and I’m absolutely committed to it. Public service is absolutely baked into my soul.”

Wrapping up the answers to that question, Alston, who is Black, said he doesn’t think the council is “representative of what our town looks like, of what our community really looks like.”

Alston said he wants to represent Jackson’s marginalized populations.

“I’m not to be swayed by a lot of these entities and powers that be,” he said. “I do like seeking information and getting to the bottom [of things] to make an educated decision. ... I’m not going to make the same decisions as a lot of people who have come forward in front of me because I don’t think a lot of people look like me and have had my experience in this town.”

Find the video link to watch the forum at TCLib.org/candidates.

PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 5

Town Council: 7 candidates, 4 advance Jackson Town Council is a nonpartisan race. Seven candidates are running for two seats that are held by incumbents Arne Jorgensen and Jonathan Schechter. Answers culled from News&Guide questionnaire.

Jonathan Schechter

is fine. If it wants government to do more or even just maintain current services, we will eventually need to generate more government revenue.

For a number of reasons, raising Jackson’s property taxes is a bad idea. Raising the sales tax by one cent is fairer and more efficient.

Lives: Indian Trails subdivision (the wild western edge of town) Years in Jackson: 35 Occupation, and how it has prepared you to be a town councilor: I am a Jackson town councilor. I am also founder and executive director of the Charture Institute, a nonprofit think tank helping communities and ecosystems simultaneously thrive.

Charture studies the causes and consequences of the rapid growth and change upending places like Jackson, then helps residents address challenges and embrace opportunities.

My work has given me a singular understanding of the range and complexity of Jackson Hole’s challenges and opportunities: economic, social and environmental. It also gives me a unique ability to offer meaningful solutions to our increasingly difficult challenges.

In my work and public service my goal is to help Jackson meet its extraordinary potential as a place to live and visit and as a model of how people and the ecosystem can co-thrive.

What is the most important conservation issue facing Jackson?

The Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive Plan’s vision statement reads: “Preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem in order to ensure a healthy environment, community and economy for current and future generations.” Not the town’s nor county’s ecosystem, but the area’s ecosystem.

This is why I led the effort to create Jackson’s first-in-the-nation ecosystem stewardship administrator position. The position lets the town take a holistic approach to dealing with the area’s many and interrelated conservation issues — we can’t address only one issue and hope to preserve and protect the area’s ecosystem. Among the many important challenges we face are water quality, climate change, preserving habitat and, critically, our inability to assess ecosystem health. Each is vital, and now local government has staff devoted to that job.

About the candidate

Schechter is touting a “Sustain What Matters” slogan in his bid for reelection. His goals for the town and the length of time it can take to achieve them are among the reasons why he believes Jackson voters should give him the nod.

Schechter said he thought long and hard about whether to run again. He opted to do so because, he said, another term in office would be the best way he could “give back to this place that you and I and so many others love so deeply and care so much about.”

He looks forward to continuing the policymaking he’s done since 2019.

“Running is a very ‘me, me, me’ kind of exercise where you say, ‘This is why you should vote for me and this is what I’m going to do.’ It’s an individual sport,” Schechter said. “But governing is a team sport. And the team is not just you, but it’s your colleagues on the elected body.”

The team also involves town staff, residents, visitors and business owners, he said.

“It’s everybody who interacts with the town, and it’s a complex web of interests and it takes a long time to get that figured out.”

A point of pride Schechter identified from his first term is working with Town Manager Larry Pardee and Finance Director Kelly Thompson to turn the town’s budget, which he called “a complex beast,” into something more digestible and understandable for the public. The town has shifted in the last couple of years from a line-item budget to a “priority-driven” budget in which the council sets its priorities for the town, and the budget more closely reflects those identified priorities.

Jonathan Schechter While we need to do more, we’ve had great success. Since I took office we’ve added 201 affordable homes (44% of all homes built), and 604 more deed-restricted homes are in the pipeline. Add in northern South Park, and during my time in office we’ve built, approved, and planned over 1,500 new affordable and workforce homes.

What is the first initiative you would work to put in action to ease traffic congestion?

There are no “me, me, me” solutions to traffic.

Its causes are multifaceted, including tourism, a growing population and a changing economy. We need to continue our holistic approach, including expanding mass transit and encouraging pathway use. Roads should be expanded only if it makes clear sense. The best thing elected officials can do is provide the financial and political support our transportation team needs for its long-term, multimillion-dollar efforts.

Over the past four years we’ve made great strides. Today START handles more people than ever, over a broader region. Better still, over the next few years START will expand routes and capacity. We need to continue and grow these efforts. We must also recognize, though, that it will take years for today’s efforts to fully pay off.

Why are you running for town councilor? What would be your strategy to manage growth in Jackson Hole?

To help Jackson Hole sustain what matters.

What matters is our environment. Our community. Our economy. The qualities that make Jackson Hole one of the most remarkable places on Earth.

I have spent the past 20-plus years of my professional life studying and working with Jackson and similar communities across the country, helping them identify and sustain what matters to them.

As a town councilor, over the past four years I have focused on the town of Jackson, helping us face unprecedented growth- and change-related challenges. All of the pressures and challenges we face will only accelerate during the next four years, and I want to continue using my skills, knowledge, and ability to get things done, helping the community, the region and the people I love so dearly and who have given me so much.

Another “me, me, me” question.

To succeed, any strategy must build on what I’ve learned in 20-plus years studying and addressing Jackson Hole’s growth and change. Profound changes in technology, the economy, transportation and values have made it increasingly easy to live here, creating unlimited demand for our tiny supply of land and housing.

These trends will accelerate, making it even harder for Jackson Hole to sustain what matters.

To effectively manage our future will require government not to solve our problems but bring us together for a clear-eyed conversation about what’s occurring, why it’s occurring, what we value and what steps we are willing to take. This will not be easy, but without such an effort Jackson Hole will find it increasingly hard to sustain what matters.

What will you do as councilor to make headway on our affordable and workforce housing shortage?

Should the town look to more property tax as a revenue source? Why or why not?

While running for office is a “me, me, me” exercise, governing is “we, we, we.” By myself I can do nothing to address community issues. Working collaboratively, though, I can do two things: Continue to work with other electeds to support and enhance affordable housing efforts.

These were underway before I came into office, and I continue to support them.

Work with staff, electeds and other partners to explore and pursue all ideas for funding and developing more housing.

Jackson Hole is a 21st-century community with a 20th-century operating system. Sales taxes produce 80% of Jackson’s core revenues yet account for only 15% of our economy. A $1 cup of coffee alone generates more tax revenue than Teton County’s 2021 combined figures of $1 billion in services revenues plus $3 billion of real estate sales plus $4 billion of investment income.

Given the rising cost of services, the community has a basic choice to make. If it’s OK with fewer government services, then the current system

Do you support implementing paid parking downtown? Why or why not?

Paid parking downtown is inevitable. Far less clear is how to do it fairly. Figuring that out will determine when it is implemented.

Jackson Hole is a 21st-century community with a 20th century operating system. One of our 21st-century challenges is far too many cars for our constricted road system. One aspect of our 20th-century operating system is that government doesn’t generate enough revenue to properly address our transportation needs, including parking-related issues during peak traffic hours.

Our current parking system works well much of the time. The challenge is to complement the current system with a fair “high-demand” system that addresses peak-period problems (e.g., employees taking up parking intended for customers). Any plan I support must equitably address both issues.

What can the town do to improve its Pathways network?

Complete the in-town system and deal with ebike-related hazards. Each requires more funding, which highlights the challenges posed by the growing disconnect between our economy and how we fund government.

What else should voters know?

H.L. Mencken once observed: “For every complex issue, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” Jackson Hole faces a host of tremendously complex issues, none of which can be solved by one individual alone. Nor can they be solved by looking at them individually.

As I commented at the Town Council’s July 5 meeting: “We need to ask whether our current rules are producing the community we want.” My point was that we need to take a new approach to our challenges.

Every candidate will talk about housing, transportation, growing income inequality and related issues. As we should, for all these and more need our attention. These issues, however, are only symptoms of our larger challenges. If we want Jackson Hole to be truly successful for both current and future generations, we need to do more than just address “symptoms.” Instead we need to collectively identify and address the core issues underlying these “symptoms,” which in turn means looking at the key goals set out in the Comprehensive Plan’s vision statement: What is a healthy environment? How do we know? How do we assess its health?

What is a healthy community? How do we know? How do we assess its health?

What is a healthy economy? How do we know?

How do we assess its health?

If I am reelected, these are the questions I will push to have us explore and answer — collectively, as a holistic community. I will do this because I believe that exploring and addressing our core issues will give us the best possible chance of meeting our potential as a community, as a destination, and as a worldwide model for how we can sustain what matters.

6 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Town Council: 7 candidates, 4 advance Jackson Town Council is a nonpartisan race. Seven candidates are running for two seats that are held by incumbents Arne Jorgensen and Jonathan Schechter. Answers culled from News&Guide questionnaire.

Devon Viehman

What would be your strategy to manage growth in Jackson Hole?

Lives: East Jackson Years in Jackson: Since I was 10 (roughly 30 years).

Occupation, and how it has prepared you to be a town councilor: As a Realtor for 18 years I’ve seen homeless youth and the conditions some families in our community live in, which is why housing is at the forefront of my goals.

I’ve served on local, state and national boards.

I’ve been treasurer for a multimillion-dollar budget.

I served as the youngest ever Teton Board of Realtors president. I know how to work cohesively with others and govern an entity. Many policy decisions made in Cheyenne and Washington, D.C., affect us locally, and I have built meaningful relationships as a lobbyist for housing protections and chair of the Land Use, Property Rights and Environment Committee for the National Association of Realtors.

I will work tirelessly to make the changes we need to create more workforce housing and not luxury real estate. Before I am a Realtor, I am a Jacksonite. My heart is with this community.

We have only so much land left in our county and even less in town, so there is only so much growth that can happen here. We do need to manage the number of visitors Jackson receives so that it’s sustainable with our environment and our local residents. Do we need more luxury townhomes and hotels? No. Not until we can create stable, affordable housing for the people who keep our community running. If commercial real estate is developed, the stakes need to be higher for it regarding housing their employees. We must also strike a balance so that we do not continue to make it nearly impossible for small-business owners to develop.

Should the town look to more property tax as a revenue source? Why or why not?

No more taxes! Longtime members of our community are being forced out because they cannot pay their property taxes. That is wrong. The town enacted a small property tax recently, which could open the door for more taxes. Renters are affected by property taxes too. The landlords pass these increases onto them and force more people out. If we keep making it more expensive to live here, we’re adding to the affordability problem.

About the candidate There is such a thing as too much “studying,” Viehman told the News&Guide ahead of her campaign announcement.

“Our community is really upset. They’re mad. I hear them,” Viehman said. “Talking about housing isn’t going to actually build the housing.”

Viehman was the first to formally announce a run for the two open positions in the nonpartisan Town Council race.

Unlike what people assume about Realtors, Viehman said, she wasn’t opposed to local Rep. Mike Yin’s latest version of a real estate transfer tax bill, and she thinks government has a bigger role to play in shepherding affordable and workforce housing projects.

While she did not bring up specific actions, she said that “the community doesn’t understand why we keep having all the studies and paying all this money, but bigger results aren’t happening.”

As a Teton County Planning Commission member, Viehman has recently voted in favor of workforce housing proposals in meetings where neighbor opposition has dominated the chambers, including 17 homes for Lower Valley Energy employee housing and for the Darwiche family’s 57-unit workforce apartment proposal for Legacy Lodge.

“I’m not afraid to step up and say the right thing even though the right thing is sometimes the difficult thing to say,” she said.

She also pointed to supporting private tools like the Community Housing Fund, a nonprofit she started to give agents and sellers the opportunity to donate to local affordable housing at each transaction.

The fund is young enough that she doesn’t have first quarter numbers, but the end of last year saw over $300,000 donated, she said.

When asked about election heat in 2020 for receiving $5,000 from a local conservative partisan political action committee — funds she later returned — Viehman said she’d stick with a nonpartisan race.

“I will take money from any individual that wants to give me some,” she said, “or a nonpartisan PAC.” And while housing is her expertise, Viehman said she also cares deeply about community health and human services, especially having lived though her biological father’s death by suicide and as some-

Devon Viehman one diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I’m putting myself out there this time,” she said.

“I’ve committed to being genuine and people really see me for who I am.”

Why are you running for town councilor?

I am running because our community is frustrated and so am I. Individuals in the working and middle classes increasingly can’t afford to live here, and if they do, most of their monthly budget goes toward housing. It isn’t sustainable, and we continue to lose valuable members of our community: young people, retirees and everyone in between. The quality of life isn’t what it should be in this special place. Our community isn’t a commodity, but it sure feel like that is what it has turned into. We need data-driven, but swift decision-makers at the helm. I am that person.

What will you do as councilor to make headway on our affordable and workforce housing shortage?

While I will be only one vote, I will advocate for policy, zoning and regulation changes immediately.

We need to take a step back and fix what is broken.

For example, transitional neighborhoods were created to encourage multifamily units, but what happened was the prices were driven so more big boxes with vacant accessory residential units were built. I will vote “yes” for housing, and I have demonstrated that during my time on the Teton County Planning Commission.

What is the first initiative you would work to put in action to ease traffic congestion?

The first initiative I would work on would be to expand the START On Demand service with more regular runs from Idaho and south of town. After that we can explore avenues for securing START services to Melody and Rafter J. We could also continue to move on the regional transportation authority initiative. We can’t solve anything without our neighbors. But I think firstly, I would try to expand START On Demand.

What is the most important conservation issue facing Jackson?

Water quality is imperative to healthy humans, wildlife and wild spaces, and right now our water quality is at risk because of many factors. Hundreds of failing septic systems are in the county. The town owns the wastewater treatment plant, and it does have a maximum capacity. Sewage is the No. 1 cause of fecal bacterial contamination in our water systems likely due to seepage from older septic systems and sewer lines near our groundwater. I would like to see the county add a wastewater treatment plant on the West Bank and create a program to help residents replace their failing systems. A new septic can cost $10K to $20K, so many folks can’t afford to replace them. It is not only a conservation issue but also a public health issue we need to address.

Do you support implementing paid parking downtown? Why or why not?

No. I do not oppose the idea of paid parking downtown. People are used to paying it in other places, and perhaps it would get more people to walk or bike. However, we need to ask some questions before we sign the dotted line. For instance, why aren’t we building a parking deck at the Home Ranch lot? How will paid parking affect local businesses? I need to learn more about all of the options before I can commit to saying with certainty that paid parking is the right decision.

What can the town do to improve its Pathways network?

Path connector finished south of town and speed limits in high pedestrian areas.

What else should voters know?

I will only be one of five votes on the council, and accomplishing anything requires a multitude of factors. Trust is the most important thing, and you can trust that I will make the best decisions for our community. We don’t have the luxury of time anymore.

Change must happen now, and I am ready to step up. If you are frustrated with the status quo like I am, then give me the opportunity to shake things up.

Other town candidates: Alston, Scheurn, Smith Elliott Alston attended the online candidate forum (see related story on page 4E) but did not respond to the News&Guide

Don’t miss a beat!

questionnaire. David Scheurn did not attend the candidate forum, respond to News&Guide requests for interviews or

fill out the questionnaire. Joel Smith did not attend the candidate forum and did not provide contact information on his

candidate filing form. Find a link to the Youtube video of the online town candidate forum at TCLib.org/candidates.

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PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 7

County Assessor

Dem. primary voters will likely pick next assessor Challenger Aukee aims to mitigate property tax hikes, but incumbent Shinkle says county assessor’s powers are limited.

By Sophia Boyd-Fliegel It’s not unusual to have a contested race for assessor. There have been two candidates in the Teton County general election since 2010. But this time Deputy County Attorney Zane Aukee is challenging incumbent Melissa “Mel” Shinkle in the Aug. 16 primary, as both are Democrats.

The News&Guide spoke with both candidates who want the honor — and the burden — of assessing and doling out property tax estimates.

A fresh face for a tough job

Aukee, 32, is running a reform campaign to try to lower people’s property taxes.

“No, it has not always been a dream of mine,” Aukee said of running for assessor, “I think my background and experience speaks to that.”

But in his mind, he said, transitioning from prosecutor to assessor would be simple.

“Currently I spend my days serving the public by fighting for justice in Teton County, as a prosecutor,” Aukee said, “and I want to take that kind of drive that I have to fight for the taxpayers.”

The idea came to him unexpectedly this year when he was shocked by his own assessment.

Aukee, originally from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, said he’s running on behalf of his kids, who are 1 and 2 years old.

“I want them to be able to have the same opportunity my wife and I’ve had to make a life here,” he said.

He’s seen the housing crisis grow from the mid2000s, when he first lived in the valley during college breaks.

Back then people were worried mainly about the barriers of entry to homeownership, he said. But within the last decade, and especially with the pandemic surge of buyers, the unpredictable expense has been extraordinarily burdensome to retirees and renters,

Melissa “Mel” Shinkle

Zane Aukee

too.

After earning dual degrees in business and law from the University of Montana he moved to Jackson to work as an in-house legal counsel for Teton Trust Company. In 2019 he moved to the public sector to prosecute misdemeanor and felony cases in the Teton County and Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Aukee said he doesn’t know how his process would specifically differ from incumbent Melissa Shinkle’s.

“I don’t have the same access to the data that office does because I’m obviously not in that office,” Aukee said.

The assessor, he said, can shape some decisions, such as what constitutes a neighborhood, comparable

property or the condition of a home. That’s where he said he’d try to give homeowners “the benefit of the doubt.”

But he said he wants to use the county assessor office in every way possible and within the confines of the law to mitigate growing rates and “put the brakes on” property taxes.

Up against experience

Shinkle’s worst fear is not that she’ll lose the election.

“I’ve said many times, in this last year especially, that I’m not going to run,” Shinkle said.

See COUNTY ASSESSOR on 9

"I will continue to provide a thoughtful and positive voice advocating for our public lands, as well as for all community members — not just the loudest in the room."

Vote Arne Jorgensen for Town Council Aug.16, 2022 www.arnejorgensen.com 407733

407749

8 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

County Commission: 4 Republican candidates, 3 advance to general election Four Republican candidates for Teton County commissioner must be narrowed to three in the primary.

Registered Republicans can cast ballots for up to three of the following: Peter Long, Kasey Mateosky, Alex Muromcew and Tom Segerstrom. The three top vote-getters advance to the Nov. 8 general election to compete with Democratic and independent candidates. There are three seats up for election: one is open and two are held by incumbents Luther Propst and Mark Newcomb, who are seeking reelection.

Peter Long

Job: Small, local family-owned business operator Affiliation: Republican Lives in: Moran

About:

Peter Long often uses the plural pronoun “we” during campaigns for county commissioner. He ​​ has signed campaign emails from himself, his wife, Lauren, and his 3-year-old, Walter.

As the only Teton County commissioner candidate with young children, Long has become the most vocal supporter of support for families. (Several sitting county commissioners have young children.) Two years ago he ran on a similar platform that championed the “underrepresented” working class families.

In 2020 he fell short of a County Commission seat by 260 votes, just over 1% of the total vote count.

He and his wife both work multiple jobs running the Diamond Cross Ranch events venue and Teton Cabins, which he called, the working class “plight.”

That means housing insecurity, trying to find child care, rising health care costs, everything that makes Jackson a “tougher and tougher place,” he said.

The socioeconomic, housing insecurity and health care disparities he wanted to improve last time were only “opened up” by COVID-19, he said, and government should partner more with nonprofits and businesses.

Local government isn’t the answer to big issues “unilaterally,” he said.

Long also wants to see property taxes come down with help from the county. Recent years of doubledigit percent increases in property taxes have hit people on fixed incomes most, he said.

The county can only impact lower property taxes around 13% from where they are now without involvement from the state. Long said commissioners and town councilors should make a habit of traveling to Cheyenne to meet with state lawmakers.

“Too often, Teton County is treated as the ugly stepchild,” he said.

Long is a fourth-generation Teton County native who spent time in Washington, D.C., working for a lobbying company, public policy think tank, and the National Security Council before starting his own public relations consulting firm.

Top issues:

1. Affordable/ workforce housing 2. Water quality 3. Traffic 4. Funding social services

Do you support building the Tribal Trail Connector: Yes.

BY SOPHIA BOYD-FLIEGEL

Peter Long

Our workforce, which is quickly becoming an endangered species. Years of saying “no” to good opportunities to get workforce housing in the ground has choked supply, pushing our housing shortage into a crisis. The problem is compounded by skyrocketing property taxes, rents and costs of living. The result is that our hardworking families and individuals, our critical workers, our friend and neighbors are being pushed out of our community. About half of renters in the area had to move twice in the last three years due to price increases. Ninety-five percent of small businesses report problems finding housing for employees. A person would need to earn nearly half a million dollars annually to afford the median home price last year. Opportunities like northern South Park and the recently approved rezone in Horse Creek demonstrate that by working with the private sector (landowners, builders, nonprofits and community advocates), we can make a difference to keep our workforce in Teton County. If elected I will work to zone more workforce housing, rebuild partnerships with the private sector to get projects done on time and on budget, and ensure Teton County remains a place that our workforce, and future generations, can call home.

What is your view on taxation and the county’s role in providing community What’s the first thing you would do to help services? improve water quality?

Teton County does not have a revenue problem.

We have a spending problem. Property taxes increased by 40% on average for Teton County residents this year. Some families have seen their property tax bill grow by more than 300% over the past four years. There are parents and grandparents living in campers with their children because they have been taxed out of their homes. Meanwhile, the county approved a more than $95 million budget in July, a nearly 40% increase year over year. Rather than using its resources to lower property taxes or drive a legislative fix at the state level, our local government is finding ways to spend the windfall — adding more employees and administration, further exacerbating the housing crisis. There are many great organizations here that fill important needs in our community, and areas that we need to continue to build on to address issues like mental health and emerging water quality problems. We can meet those funding needs without treating taxpayers like an ATM. Our local government should work for the people, not the other way around. As your commissioner I will work to bring greater accountability to your tax dollars and ensure every dollar serves the needs within our community, rather than more government growth.

Develop a countywide water quality vision plan and secure sustainable funding to protect our waters.

Contamination of our local waters is a fast-emerging problem. In Hoback some households’ tap water is not drinkable. Unsafe E. coli and bacteria levels have been detected in Fish Creek and Flat Creek.

These problems affect all of us.

Fortunately, we are in a place where we can still address and correct the problem. But it will take a whole-of-community effort.

I support developing a water quality plan to guide the development and deployment of infrastructure needed to ensure the integrity of our waters and aquifer. I support leveraging the county’s resources and a specific purpose excise tax initiative to create long-term funding. I support practical solutions, like incentives and relief funds to help families replace failing septic systems and septic testing when homes are sold.

Our valley is only as healthy as its waters. To ensure Teton County remains as remarkable as it is today for our children, we cannot afford to kick this issue down the road any further.

What is the most important conservation issue facing Teton County?

Whether we like it or not, Jackson Hole is on the map. The visitors are here; we have to do better at managing their impacts.

Is the Travel and Tourism Board part of the tourism solution or the problem? Why?

Years of marketing this valley, while simultaneously voting down opportunities to create housing and improve infrastructure (like roads and public transportation), have made Teton County a place where visitors are welcome, but our workforce is not.

It’s easy to pin blame on travel and tourism promotion, but let’s not forget that many — probably most — residents here first experienced Teton County as visitors. Small businesses, which create jobs that allow us to live and work here, overwhelming rely on the tourism industry.

I appreciate that the Travel and Tourism Board has limited promotion to shoulder seasons to help build a year-round economy, which supports our working class. It deserves credit for helping drive mitigation efforts and raising awareness among visitors to reduce impacts.

It is incumbent on our elected leaders to better manage the effects of growing visitation. For example, to consider how new development (i.e., more hotels) will affect traffic on our roads, to increase use of public transportation (bus lanes and better routing) and to embrace common-sense solutions to traffic, like smart lights, pathways and road redundancy.

We live in an extraordinary place, home to two national parks and surrounded by unrivaled rugged natural beauty. We can’t be surprised that people from around the world want to visit here. What’s more, our economy, and particularly our working class, depends on it.

We should be working to make this a valley that embraces sustainable visitation and diversity — not trying to close the gates — lest we also make it a place that our workforce only visits, rather than calls home.

What can the county do to support the Latino community, about 20% of the population?

The Latinx community is a critical part of Teton County. Sadly, it is also one of the most vulnerable and under-represented. Our Hispanic population faces disproportionately high housing insecurity, which is likely under reported. Latinx workers are more likely to earn less, work multiple jobs and struggle with costs of health care and child care. Organizations like the Latino Resource Center provide critical services to help bridge divides within our community. Our local government can and should support that work, and it can do more to ensure our Hispanic community’s voice is heard. Much of that is common sense. If elected I will work with the county clerk to hold public meetings at times that work for working families (most people juggling jobs, children and daily life don’t have time to sit through hourslong meetings in the middle of a work day); provide translation services; and create a volunteer Latinx advisory board, to build relations and bring the issues facing our Hispanic population to light. Latinos and Latinas are a vital part of our community, and we are stronger when they are actively involved in shaping our future.

What sets you apart?

As a fourth-generation Teton County native, small-business owner, husband and father, I understand the challenges facing our working class.

That’s why I am running for Teton County Commissioner — to be the voice for those working hardest to keep their place in Teton County, and to ensure this remains a valley that our children can one day call home. I had the great privilege of growing up here. I have seen our community grow and evolve.

Like most of our young people, I know what it means to work multiple jobs, to struggle with rising rents, health care and child care costs — only to see the dream of owning a home and raising a family here slip further and further out of reach. As your commissioner, I will fight to get workforce housing in the ground and ensure that it benefits you, our working class. I will work with our state leaders and be your advocate in Cheyenne to cap property taxes, which are getting passed to renters and pushing out homeowners. I will fight to make child care and health insurance more accessible and affordable by removing barriers to in-home child care and launching a small business health care plan.

And I will bring greater accountability to your tax dollars, to ensure your government works for you.

I understand these issues because my family and I grapple with them every day.

PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 9

County Commission: 4 Republican candidates, 3 advance to general election Four Republican candidates for Teton County commissioner must be narrowed to three in the primary.

Registered Republicans can cast ballots for up to three of the following: Peter Long, Kasey Mateosky, Alex Muromcew and Tom Segerstrom. The three top vote-getters advance to the Nov. 8 general election to compete with Democratic and independent candidates. There are three seats up for election: one is open, and two are held by incumbents Luther Propst and Mark Newcomb, who are seeking reelection.

Kasey Mateosky

Job: Self-employed; president at KM Construction Affiliation: Republican Lives in: Hog Island

About the candidate

Kasey Mateosky owns and operates KM Construction Inc. and has racked up a cumulative 11 years on the County Planning Commission since the early 2000s. He sits on the county and town boards of examiners, and the board of Teton County Weed and Pest.

Mateosky is running for commissioner, he said, to keep working people in Teton County. Then he gave two personal examples.

Growing up in Jackson, everyone would come out to high school football games on Friday night, he said, but the last time he went the home team had more players than local fans.

When he contracted COVID-19 two years ago he was in the hospital for 48 hours. He never had the same nurse twice, and each was a traveling nurse living in Victor, Idaho, or in Alpine.

“We’ve lost that group of people. ... They’re not here participating even though they’re still working here,” he said. “That’s a travesty.”

Mateosky last ran for county commissioner as a Democrat in 2006 and came in fourth of six candidates. Before running as a Democrat, Mateosky said, he identified as an independent.

Switching parties to vote has been a normal part of his political life, Mateosky said. Though he’s now happily registered with the GOP he distanced himself from the farthest right of the Republican party.

“I don’t drink the water from either party,” he said. “My hat’s a cowboy hat. It’s not a MAGA hat.”

On both the Planning Commission and, if he wins, on the Board of County Commissioners, Mateosky said he’d give developers he knows and trusts the “benefit of the doubt,” especially for affordable and workforce projects. With outside developers, he said, “I just look at the plan.”

With KM Construction he’s built around 90 affordable units for the county, Mateosky said.

Judging applications largely by their “character,” he said, moves people quickly into houses rather than holding up development applications.

“As a commercial and residential contractor in the valley for 40 years, I have a pretty good judgment of character,” he said.

As for the argument that building more units without proper mitigation leads to digging the county deeper into the housing crisis, Mateosky said, he didn’t see it that way.

Growth would happen no matter what, and housing is already woefully behind, he said.

“I’m probably a little selfish because I have four grandkids [who] I want to have grow up here,” he said. “That growth is going to be hard. Growth is painful.”

But with the right people at the helm, he said, it can be manageable.

Top issues: 1. Affordable/ workforce housing 2. Senior housing/ care 3. Traffic 4. Preserving agricultural and open space

Do you support building the Tribal Trail Connector: Yes.

COUNTY ASSESSOR Continued from 7

When she first heard she had an opponent, she said, “at first, I was like, ‘He can have it.’”

Ultimately, she said, she wants taxpayers to feel they can always come in and talk to the office about their assessments with transparency. And if that means talking to someone else, she said, so be it.

“But I feel a responsibility to the taxpayers to keep being real with them,” she said. “I don’t want to sound like I’m being rude towards my opponent. ... but it’s important for me

REED MATTISON / NEWS&GUIDE

Kasey Mateosky

What is your view on taxation and the county’s role in providing community services?

Nobody likes taxation. If it’s collected and spent according to the Teton County vision, mission and values statement, I’d say we have done our job. I will stand behind this statement if elected as commissioner.

What is the most important conservation issue facing Teton County?

Conservation, preservation and protecting our open space and our wildlife go hand in hand with managing our growth and building affordable housing. We need to add density so we can minimize traffic congestion and develop less open space.

We need to use the infrastructure we already have and expand the workforce housing in areas that we have invested in already (i.e., Munger School infrastructure). We must also incorporate what we know about our quality of water when we are building new structures.

What’s the first thing you would do to help improve water quality?

I support the efforts Teton County is currently working on. There is a comprehensive water quality planning project that will improve our surface and groundwater resources and protect them from future degradation called Protect our Water Jackson Hole. We should continue down this path and work together as a community to educate and participate with this project.

frastructure. We need to be more effective with the solutions we come up with so our community is less impacted by the amount of tourism here.

What can the county do to support the Latino community, about 20% of the population?

This community has done a great job in some ways by integrating the dual immersion program into Munger Mountain Elementary School and our Hispanic resource center. Our Latino community contributes so much to this town. We need to focus on providing them with affordable housing or rentals, paying them fairly and continuing to provide helpful resources for families.

What sets you apart?

My big heart, my volunteer and work experience. I care deeply about this community, and my family has been here since the ’30s. I have learned a lot from watching this community grow, being on the Teton County Planning Commission, lifetime member of Elks B.P.O.E. 1713 lodge, 13 years on the Teton County Weed and Pest board as treasurer, Army veteran and owning my own small business. I feel like my background and knowledge will help make a good leader for the voice of this community. My family has given back to the community from building baseball fields, sponsoring teams, women’s softball leagues and events, but now I feel I can make a larger impact by donating my time and efforts now to help make Teton County better. I understand the issues, fears and frustrations we face as a community and am ready to help address them.

Is the Travel and Tourism Board part of the Other: If your top issue(s) was not listed, tourism solution or the problem? Why? The Travel and Tourism Board is a great asset please explain below. to this community. Jackson has always relied on tourism as a huge part of the economy. In fiscal year 2021 the town and county received $2,753,875 from the lodging tax. Jackson tourism revenue helps subsidize the impacts of tourism on our in-

to see that the people aren’t getting false hope.”

The assessor’s job is valuing all real and personal property in Teton County. Shinkle said that’s often misinterpreted to be more flexible than it really is.

Because Wyoming, unlike many neighboring states, constitutionally requires uniform and fair market assessments and lacks a cap on valuation growth, tax estimates follow the market directly.

So this year’s average spike of 40% was no surprise, Shinkle said, as a national housing shortage combined with a pandemic buying surge in mountain town real estate to drive up

Growing up here, Teton County was a big part of Wyoming. The rest of the state doesn’t consider that to be the case now. I’d work hard to see Teton County be welcomed back into the Wyoming fold again.

It can happen, and I will do my best to see it does.

Teton County property values. When property values rise so do property tax bills.

Shinkle, a Torrington native, was first appointed to the role in 2017 after working 20 years in the clerk’s office. She assumed the title and won the next year’s election right as the state was cracking down on her office to bring values within their legal market rate. The assessor’s power is limited to ensuring she or he has all the sales data possible, creating sensible neighborhoods or “land economic areas” for evaluation, and listening to constituent feedback.

Lowering the rate at which people

are assessed is up to the commissioners, and largely, state lawmakers.

Her predecessors got the office into trouble by making up property valuations, Shinkle said. So bringing the office into compliance to avoid a takeover by the state meant no longer giving tax breaks to those who simply asked for one without evidence.

“If I give you a break, and not that guy, that is not fair to the taxpayers,” she said.

To Aukee’s promise that he would do everything in his legal power to help taxpayers, Shinkle said, “I would argue that this office does that every day.”

10 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

County Commission: 4 Republican candidates, 3 advance to general election Four Republican candidates for Teton County commissioner must be narrowed to three in the primary.

Registered Republicans can cast ballots for up to three of the following: Peter Long, Kasey Mateosky, Alex Muromcew and Tom Segerstrom. The three top vote-getters advance to the Nov. 8 general election to compete with Democratic and Independent candidates. There are three seats up for election: one is open and two are held by incumbents Luther Propst and Mark Newcomb, who are seeking reelection.

Alex Muromcew

services, the state has dramatically cut spending in this area, leaving the burden on the counties. I am for continued funding especially in the areas of substance abuse and mental health where Teton County has serious problems.

Job: Start-up company advisor and mentor, county planning commissioner Affiliation: Republican Lives in: South Park

What is the most important conservation issue facing Teton County?

About the candidate:

Alex Muromcew wants to bring his international finance know-how to the Teton County Board of County Commissioners.

Just look at the money in Teton County, he said, “we’re the wealthiest county in the United States, so I think my experience in global finance is very relevant.”

Originally from Washington, D.C., Muromcew has worked in New York, Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo as an analyst and portfolio manager.

Self-employed since 2016, Muromcew works as an angel investor, serves on the boards of startups and chairs the Teton County Planning Commission. He’s been in and out of leadership positions with Silicon Couloir, a nonprofit that nurtures entrepreneurship in the region.

Muromcew first took a shot at local politics in 2018 when he ran a last-minute, yet robust, writein campaign against Democratic state Rep. Andy Schwartz for Wyoming House District 23, gaining 37.1% of the vote.

As former chair of the Teton County GOP, Muromcew said he’d bring a conservative and balanced approach to the issues most important to the board.

It’s time to reduce the spending and taxing, he said. His initial ideas: cutting off subsidies to airlines and shrinking the Travel and Tourism Board.

He also wants to lower the county mill rate — the property tax rate levied on every $1,000 of assessed value — to zero. That amounts to a 20% saving in property taxes and in fiscal year 2022 would have eliminated 23% of the county’s revenue, according to County Treasurer Katie Smits “Why are we needing taxpayer money to encourage more and more tourists to visit us 12 months out of the year when we don’t have a shoulder season anymore?” he asked.

Muromcew is opposed to relocating the fairgrounds from its town location to an as-yet unknown place beyond town limits.

His current service as chair of the Teton County Planning Commission, he said, would be key to “hitting the ground running” in land-use decisions.

Just as with the Planning Commission, he said, the county commissioners face a “constant challenge” of balancing growth and conservation.

Identifying and protecting wildlife migration corridors within the county.

What’s the first thing you would do to help improve water quality?

Require inspections of septic systems on any sale or transfer of a property.

Is the Travel and Tourism Board part of the tourism solution or the problem? Why? Right now they are part of the problem. Unfortunately they are a creation of the legislature in Cheyenne and are a victim of their own success (the fountain of dollars they receive from the Lodging Tax). We need to lobby for further broadening the scope of how Lodging Tax dollars can be spent in Teton County, but the TTB must also demonstrate that it is serious about a new approach to managing tourism.

Alex Muromcew Wyoming needs global ideas, he said, and an awareness of how communities around the world have dealt with some of the same issues we’re facing.

Top issues:

1. Affordable and workforce housing 2. Commercial growth 3. Over-tourism 4. Water quality

Do you support building the Tribal Trail Connector: No

What can the county do to support the Latino community, about 20% of the population?

I think the community should support groups such as One22 and VoicesJH, which help immigrant communities access services and integrate into the community.

What sets you apart?

One, I am a candidate who can manage multiple complex issues. Rather than being reactive, I can plan ahead and understand how our actions today will unfold in five or 10 years. Two, as chair of the Teton County Planning Commission I understand the many land use issues that are a major part of the county commissioner’s job. Lastly, from my private sector days, I have managed similar-size organizations and similar-size budgets.

What is your view on taxation and the county’s role in providing community services?

Other: If your top issue was not listed, These are is two completely separate issues. The proposed 2023 Teton County Budget is $79M — a please explain below.

33% increase from last year! We cannot continue to grow government at this rate. It is unsustainable. We need to reexamine spending and do more with what we have. On the subject of community

We need workforce housing and we need to protect this magnificent place we call home. It is not an either/or proposition. I am confident that we can choose both in a smart way.

Debate tackles water quality, housing development

By Sophia Boyd-Fliegel

With four moderate Republican candidates for county commission, no issue sparked more disagreement than how to approach water quality.

The differences surfaced during an online candidate forum organized by the League of Women Voters, Teton County Library, KHOL 89.1, Buckrail and the Jackson Hole News&Guide.

There’s no question water quality is a critical issue, especially for Hoback where dangerous levels of nitrate have been documented, candidates agreed.

But Tom Segerstrom and Alex Muromcew both dove deeper into how the problem should be dealt with.

Muromcew condemned “inaction” by current electeds that he connected to a “crisis” of fecal bacteria in Fish and Flat creeks, algae blooms in the Snake River and undrinkable water in Hoback.

Segerstrom said the contaminants are misunderstood and, rather than a problem, water quality is an “emerging issue” for the majority of Jackson Hole that would take a lot of time and money to permanently fix.

Muromcew replied that the state was “squandering” federal American Rescue Plan Act money.

Segerstrom countered that “just be-

cause money is available doesn’t mean it’s fiscally responsible. Just because a project will require a lot of planning doesn’t mean that we should be hasty.”

Less controversial but also prevalent was the issue of property taxes.

Though county commissioners control only about 12% of property taxes, the countywide increase of about 40% this year thrust the subject to the front of most candidates’ campaigns.

Two candidates with elected board experience — Segerstrom and Kasey Mateosky — said that being on boards that recently lowered their levied tax mills was evidence they could do the same for the county.

Muromcew suggested cutting the county mill levy altogether.

“It’s not going to be a huge amount of money,” he said. “But I think that’s an important gesture from the county government to the people to say, ‘Hey, we feel your pain.’”

As he did with water quality, Segerstrom differentiated himself from Muromcew with a gentler approach to taxes.

While Segerstrom said he was in favor of spending “scrutiny,” he said he continues to support government services.

“The county government has to operate, and it does provide valuable services,” he said, “but the value for those tax

dollars is what needs to be examined and reexamined.”

Peter Long said the property tax situation was an emergency.

“I think we ought to call it what it is,” Long said. “We have a property tax crisis.”

Long, running on a platform that prioritizes working families, said he’d take the matter to Cheyenne, where the majority of property tax rates are controlled by state lawmakers.

On local issues, like development, forum candidates also split, again with Muromcew taking a strong stance.

While Long and Mateosky said the Tribal Trails Connector was a good example of a solution that’s taken too long, Muromcew, a member of the project’s original stakeholder committee, was adamantly opposed to any construction.

“During my entire time on that committee, I never saw any convincing data that this would actually solve any problems,” Muromcew said. “Spending $20 million on a half-mile of road that doesn’t solve anything is a pretty low priority for how we spend our tax dollars.”

The biggest upcoming development, though, will not be the half-mile of road but housing in northern South Park.

As chairman of the county’s planning commission, Muromcew recommended

the preferred option to commissioners, though he said he was “very disappointed” it had taken two years to get there.

Muromcew also said he’d like see more density in the new neighborhood, like four stories instead of a max of three.

That iteration of a plan isn’t the only one that’s taken a while, Long pointed out. When Long ran for commissioner two years ago he was the only candidate who supported the landowning Gill family’s plan to develop 312 units with 65% deed restriction.

That garnered a lot of public scrutiny and ultimately didn’t pass, which builder Mateosky said he thought was unfair.

“They offered a great deal,” Mateosky said, “and people thought they were shifty and turned it down.”

But following the scrutiny came a new preferred plan with more community input, which the Gills have said they’re happy with, though the neighboring Lockhart family has yet to respond to publicly.

This time around there’s more proposed housing — up to 1,800 units — and at least 70% deed restricted.

Find YouTube links to watch the full forum at TCLib.org/candidates.

PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 11

County Commission: 4 Republican candidates, 3 advance to general election Four Republican candidates for Teton County commissioner must be narrowed to three in the primary.

Registered Republicans can cast ballots for up to three of the following: Peter Long, Kasey Mateosky, Alex Muromcew and Tom Segerstrom. The three top vote-getters advance to the Nov. 8 general election to compete with Democratic and independent candidates. There are three seats up for election: one is open and two are held by incumbents Luther Propst and Mark Newcomb, who are seeking reelection.

Tom Segerstrom

health of our ecological community as well. Failure to take well-planned and strategic actions at this time would be a large mistake. The other conservation priority that is linked to water quality, is updating of the county’s Natural Resource Protection Land Development Regulations, rather than relying exclusively on the blunt tool of zoning to protect our ecology.

Job: Retired wildlife biologist, wildlife ecotourism businessman and administrator Affiliation: Republican Lives in: Buffalo Valley

About the candidate: Tom Segerstrom spent the better part of his 36year career in Jackson Hole advising landowners and field biologists on best ecological practices.

Before working 15 years as a staff biologist and land steward at the Jackson Hole Land Trust he founded Great Plains Wildlife Institute, a first-ofits-kind safari where tourists helped gather wildlife data for landowning agencies.

Segerstrom was elected to the Teton Conservation District board in 2009 and retired last year as its executive director. He is ready to come out of retirement for the third time if he is elected to the Teton County Board of County Commissioners.

As a certified wildlife biologist, Segerstrom said a knowledge of past and future ecosystem behavior would be critical to the board’s conservation decisions.

There’s no playbook for “right” ecosystem stewardship decisions, he said, but there are big-picture principles of ecology. Predator populations rise and fall in waves with availability of prey.

Similarly, he said, there are no “easy answers” to development questions in the county’s guiding land use vision document, the Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive Plan, which holds the big-picture goal for how to best manage “postage stamp developments” for future generations.

While Segerstrom thinks like an ecologist, the Moran resident said he is not a “one-issue” candidate.

As a business owner he gets government processes, administration and budgeting, he said.

Segerstrom has served on the Teton County Library board and Natural Resource Technical Advisory Board, graduating from the statewide Leadership Wyoming program and updating the county’s natural resource protection regulations.

Before running for office, Segerstrom waited to retire from full-time work, especially work that might have conflicts of interest in land management. To do the job well, Segerstrom said, “it’s very much a full-time job.”

The Minnesota native said he also wants to improve the relationship between commissioners and county directors and staff.

Employees in a healthy government aren’t just financially rewarded, they also need to feel successful and have more open communication, Segerstrom said. Great benefits don’t always make a great place to work.

Segerstrom said that as an administrator and board member he has accidentally kicked a project back to staff without proper or efficient direction.

He doesn’t want to make that mistake again.

County staff are “frustrated, they’re exhausted, they’re just not capable of giving any more,” Segerstrom said. And that, he believes, can be remedied.

What’s the first thing you would do to help improve water quality?

The most critical water problem is in the Hoback Junction area. I would immediately seek to provide financial support to Hoback Junction residents striving to form a water district in order to qualify them for state and federal funds. In addition, the rest of the county must complete the larger, Comprehensive Water Management Plan that is currently underway in a strategic and fiscally responsible manner.

Is the Travel and Tourism Board part of the tourism solution or the problem?

Why?

DAVID SWIFT

Tom Segerstrom

Top issues: 1. Affordable/ workforce housing 2. Commercial Growth 3. Water quality 4. Preserving ag. and open space

Do you support building the Tribal Trail Connector: Yes, with appropriate environmental and community character safeguards in place. I must note that the Tribal Trail Connector will not solely resolve our traffic problems, not with a 2% to 4% increase in vehicles being registered in Teton County annually.

What is your view on taxation and the county’s role in providing community services?

Our tax assessments are dictated by state laws, but wise taxation is neither so excessive that it is oppressive to the public nor so frugal that valuable taxpayer expectations cannot be met. Valuable public service is a hallmark of appropriate taxation. I will work to find both tax relief opportunities from the state Legislature and appropriately fund county services. I have used this model in my prior government administration duties.

The Travel and Tourism Board is bound by state legislation to promote tourism. Thus, it can only play a part in the “over-tourism” issue.

I applaud the board’s steps to foster sustainable destination standards and promote responsible tourism behavior. That said, sheer numbers of visitors can overwhelm those efforts, defeating ethical behavior. I will join other commissioners and state legislators in exploring new ideas, such as sharing the ever-increasing Travel and Tourism Board revenues with other Wyoming communities for their promotional needs that dovetail with statewide tourism. Another idea would be to explore the use of the board to support a “Wyoming Worker Visa Program,” where other Wyoming communities provide seasonal workforce personnel who in turn are trained to help spread tourism into other Wyoming communities as part of their employment in Teton County.

What can the county do to support the Latino community, about 20% of the population?

Outreach and promotion of opportunities to underrepresented and underserved people in our community is important. There are examples in our school district, our public library and our nonprofit organizations that are leading the way, and more can be done. For example, VoicesJH offers a communication service to our immigrant communities, and the county needs to further engage its services. The START On Demand service and attention to day care services would help all concerned. Like the private sector, the county needs to actively recruit returning college graduates from our underrepresented community members for departmental jobs.

What is the most important conservation What sets you apart? issue facing Teton County?

No other candidate has Unarguably, maintaining Class I water resources is a universal quality of life issue for all citizens. Water is an indicator of the overall

my deep blend of applied ecology, business, public administration and local land conservation. I firmly believe that I am uniquely positioned for the job.

Uncontested races: County offices Only one candidate is running for each of the following county-level offices. It would take 25 valid writein votes for an additional candidate to be considered in each of these local uncontested races. If there were a candidate whose name appeared on at least 25 ballots as a write-in, that individual would have to accept the nomination for his or her name to be moved onto the ballot as a challenger to the incumbent during the general election.

Attorney: Democrat Erin Weisman is running for reelection as Teton County attorney. The county attorney is responsible for prosecuting crime in Teton County and legally representing the county and its departments.

Clerk: Republican Maureen “Mo” Murphy is seeking reelection as clerk, an office that provides a variety of services, including accounting for the county and running elections.

Coroner: Democrat Brent Blue is seeking reelection as Teton County coroner. The coroner is tasked with providing accurate and timely death investigation services.

Sheriff: Democrat Matt Carr is running for reelection. The sheriff’s mission is to preserve the peace, seek justice and provide excellent public service.

Treasurer: Republican Katie Smits is running for reelection as the treasurer, a position responsible for collecting and investing revenue responsibly and with accountability.

County race draws Independent, write-in 12 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Avalanche guy, toy seller enter race a bit late.

By Sophia Boyd-Fliegel

Independent Brenden Cronin needs 288 signatures from registered Teton County voters by Aug. 29 to appear on the ballot as a candidate for commissioner in the general election. Wes Gardner needs 25 people to write in his name on Democratic primary ballots to advance to the general election.

Brenden Cronin

Brenden Cronin wears his political inexperience on his sleeve.

“I’ve never done this before,” he said.

“I never felt like I had the life experience to do it.”

Novice but eager, Cronin announced his campaign for a seat on the Teton County Board of County Commissioners with an Instagram post of himself holding an 105mm howitzer shell used for avalanche mitigation.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation employee has been collecting signatures with the broad reach of someone who’s worked at least 17 jobs in 15 years, including river ranger, snowmaker, swiftwater rescue teacher, tree cutter, school district custodian and ski patrol.

He’s still an avid outdoorsman and very talkative. Both qualities hold true even after a severe kayaking accident in early May, after which Cronin’s jaw had to be temporarily wired shut.

Cronin is a full-time employee who picks up plowing shifts for his understaffed agency.

“I recognize that my team moving forward is the community around me,” he said. “Those people who have made it work, have made the sacrifices who have started businesses here on their own and kept it going.”

COURTESY PHOTO

COURTESY PHOTO

Brenden Cronin

Wes Gardner

Making time “will be a challenge for sure,” he said. “But I do think that the team that I work with at the state is a very strong and competent team. And I will be able to fill my duties for the county as well as [WYDOT].”

Raised by an electrician and a nurse in a Boston suburb, Cronin described his upbringing as “about as blue collar as you can get.”

The avalanche forecaster said that being working class gives him a bigger political reach on the job. He said he doesn’t see that on the board now.

After receiving a degree in parks, rec and tourism from the University of Maine, he made his way west to Colorado and, a year later, to Wyoming.

Though Cronin has registered as a Republican and Democrat in the past, he said running as an Independent will free him from party constraints.

That decision stemmed from “how divided, not just our country, but the world feels right now,” Cronin said.

This is his first campaign, but Cro-

nin said he’s thought about running for commissioner for years, encouraged by a core group of friends from across the political spectrum.

SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY

Wes Gardner

Wes Gardner, owner of the local Teton Toys shops, “soft-launched” his campaign for commissioner over a month after other commission candidates. He’s late because he’s campaigning as a write-in candidate. Gardner will be the third Democrat on the Nov. 8 ballot if he receives at least 25 write-in votes.

Gardner ran for commissioner in 2018 and 2020 as an Independent. Over his life he’s switched parties often. He even thought about running as a Republican last cycle for a better shot at a seat. Running as a Democrat is just part of the “realpolitik” of getting elected, he said.

Even as a self-described liberal, Gardner looked physically uncomfortable talking about why he initially

didn’t want to affiliate.

“The idea that I am going to share a platform or share a mentality with a certain group, or there’s going to be certain assumptions made about me,” he said and squirmed, “that rankles me.”

Gardner, a 25-year resident of Teton County who lives in Game Creek, said he’s been thinking about running since he lost two years ago, but inspiration to run as a Democrat was a decision based on self-reflection and simple arithmetic.

Voters can pick three county commissioner candidates, and there are only two Democrats on the ticket.

“I see two Democrats running for three spots,” he said, describing a theoretical election-day liberal voter. “I’m going to have to pick one of the Republicans — who I have respect for — but they don’t really represent me and my values. And as soon as I thought about that, I realized, I am that Democrat.”

Gardner’s top campaign themes are housing and transportation, he said, then water quality.

As for his political style, the START board member said he can sometimes get into “trouble” for wanting to get into the “weeds.”

“We all agree the devil is in the details,” he said. “So if the devil is in the details, and I can’t be in the weeds, then what am I doing?”

That tendency is matched with a “healthy paranoia” for transactions, he said.

With 1,800 new units that could be approved during the next four years in northern South Park, for example, Gardner said he likes the neighborhood plan, except the anticipated donation of 45 acres of land from the Gill family to the Trust for Public Land.

That donation should happen, he said, but go to Teton County instead so it can be dispersed for the community’s greatest need without ceding control to “third-party deployments.”

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PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 13

County Commission: 2 Democratic candidates, both advance to general election Two Democratic candidates for Teton County commissioner will automatically advance to the Nov. 8 general election, when they will face three Republicans. Independent and write-in candidates could also appear on the general election ballot. Three seats are up for election: One is open, and two are held by incumbents Luther Propst and Mark Newcomb. These questionnaires have been trimmed for space, see the full versions at JHNewsAndGuide.com.

Mark Newcomb

Job: Economic consultant, mountain guide, ski guide, outdoor professional Affiliation: Democrat Lives in: Kelly

About the candidate:

Raised in Teton County by a mountaineering family, Mark Newcomb still deeply identifies as an outdoorsman and environmentalist. The avalanche expert used to be part owner, director and guide at Exum Mountain Guides.

After collecting his third and fourth degrees in graduate school he wanted to tackle climate change. He has served six years on these boards: Grand Teton National Park Foundation, Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs and Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation. After six years on the Teton County Planning Commission, he was elected to the Teton County Board of County Commissioners in 2014. He was the top vote-getter in that race. As a commissioner, he said, he can flex his analytical expertise and interest in land management policy.

Top issues: 1. Affordable housing 2. Water quality 3. Commercial growth 4. Preserving agricultural and open space

Do you support building the Tribal Trail Connector: I’d like to assess the final cost-benefit analysis based on a preferred alternative.

Why are you running for office?

At a high level I’m running for office to promote the health and welfare of citizens of Teton County. Doing so requires balanced policy that supports

Luther Propst

Job: County commissioner Affiliation: Democrat Lives in: Indian Trails subdivision, town of Jackson

About the candidate: Luther Propst’s campaign focuses on what he called the three existential threats facing Teton County: unhoused workers, unbalanced growth and mismanaged wildlife and water resources.

“I wish we could move faster on providing housing,” he said. Ditto on reducing traffic congestion, protecting water quality and conserving wildlife.

But the state Legislature intentionally created local government to move slowly, he said, and he’s up for the deliberation and disagreement.

Propst appreciates the time he said commissioners take on some of the county’s most difficult issues and the forced cooperation.

“I like the fact that it’s not unusual for the local paper to run a headline that says ‘County commission to kick the can down the road,’” he said.

The current board is “pretty badly divided” on the role of the private sector in managing growth and some health issues, he said, “but we do it small-town style where we disagree.” The commissioners don’t hold grudges, he said.

A commissioner can’t “suffer with the illusion of control,” he said. Teamwork goes for funding projects, too. The effective and influential philanthropic community means most things involve a mix of public and private funding.

Most of Propst’s career was spent founding, growing and directing the Sonoran Institute, a conservation organization with projects around the western United States and Mexico.

part of the tourism solution or the problem? Why?

opportunities for everyone to thrive, that protects natural resources vital to the community for health (water quality, for example) and welfare (wildlife, for example, that we rely on for a variety of economic and aesthetic reasons), and that protects key elements of the region’s history. I will support housing restricted to the local workforce in areas close to services and schools while supporting rural protections for agriculture, open space and wildlife outside of those areas. I will strive to support families by creating more access to early childhood education and ensuring our transportation network offers families the freedom to choose between driving, biking, walking or taking transit. I will support education broadly, including Central Wyoming College’s efforts to establish a campus. And I’ll support creative opportunities for local businesses, such as the new Hog Island home business zone.

one penny of specific purpose sales tax and a modicum of property tax. The county, including the library, utilizes 7.1 mills of property tax out of our 12 mill allotment to fund the services you expect. That’s 7.1 mills out of the 57 total you are assessed, or about 12% of your property tax bill. I don’t believe we should eliminate the county’s 12% portion of the property tax you pay.

During my time in office we’ve lowered our mills from about 8.7 to 7.1.

But eliminating it would do very little to address the massive increases in property taxes over the past five years (anywhere from 50% to 150% or more depending on where you live). The issue is how the state assesses the value of your property, and that’s something that only the state legislature can change.

Taxation should match the needs of the community. The core needs for revenue include ensuring the county is adequately staffed with fairly compensated employees passionate about serving you, the citizen. Whether it’s putting out your fires, keeping you safe, maintaining your quality parks and recreation facilities, protecting your health, maintaining your variety of transportation choices or any of the other myriad of services the county provides, we need to ensure those services are provided efficiently and effectively with top-notch staff. I support a mix of revenue that includes five pennies of general revenue sales tax plus

life, agriculture and open space. We need policies to protect opportunities for wildlife (such as wildlife crossings and open space), prevent any more rural subdivisions and to ensure that new housing is properly located in town or northern South Park, truly houses local workers and doesn’t worsen growth issues.

Is the Travel and Tourism Board

Just about everything. No other candidate can match my experience in county government that includes six years as a planning commissioner and almost eight as a county commissioner, giving me critical insight into land use planning and budgeting, which are the two most powerful tools for protecting the health and welfare of the community.

With joint planning and law degrees, Propst said he brings a “detached experience” to the board, on top of personal opinions built on a career spent in land law and conservation in the West.

“I’ve spent 30 years thinking about growth in resort communities,” Propst said.

driven spike in property values has worsened the situation. The county is doing the best we can with limited tools.

For example, the County Commission recently reduced the property tax rate by one half of a mill and allocated $2 million to the state’s new county-optional property tax relief fund. However, we need more tools to create a more equitable system of raising revenue to provide the services that make this a great community.

tourism that does benefit the community. Two examples include: the ongoing Sustainable Destination Management Plan, which promises to create a framework for better managing tourism, and the board’s decision in March of this year to award $1 million to Friends of the Bridger-Teton to better manage visitors. Tourism is an important part of our economy and community; the challenge is to manage tourism so that the community benefits.

What is the most important conservation issue facing Teton What is your view on taxation County? and the county’s role in providing Growth in general seems to be community services? threatening our goals to protect wild-

Top issues: 1. Affordable/ workforce housing 2. Over-tourism 3. Commercial growth 4. Water quality

What’s the first thing you would do to help improve water quality?

Provide county funding to help Hoback residents establish a water and sewer improvement service district.

The Travel and Tourism Board can be either. Tourism is and always will remain vital to the health and welfare of Teton County. That said, we cannot expect to keep growing tourism. The Travel and Tourism Board is part of the solution if its efforts help stabilize tourism, boosting it when it drops off for macroeconomic reasons but deemphasizing sheer promotion when tourism is maxing out our capacity and threatening our resources as it has been the last couple years.

What can the county do to support the Latino community, about 20% of the population?

All Teton County residents should be supported with opportunities to thrive, including opportunities to occupy housing deed restricted for local workers, opportunities to partake in all health and welfare services, opportunities to utilize all public facilities and opportunities for education. We also need bilingual employees in key, public-facing positions, including public health and safety positions.

What sets you apart:

What is the most important What can the county do to conservation issue facing Teton support the Latino community, about 20% of the population?

Do you support building the County?

The most important step is straightThe most pressing local environTribal Trail Connector: mental quality challenge is water forward: Ask Latino residents and then I will continue to oppose this proposed highway until an environmental impact statement demonstrates meaningful benefits, relative to the financial and environmental costs. With the analysis available to date, I remain deeply skeptical of the promised benefits, very concerned with the destruction of unique wetlands, opposed to any traffic signal and design that would worsen traffic on an already congested Highway 22. WYDOT and the county should fold review of the proposed highway into the nearly simultaneous environmental review soon to be initiated for rebuilding and potentially widening Highway 22.

quality, while the most pressing local growth-related issue is the future of the county’s approximately 4,500 acres of state trust land. At the other end of the geographic spectrum, global warming drives pervasive threats to both wildlife and humans.

What’s the first thing you would do to help improve water quality?

I would continue to advocate for clean water countywide and especially in Hoback. This involves several priorities, the first of which is to create a program to inspect and maintain existing septic tanks.

What is your view on taxation and the county’s role in providing Is the Travel and Tourism Board part of the tourism solution or community services?

The state’s antiquated taxation sys- the problem? Why? tem has created a property tax crisis in Teton County, especially for residents on fixed incomes. Among other shortcomings, the state relies too heavily on the property tax. The recent COVID-

First, we have to better manage tourism so that it provides the optimal benefit to the community. The Travel and Tourism Board has made some significant steps to focus on sustainable

listen to their answers.

What sets you apart?

(1) Experience: Four years on the County Commission and more than 30 years helping communities all over western North America protect their assets and community. (2) Time and inclination to work full time as a county commissioner. (3) Commitment to protect what makes Teton County special: our wildlife and water quality as well as a diverse and strong community. (4) Willingness to swim against the tide when necessary.

Other: If your top issue(s) was not listed, please explain below.

When you vote, please remember that approving more market-rate housing means more second homes, more remote workers, and more houses that locals simply cannot afford. In today’s real estate economy, if we want to house our local workers, we must focus on deed-restricted workforce and affordable housing.

14 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

PRIMARY ELECTION DEMOCRAT

DEMOCRAT

01-01 SOUTH OF JACKSON

DEMOCRAT

01-02 EAST JACKSON

01-03 SKYLINE

The following precincts 01-12, 04-01, 04-03 have the same races appear as the sample below, however names will not be in the same order as they are rotated by precinct on the official ballots.

The following precincts 01-05-01, 01-06, 01-11 have the same races appear as the sample below, however names will not be in the same order as they are rotated by precinct on the official ballots.

The following precincts 01-07, 01-10, 02-01, 03-01, 04-02, 04-04, 05-01 have the same races appear as the sample below, however names will not be in the same order as they are rotated by precinct on the official ballots.

SAMPLE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY ELECTION BALLOT TETON COUNTY, WYOMING AUGUST 16, 2022

SAMPLE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY ELECTION BALLOT TETON COUNTY, WYOMING AUGUST 16, 2022

SAMPLE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY ELECTION BALLOT TETON COUNTY, WYOMING AUGUST 16, 2022

• To vote for a person whose name is printed on the ballot, mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person for whom you desire to vote.

• To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write the person's name in the blank space provided for that purpose and mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person.

• Please use a black ink pen to make your selections.

FEDERAL OFFICES

STATE OFFICES

COUNTY OFFICES

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

STATE SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY SHERIFF FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

LYNNETTE GREYBULL STEVE HELLING

SERGIO A. MALDONADO, SR.

MATT CARR

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

MEGHAN R. JENSEN

STATE REPRESENTATIVE HOUSE DISTRICT 22 TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

STATE OFFICES

COUNTY CLERK FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

GOVERNOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

COUNTY OFFICES

THERESA A. LIVINGSTON

COUNTY TREASURER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY COMMISSIONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR NOT MORE THAN THREE (3)

REX WILDE

WRITE-IN

MARK NEWCOMB

WRITE-IN

LUTHER PROPST

SECRETARY OF STATE FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY ASSESSOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

ZANE AUKEE

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

MELISSA "MEL" SHINKLE

WRITE-IN

COUNTY CORONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

SA

STATE AUDITOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

CLERK OF DISTRICT COURT FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

BRENT "DOC" BLUE

WRITE-IN

BRIAN E. HULTMAN

COUNTY ATTORNEY FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

FEDERAL OFFICES

STATE OFFICES

COUNTY OFFICES

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

STATE SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY ATTORNEY FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

STEVE HELLING

MEGHAN R. JENSEN

SERGIO A. MALDONADO, SR.

ERIN WEISMAN

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

LYNNETTE GREYBULL

STATE SENATOR SENATE DISTRICT 17 FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

STATE OFFICES

GOVERNOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

REX WILDE

THERESA A. LIVINGSTON

MICHAEL F. "MIKE" GIERAU

WRITE-IN

STATE REPRESENTATIVE HOUSE DISTRICT 16 TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1) MIKE YIN

WRITE-IN

COUNTY SHERIFF FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

MATT CARR

WRITE-IN

COUNTY CLERK FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

SECRETARY OF STATE FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY OFFICES

COUNTY COMMISSIONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR NOT MORE THAN THREE (3)

WRITE-IN

STATE AUDITOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

LUTHER PROPST

MARK NEWCOMB

WRITE-IN WRITE-IN

STATE TREASURER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

COUNTY TREASURER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

COUNTY ASSESSOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

MELISSA "MEL" SHINKLE ZANE AUKEE

Typ:01 Seq:0001 Spl:01

01-01

01-02 East Jackson

Typ:01 Seq:0002 Spl:01

01-02

01-02 EAST JACKSON (TOWN PRECINCTS ONLY)

The following precincts 01-05-02, have the same races appear as the sample below, however names will not be in the same order as they are rotated by precinct on the official ballots.

The following precincts 01-04, 01-05-01, 01-05-02, 01-06, 01-11 have the same races appear as the sample below, however names will not be in the same order as they are rotated by precinct on the official ballots.

SAMPLE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY ELECTION BALLOT TETON COUNTY, WYOMING AUGUST 16, 2022

SAMPLE NONPARTISAN PRIMARY ELECTION BALLOT TETON COUNTY, WYOMING AUGUST 16, 2022

01-02 East Jackson

PL E

PL E

• To vote for a person whose name is printed on the ballot, mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person for whom you desire to vote.

• To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write the person's name in the blank space provided for that purpose and mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person.

• Please use a black ink pen to make your selections.

ELECTION JUDGE INITIALS _______

INSTRUCTION TO VOTERS

• To vote for a person whose name is printed on the ballot, mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person for whom you desire to vote.

• To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write the person's name in the blank space provided for that purpose and mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person.

• Please use a black ink pen to make your selections.

FEDERAL OFFICES

STATE OFFICES

COUNTY OFFICES

NONPARTISAN OFFICES

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

STATE SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY ATTORNEY FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

TOWN COUNCIL TOWN OF JACKSON FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR NOT MORE THAN TWO (2)

STEVE HELLING MEGHAN R. JENSEN WRITE-IN

STATE OFFICES

GOVERNOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

ERIN WEISMAN

WRITE-IN

STATE SENATOR SENATE DISTRICT 17 FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

THERESA A. LIVINGSTON

WRITE-IN

COUNTY SHERIFF FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

MICHAEL F. "MIKE" GIERAU

MATT CARR

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

STATE REPRESENTATIVE HOUSE DISTRICT 23 TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

SA M

REX WILDE

SERGIO A. MALDONADO, SR.

WRITE-IN

LIZ STORER

COUNTY CLERK FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

RYAN SEDGELEY

SECRETARY OF STATE FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

STATE AUDITOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

COUNTY OFFICES

COUNTY COMMISSIONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR NOT MORE THAN THREE (3) LUTHER PROPST

MARK NEWCOMB

WRITE-IN

STATE TREASURER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

COUNTY CORONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

BRENT "DOC" BLUE

WRITE-IN

01-04 North Jackson

Typ:01 Seq:0004 Spl:01

ELLIOTT R. ALSTON

ARNE OLAUS JORGENSEN

KATHERINE "KAT" RUECKERT

DAVID SCHEURN JOEL SMITH DEVON VIEHMAN WRITE-IN WRITE-IN

COUNTY TREASURER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1) WRITE-IN

MELISSA "MEL" SHINKLE

WRITE-IN

VOTE BOTH SIDES 01-04

MEGHAN R. JENSEN

LYNNETTE GREYBULL

SERGIO A. MALDONADO, SR.

ERIN WEISMAN

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

STEVE HELLING

STATE SENATOR SENATE DISTRICT 17 FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

STATE OFFICES

GOVERNOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

THERESA A. LIVINGSTON REX WILDE

MICHAEL F. "MIKE" GIERAU

MATT CARR

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

STATE REPRESENTATIVE HOUSE DISTRICT 23 TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1) RYAN SEDGELEY

WRITE-IN

COUNTY SHERIFF FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY CLERK FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

LIZ STORER

SECRETARY OF STATE FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

COUNTY OFFICES

WRITE-IN

STATE AUDITOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY COMMISSIONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR NOT MORE THAN THREE (3) MARK NEWCOMB LUTHER PROPST

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

COUNTY TREASURER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

COUNTY ASSESSOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

ZANE AUKEE MELISSA "MEL" SHINKLE WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

01-03 Skyline/HC/GVB/ER

Typ:01 Seq:0003 Spl:01

VOTE BOTH SIDES 01-03

UPCOMING ELECTIONS: Primary Tuesday, August 16th, 2022

There are NO nonpartisan ballots for voters who live outside the municipal precincts for this election.

COUNTY ASSESSOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

ZANE AUKEE

COUNTY ATTORNEY FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

JONATHAN SCHECHTER

SA M

LYNNETTE GREYBULL

COUNTY OFFICES

VOTE BOTH SIDES

01-04

INSTRUCTION TO VOTERS

STATE OFFICES

STATE SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

BRENT "DOC" BLUE

NON PARTISAN BALLOT

ELECTION JUDGE INITIALS _______

FEDERAL OFFICES

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY CORONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

DEMOCRAT

01-04 North Jackson

• To vote for a person whose name is printed on the ballot, mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person for whom you desire to vote.

• To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write the person's name in the blank space provided for that purpose and mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person.

• Please use a black ink pen to make your selections.

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

VOTE BOTH SIDES

ELECTION JUDGE INITIALS _______

INSTRUCTION TO VOTERS

STATE TREASURER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

BRENT "DOC" BLUE

WRITE-IN

01-03 Skyline/HC/GVB/ER

WRITE-IN

COUNTY CORONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

ERIN WEISMAN

01-01 South of Jackson

• To vote for a person whose name is printed on the ballot, mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person for whom you desire to vote.

• To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write the person's name in the blank space provided for that purpose and mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person.

• Please use a black ink pen to make your selections.

ANNE COMEAUX SUTTON

WRITE-IN

STATE TREASURER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

INSTRUCTION TO VOTERS

SA

WRITE-IN

ELECTION JUDGE INITIALS _______

MP LE

INSTRUCTION TO VOTERS

01-02 East Jackson

SA

ELECTION JUDGE INITIALS _______

MP LE

MP LE

01-01 South of Jackson

01-02 East Jackson

Typ:03 Seq:0001 Spl:01

END OF BALLOT 01-02

PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 15

SAMPLE BALLOTS REPUBLICAN

01-01 SOUTH OF JACKSON

REPUBLICAN

01-02 EAST JACKSON

01-03 SKYLINE

The following precincts 01-12, 04-01, 04-03 have the same races appear as the sample below, however names will not be in the same order as they are rotated by precinct on the official ballots.

The following precincts 01-05-01, 01-06, 01-11 have the same races appear as the sample below, however names will not be in the same order as they are rotated by precinct on the official ballots.

The following precincts 01-07, 01-10, 02-01, 03-01, 04-02, 04-04, 05-01 have the same races appear as the sample below, however names will not be in the same order as they are rotated by precinct on the official ballots.

SAMPLE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY ELECTION BALLOT TETON COUNTY, WYOMING AUGUST 16, 2022

SAMPLE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY ELECTION BALLOT TETON COUNTY, WYOMING AUGUST 16, 2022

SAMPLE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY ELECTION BALLOT TETON COUNTY, WYOMING AUGUST 16, 2022

• To vote for a person whose name is printed on the ballot, mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person for whom you desire to vote.

• To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write the person's name in the blank space provided for that purpose and mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person.

• Please use a black ink pen to make your selections.

FEDERAL OFFICES

STATE OFFICES

COUNTY OFFICES

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

STATE AUDITOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY COMMISSIONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR NOT MORE THAN THREE (3)

ROBYN M. BELINSKEY

KRISTI RACINES

ANTHONY BOUCHARD

PETER LONG

KASEY MATEOSKY

WRITE-IN

LIZ CHENEY

ALEX MUROMCEW

HARRIET HAGEMAN

STATE TREASURER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

DENTON KNAPP

BILL GALLOP

WRITE-IN

GOVERNOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

BRENT BIEN

STATE SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

MARK GORDON

MEGAN DEGENFELDER

JAMES SCOTT QUICK

THOMAS KELLY

REX RAMMELL

BRIAN SCHROEDER

COUNTY CORONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

COUNTY ATTORNEY FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

ROBERT J. WHITE III

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN WRITE-IN

CURT MEIER

STATE OFFICES

TOM SEGERSTROM

WRITE-IN

JENNIFER ZERBA

COUNTY SHERIFF FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

DAN DOCKSTADER

STATE REPRESENTATIVE HOUSE DISTRICT 22 TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

CHUCK GRAY

ANDREW BYRON

MARK ARMSTRONG

TARA NETHERCOTT

FEDERAL OFFICES

STATE OFFICES

COUNTY OFFICES

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

STATE AUDITOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY COMMISSIONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR NOT MORE THAN THREE (3)

ANTHONY BOUCHARD LIZ CHENEY

WRITE-IN

KRISTI RACINES

WRITE-IN

HARRIET HAGEMAN

STATE TREASURER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

ROBYN M. BELINSKEY

CURT MEIER

WRITE-IN

BILL GALLOP

STATE OFFICES

GOVERNOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

ALEX MUROMCEW

PETER LONG

WRITE-IN WRITE-IN WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

MARK GORDON

STATE SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

JAMES SCOTT QUICK

THOMAS KELLY

REX RAMMELL

BRIAN SCHROEDER

BRENT BIEN

ROBERT J. WHITE III JENNIFER ZERBA

WRITE-IN

KASEY MATEOSKY

TOM SEGERSTROM

DENTON KNAPP

COUNTY CORONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

COUNTY ATTORNEY FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

MEGAN DEGENFELDER

SECRETARY OF STATE FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

CHUCK GRAY

MAUREEN "MO" MURPHY

WRITE-IN

• To vote for a person whose name is printed on the ballot, mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person for whom you desire to vote.

• To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write the person's name in the blank space provided for that purpose and mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person.

• Please use a black ink pen to make your selections.

DAN DOCKSTADER

COUNTY CLERK FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

01-01 South of Jackson

WRITE-IN

INSTRUCTION TO VOTERS

SA

SA

SECRETARY OF STATE FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

ELECTION JUDGE INITIALS _______

TARA NETHERCOTT MARK ARMSTRONG

WRITE-IN

COUNTY SHERIFF FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

STATE SENATOR SENATE DISTRICT 17 FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

STEVE DUERR

Typ:02 Seq:0001 Spl:01

01-01

MAUREEN "MO" MURPHY WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

01-02 East Jackson

• To vote for a person whose name is printed on the ballot, mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person for whom you desire to vote.

• To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write the person's name in the blank space provided for that purpose and mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person.

• Please use a black ink pen to make your selections.

FEDERAL OFFICES

STATE OFFICES

COUNTY OFFICES

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

STATE AUDITOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY COMMISSIONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR NOT MORE THAN THREE (3)

LIZ CHENEY

KRISTI RACINES

HARRIET HAGEMAN

Typ:02 Seq:0002 Spl:01

DENTON KNAPP

PETER LONG

ROBYN M. BELINSKEY

STATE TREASURER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

ANTHONY BOUCHARD

BILL GALLOP

WRITE-IN

CURT MEIER

STATE OFFICES

JAMES SCOTT QUICK

STATE SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

REX RAMMELL

BRIAN SCHROEDER

BRENT BIEN

ROBERT J. WHITE III

MARK GORDON

JENNIFER ZERBA

MEGAN DEGENFELDER

WRITE-IN

01-02

WRITE-IN

COUNTY ATTORNEY FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

SECRETARY OF STATE FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY SHERIFF FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

STATE SENATOR SENATE DISTRICT 17 FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

MARK ARMSTRONG

WRITE-IN

STEVE DUERR

DAN DOCKSTADER

COUNTY CLERK FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

STATE REPRESENTATIVE HOUSE DISTRICT 23 TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

MAUREEN "MO" MURPHY WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

01-03 Skyline/HC/GVB/ER

VOTE BOTH SIDES

Typ:02 Seq:0003 Spl:01

01-03

01-04

The following precincts 01-05-02, have the same races appear as the sample below, however names will not be in the same order as they are rotated by precinct on the official ballots.

SAMPLE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY ELECTION BALLOT TETON COUNTY, WYOMING AUGUST 16, 2022

PL E

01-04 North Jackson

ELECTION JUDGE INITIALS _______

INSTRUCTION TO VOTERS

155 E. Gill Ave., Jackson, WY

• To vote for a person whose name is printed on the ballot, mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person for whom you desire to vote.

• To vote for a person whose name is not printed on the ballot, write the person's name in the blank space provided for that purpose and mark the oval ( ) immediately adjacent to the name of the person.

• Please use a black ink pen to make your selections.

FEDERAL OFFICES

STATE OFFICES

COUNTY OFFICES

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

STATE AUDITOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY COMMISSIONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR NOT MORE THAN THREE (3)

HARRIET HAGEMAN DENTON KNAPP ROBYN M. BELINSKEY

ANTHONY BOUCHARD

OLD WILSON SCHOOLHOUSE COMMUNITY CENTER

LIZ CHENEY WRITE-IN

KRISTI RACINES

WRITE-IN

STATE OFFICES

CURT MEIER

REX RAMMELL

STATE SUPERINTENDENT PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

BRENT BIEN

ROBERT J. WHITE III

MARK GORDON

JENNIFER ZERBA

JAMES SCOTT QUICK

MEGAN DEGENFELDER

WRITE-IN

PETER LONG

ALEX MUROMCEW

WRITE-IN WRITE-IN WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

SA M

GOVERNOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

TOM SEGERSTROM

KASEY MATEOSKY

STATE TREASURER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

BILL GALLOP

THOMAS KELLY

COUNTY CORONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

WRITE-IN

COUNTY ATTORNEY FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1) WRITE-IN

BRIAN SCHROEDER

SECRETARY OF STATE FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

TARA NETHERCOTT MARK ARMSTRONG

50 Alta School Rd., Alta, WY 83414

COUNTY CORONER FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

REPUBLICAN

TETON COUNTY/JACKSON RECREATION CENTER

ALTA BRANCH LIBRARY

WRITE-IN

THOMAS KELLY

VOTE BOTH SIDES

125 Virginian Ln, Jackson, WY

7575 US-89, Jackson, WY

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

GOVERNOR FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

TETON COUNTY LIBRARY

TETON COUNTY WEED & PEST BUILDING

KASEY MATEOSKY

WRITE-IN

PAUL VOGELHEIM

VOTE CENTER LOCATIONS:

5655 Main St., Wilson, WY

ALEX MUROMCEW

TOM SEGERSTROM

WRITE-IN

CHUCK GRAY

COUNTY CLERK FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

JIM MCCOLLUM

VOTE BOTH SIDES

ELECTION JUDGE INITIALS _______

INSTRUCTION TO VOTERS

TARA NETHERCOTT

WRITE-IN

STATE REPRESENTATIVE HOUSE DISTRICT 16 TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

01-03 Skyline/HC/GVB/ER

MP LE

INSTRUCTION TO VOTERS

01-02 East Jackson

SA

ELECTION JUDGE INITIALS _______

MP LE

MP LE

01-01 South of Jackson

DAN DOCKSTADER CHUCK GRAY

WRITE-IN

WRITE-IN

STATE SENATOR SENATE DISTRICT 17 FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

STEVE DUERR

WRITE-IN

STATE REPRESENTATIVE HOUSE DISTRICT 23 TWO (2) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1)

COUNTY SHERIFF FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1) WRITE-IN

COUNTY CLERK FOUR (4) YEAR TERM VOTE FOR ONE (1) MAUREEN "MO" MURPHY WRITE-IN

PAUL VOGELHEIM WRITE-IN

01-04 North Jackson

Typ:02 Seq:0004 Spl:01

VOTE BOTH SIDES 01-04

407606

REPUBLICAN

16 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Clerk of District Court: 2 candidates, 1 advances

Clerk of District Court between two Democrats Incumbent Sutton faces challenger Hultman.

By Kate Ready

T

he League of Women Voters, Teton County Library and local media partners held a primary forum June 23 for the contested Clerk of District Court race. Both candidates, incumbent Anne Comeaux Sutton and attorney hopeful Brian Hultman, fielded questions about why they’re running and how they’d handle the job.

Hultman currently works as a deputy prosecuting attorney in the Teton County and Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

“I want to continue to serve the people of Teton County but in a different way than I have been doing for over 25 years as deputy county attorney,” Hultman said. “Something I bring with me is a great working relationship with the new Judge Owens.

We worked together in the Teton County attorney’s office for six years and it is important for the district judge and her clerk to have this type of relationship.”

The incumbent, Sutton, has served as clerk of District Court, since 2015, when previous Clerk Dee Mahoney retired.

“I think [public service] is my calling and I think it’s my strength,” Sutton said. “I’ve been excited to serve, and I have great interest in seeing through all of the great momentum we have going and making sure that the upcoming transitions are just as strong as many of the transitions we’ve made in the past seven and a half years.”

Much of the 25-minute forum, presented via Zoom, centered around the upcoming transition to electronic filing in March. The Wyoming Supreme Court mandated the official court record become the electronic record, a historic move. Since 1923 the official record for Teton County District Court records has been the paper record, with a second electronic record kept optionally.

This transition will occur three months into the newly elected clerk of District Court’s term. Both candidates were asked how they would ease that transition and help the community adapt.

“I’m preparing for that transition as we speak,” Sutton said. “I am a subject matter expert on the [Wyoming Supreme Court’s] committee for full court enterprise implementation in District Courts who’s been regularly consulted about the e-filing transition. As part of that, we just went live on the full court enterprise system in early June. It was extremely successful. I’m working with staff and state leaders and state colleagues to make sure that we really understand what that transition means.”

Sutton also is focusing on how the record is kept for appeals. This transition will impact how the trial court record will be transmitted for review to the Wyoming Supreme Court, as the office is currently sending the paper record.

“I do have some experience with how that will look when it’s not a paper record because we had an old file that was no longer in paper at state archives, so I feel like I’m ready, just as we have been with every other technology transition,” Sutton said. “My team is motivated and dedicated, as am I, and I look forward to it.”

Hultman also shared his excitement to oversee the transition.

“The electronic filing is also something that is of particular interest to me,” Hultman said. “As a lawyer I’ve seen how it works in the Wyoming Supreme Court. I went down there with Erin Weisman, back when she was the state deputy, and I’ve seen how it works, and it worked great in the Supreme Court.”

Sutton and Hultman were asked whether they would advocate for the office to go truly paperless or continue to maintain a paper record, a local choice that’s been left up to District Courts to decide. The District Court office has been maintaining two records since at least 2015, Sutton said.

“I feel that it’s very important,” Hultman said. “In the county attorney’s office we are going paperless. I think that the electronic filing is a great idea, but we have to take it slowly and either have electronic filing and regular filing or just electronic filing of certain items. Especially when you think of divorces or felonies. Those people will want that record there.”

Sutton proposed a potential six-month staging process for phasing out the paper record.

“I certainly will be advocating for an eventual transition to paperless records without maintaining two records,” Sutton said. “But staging for perhaps a six month or if we’re going e-filing March 2023, that we are fully making the change to paperless

KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE FILE

COURTESY PHOTO

Brian Hultman

Anne Sutton

How to watch online Thanks to a collaboration between Teton County Library, League of Women Voters, Jackson Hole News & Guide, KHOL 89.1 and Buckrail, you can watch candidate debates free online via YouTube.

All live-streaming links are available at TCLIB.org/candidates. perhaps January 2024. Again, the official record will be paperless; it will just be a matter of if we have the redundancy of the paper.”

Sutton and Hultman also discussed how they would get their duties as rigid record keepers right.

“I’ll tell you a few of the things we’re doing now that I will anticipate continuing to do,” Sutton said.

“First, it’s really strong workflow processes and staff training. We have made lots of updates to how we do that so we can have staff train up more quickly and we’re doing the correct work.”

Sutton also described a quality review process to ensure that public access is upheld in cases where that’s legally entitled.

“I think that [process] is really important because of the complexity of the work,” Sutton said. “It’s not all as linear as you think it might be. … and so we will continue to do the quality assurance measures, the training tools, in the regular review that I participate in to make sure we get it right.”

Hultman agreed with much of what Sutton said.

“In juvenile cases, Title 25 cases, the statutes state what can be seen and what can’t,” Hultman said. “In a divorce case, there’s a financial affidavit that should not be seen by the public. I have just done criminal work, juvenile and Title 25 work, but I will look into that and go from there.”

Since both Hultman and Sutton are affiliated with the Democratic party, they were asked how their ideologies, political or otherwise, would play into their service.

“I believe that it shouldn’t play in at all,” Hultman said. “Once you are elected clerk of District Court, you represent all of the people. I feel very strongly about that. I feel like it shouldn’t be an issue at all.”

Sutton echoed Hultman, while drawing on her personal experience in the role for nearly eight years.

“We talk about this with staff training all the time, our duty and obligation is to be neutral,” Sutton said. “We’re to provide the same access and transparency to all litigants regardless of whether they are the defendant, the prosecuting attorney. ...

I think it can’t cross, it doesn’t cross and it hasn’t crossed.”

Sutton also shared a few measures she takes to foster this culture of “Switzerland” neutrality both internally and when working with the public.

“I have a policy among our staff that we don’t talk politics among ourselves,” Sutton said. “I think it gets in the way of us doing our duty. And the other thing is we have a very public office. I want any

member of the public to come in and to feel welcome.

Staff included.”

The final question of the forum was how the candidates would communicate clearly with the public on things such as legislative statute changes and passport appointments.

“It depends on the circumstance which tool to use,” Sutton said. “Certain matters I’ve put out to local BAR listserv, especially during COVID that affected how folks can file, very occasional paid advertisement in the newspaper, that’s when I think it’s been really critical that the public is aware of very significant passport application changes and we know how much that impacts folks’ travel planning.

“We also regularly update our website with alerts and changing information, and we have had certain press releases go out,” Sutton said. “All of it so far has worked really well, but I’m always open to feedback if folks see a unique need.”

Hultman also shared his approach to keeping the public in the loop on important changes.

“I would think of e-filing, what cases are coming up, passports, deadlines so that they stay in touch with that,” Hultman said. “The newspaper is always a good thing. The nuts and bolts are there, but there are several things we can do to use technology to improve communication.”

Both candidates gave closing statements.

Hultman’s centered around his vision of courtroom access for moot court students.

“I have a vision of high school and middle school students having moot court competitions in the actual courtroom,” Hultman said. “They do this in Cheyenne with great success. Our students can go through mock cases and students will leave this process understanding how it works. I think it has great potential and definitely gets an interest in the law as a profession.”

Sutton circled back to her experience and asked voters for their vote to “keep the momentum going” on important technology transitions.

“What I want folks to take away is a short three months into the next term we’re going to have some major overhauls in the court system, and these overhauls have been planned for quite some time,” Sutton said. “We’re doing work as we speak, making e-filing possible and transitioning to truly paperless records. As the saying goes, the best indicator for future success is past performance. I have a proven track record in this position juggling all of the day-to-day responsibilities and the many technology transitions.”

PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 17

House District 23

Two Democrats seek House District 23 seat Ryan Sedgeley or Liz Storer will face GOP’s Paul Vogelheim in general election.

By Sophia Boyd-Fliegel Come Aug. 16 voters will decide which one of two Democratic candidates for House District 23 will face Republican Paul Vogelheim in the general election.

Madison Junction-based Ryan Sedgeley and Jackson resident Liz Storer both said they’d prioritize raising “diverse” and “progressive” taxes outside the oil and gas industries and expanding Medicaid.

“We want to look at who is paying these taxes,” Storer said. “How can we make it equitable?”

Sedgeley agreed, saying he was “pretty open” to progressive taxation that “doesn’t hurt poor people,” like a tax on vacation rentals and “second plus” homes.

The two candidates fielded a range of questions from local media during an online candidate forum organized by the League of Women Voters, Teton County Library, KHOL 89.1, Buckrail and the News&Guide. Find YouTube links to watch the full forum at TCLib. org/candidates.

Ryan Sedgeley

If Ryan Sedgeley or any of his neighbors want to renew a driver’s license, they must travel eight hours round trip in the middle of the work week to the nearest Wyoming Depart-

ment of Transportation office.

In winter it’s an hour of snowmobiling just to get from his house to his car. But the 37-year-old Democrat doesn’t think being from Madison Junction, a minuscule community in Yellowstone National Park of about six winter residents, is a hindrance to his election campaign.

He lives in the northernmost part of the district currently held by Rep. Andy Schwartz, who announced in April he would not run again. Sedgeley’s wife, Nicole, works for the National Park Service.

It’s time for rural, liberal representation in Cheyenne, Sedgeley said. A large part of his platform is the need for a voice for remote communities in Teton County, advocating for government services like WYDOT to become more mobile.

Sedgeley also aims to capture the vote of the denser parts of the roughly 23,000-person county with his unwaveringly progressive agenda.

His top priorities include combating climate change, expanding Medicaid, protecting women’s access to abortion, creating universal free preschool, legalizing marijuana, ending the death penalty and supporting Native American sovereignty and LGBTQ rights.

Sedgeley said he’d support legislation to help Wyomingites, especially the elderly, stay in their homes by creating down payment and mortgage subsidies for working people, a real estate transfer tax and a tax on second homes and vacation rentals.

The first in his family to earn a bachelor’s degree, Sedgeley also

Democratic Primary on August 16th

earned a dual law degree and a master’s in environmental and natural resources from the University of Wyoming last year.

Before law school led him to fundraise for the Wyoming Outdoor Council, Sedgeley worked as a car mechanic, a nuclear power plant valve mechanic and an interpretive ranger in Yellowstone.

His working-class background means being a progressive isn’t just an “intellectual activity,” he said.

“I’ve turned the wrenches,” he said.

“I know what it’s like to be a laborer and to be scraping by.”

Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Storer

Elizabeth “Liz” Storer first set foot in the Wyoming State Capitol in Cheyenne in 1994 as a member of the board of the Wyoming Outdoor Council.

She lobbied for wildlife conservation and water quality, in part opposing a dam being proposed west of Saratoga, where she’d spent summers growing up and where she was living at the time.

“I was brand new to the legislative process,” Storer recalled, “but I learned quickly that I could build good relationships with both Republicans and Democrats to accomplish our shared goals. I think that’s still possible even in today’s political atmosphere.”

Seeing the impact of policy and the lack of both Democrats and women on the House floor inspired Storer to run for House District 8 two years later, a race she lost by 147 votes to Republican Larry Meuli.

Twenty-six years later Storer, 64,

said she sees the same lack of diversity, especially for Teton County, where all current state representatives and senators are men.

“If we had more women in office we would have a better dialogue about issues especially for young families,” Storer said, “whether it’s health care or early childhood education.”

Storer supports state-funded preschool for ages 6 and younger. It’s critical for kids, she said, and has been proved to save the state money down the road.

Those values of conservation and early childhood education are central to her work managing about $100 million as the CEO and director of the George B. Storer Foundation, started 66 years ago by her grandfather, a television and media pioneer for whom the organization is named.

“I’ve learned a lot about how to invest for the long term because the foundation is in perpetuity, as is the state of Wyoming,” Storer said. “At the end of the day, that’s what conservation is about.”

Storer, an angler and conservationist, worked for The Nature Conservancy before the Wyoming Outdoor Council and was involved in bipartisan statewide task forces concerning livestock range under Gov. Mike Sullivan, a Democrat, and state trust lands management under Gov. Jim Geringer, a Republican.

Storer is running on strengthening the education system, increasing access to quality health care, expanding broadband access and affordable housing. Connecting those issues, Storer said, is state-level tax policy.

ReElect MEL

“I’ve professionally and personally known Brian for 28 years.

His life experiences and his experiences as Deputy County Attorney will serve him well as the Teton County Clerk of the District Court.”

FOR VOTE FOR EXPERIENCE. VOTE FOR COMMITMENT. VOTE FOR TRANSPARENCY.

-Hon. Nancy J. Guthrie, Ret. District Judge, 9th Judicial District

Early voting is open now at the absentee polling site or vote on August 16th for the Wyoming Primaries.

BRIAN E. HULTMAN

Clerk of the District Court

As Assessor, I am committed to the people of Teton County. I will stay informed and active in all property tax related issues both locally and at the state level.

I will continue to work with my collegues across the state and with legislators when property tax reform bills are introduced, and I will advocate for change.

• Former President of the Wyoming State Bar • Deputy Teton County Prosecuting Attorney for 25 years • 2019 Wyoming State Bar President’s Award • 2011 Wyoming State Bar Community Service Award

I don’t just value property in Teton County.

I value the people of Teton County.

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18 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Uncontested state legislative races Three Republicans and two Democrats are running unopposed in primaries for seats in the Wyoming Senate and House of Representatives. All five will advance to the general election.

Paul Vogelheim

Jim McCollum

Paul Vogelheim is returning to Wyoming politics after a four-year hiatus to run for Wyoming House of Representatives in District 23, which encompasses most of northern Teton County.

Vogelheim was first appointed to the Teton County Board of County Commissioners, where he won reelection and ultimately served for 10 years. He was chair of the board in 2012 and recognized by his peers as Wyoming’s Commissioner of the Year in 2016.

Vogelheim de- Vogelheim scribed himself as a “pragmatic moderate” who decided to run after speaking with Wyoming Senate President Dan Dockstader, R-Afton, who told him Teton County’s issues, long labeled as fringe in Cheyenne, are no longer unique. Retaining teachers and escalating property taxes are statewide problems.

“Being able to sit in the Republican caucus to tell the story of retired folks in Teton County having to move after spending their lives here,” Vogelheim said, “that will hopefully have a sway.”

Republican Jim McCollum wants to bring a common-sense approach to local and statewide issues by winning the Wyoming House seat currently held by Jackson Democrat Mike Yin. “It hit me one night,” McCollum said of deciding to run. “I can’t solve anything from here. Let’s investigate this and see if I can make a difference, if it’s positive for Jackson and positive for Wyoming.”

The father of Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, a Jackson native and U.S. Marine killed in an Aug. 26 bombing in Afghanistan said he has no interest in McCollum taking advantage of his son’s name and legacy in his election bid.

McCollum cited housing, on a local level, and energy, on a state level, as his primary focuses. He is convinced that a Republican-dominated Legislature is more likely to listen to a Republican from Jackson than a Democrat.

(R, House District 23)

Steve Duerr

(R, Senate District 17)

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Steve Duerr, a lifelong Republican, is running for the Wyoming Senate seat held by Mike Gierau. He wants to balance a healthy local economy with wildlife and ecosystem conservation.Duerr, who moved with his family to Jackson Hole in 1985, served as executive director for the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce in the early to mid-2000s and then for the Murie Center in Grand Teton National Park. He has also spent the last 32 years as general counsel for Lower Val- Duerr ley Energy. “For the health of the local and state economy and quality of life, we have to maintain a commitment to protect and conserve the natural world,” he said. Duerr believes being a Republican in the Senate, as opposed to one of two Democrats, would give him a more influential voice when it comes to Teton County issues.

Mike Gierau

(D, Senate District 17)

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Democrat Mike Gierau points to his relationships with Republicans and roles on the Joint Appropriations Committee and Management Council as his strengths. “A newly elected official from Teton County would not be in either one of those positions,” he said. “[That] puts me in a good spot to really make a difference.”

Gierau said his most important work has been advocating for funding for developmentally disabled children, securing tax relief for seniors and funding for K-12 schools, capital con- Gierau struction for Central Wyoming College’s Jackson campus, COVID-19 relief for small businesses and services for at-risk kids. He wants to advocate for housing, health care, transportation and education. He has also served on the town planning commission, town council, county commission and in the Wyoming House.

(R, House District 16)

Mike Yin

(D, House District 16) Teton County Democrat Mike Yin is running for a third term in the Wyoming House of Representatives.

The software developer has represented Jackson since 2018 and has landed seats on multiple committees including the Management Council, the House Judiciary Committee and the House Revenue Committee. Yin is one of seven Democrats in the Wyoming House.

Yin most recently shepherded a bill through the Legislature that gave counties the option to refund part of a resident’s income taxes if they’ve lived in their home for more than five years, and occupy it more than nine months of the year.

Refunds are capped at half of the person’s property taxes from Yin the prior year. The bill passed as Jacksonites grappled with skyrocketing taxes that pushed some residents out of their homes.

Yin also has championed county-optional real estate transfer taxes, which would give local governments the opportunity to approve and receive funds from a tax on real estate sales.

Andrew Byron

(R, House District 22) Andrew Byron, 37, is a real estate agent, small business owner and volunteer firefighter. The Hoback resident thinks a Republican who believes in climate change but still fights for small government is what residents of the newly redrawn HD22 want to see. He’s seeking the district now represented by Jim Roscoe: Lincoln County and parts of south Teton County from Wilson to Hoback.

He’s a moderate who thinks government should stay out of LGBTQ and abortion rights issues. His top priorities would Byron be setting a limit on property tax increases, preserving public lands like the state school holdings, promoting new tech economies like cryptocurrency and promoting mental health.

PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 19

Governor Four Republicans and two Democrats are running for governor. The office has a term of four years, with a term limit of eight years in a 16-year period through a statute adopted in a 1992 referendum.

Compiled by the Wyoming League of Women Voters To be elected, the candidate must be at least age 30, a U.S. citizen, a Wyoming resident for at least five years, a qualified Wyoming voter, and cannot hold any other office. In the Nov. 8 general election, there may be independents and third party candidates which do not hold primaries. The annual salary is $140,000 with benefits.

Mark Gordon (Incumbent), Buffalo, Republican

Q: A:

What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

I grew up on my family ranch outside of Kaycee and currently serve as your governor. I’m a lifelong conservative, staunch defender of Second Amendment rights and an advocate for smaller government closest to the people. I have guided our state through the worst pandemic in a century, all the time focused on saving lives and livelihoods.

Prior to serving as governor I was elected as Wyoming’s state treasurer and served on the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

I have a broad range of experience in the fields and industries among the most important to our state — from running a family ranch to working in the energy and tourism sector.

We have more to do, and I’m here to say Jennie and I are all in for Wyoming.

Q: A:

What are your top two issues for the Wyoming government to address in the next four years?

Our most pressing issues deal with constant federal overreach damaging Wyoming’s economy and hurting our seniors, veterans and all citizens.

I have been fighting Biden’s policies since, on day one, his administration ended oil and gas leasing on most of Wyoming’s public lands. It seems every day that Mr. Biden is attacking our state,

our economy and our values. Yet all we hear out of Washington is that it’s someone else’s fault.

I successfully fought Biden’s push for school closures and vaccine mandates for Wyoming students and National Guard troops. We kept our schools open, and Wyoming led the nation in in-person school days.

And I will continue to fight all attempts by the feds to gain control over more land in Wyoming.

Period.

Q: A:

What specific measures would you propose to enhance state revenue?

Wyoming doesn’t have a revenue problem — it had a spending problem. This year I signed a budget $400 million less than 2020 and our state government is the leanest it’s been in a decade.

I have fought to expand Wyoming’s economy, especially our legacy industries of agriculture, mining and tourism, while fighting the Biden administration to reopen our tremendous energy resources to benefit America.

President Biden’s shortsighted “green energy” agenda has run Wyoming’s economy into a ditch and caused the worst inflation in 40 years.

An “all of the above” energy policy would increase Wyoming energy production and revenues and return America to the Trump policy of energy independence and address our record gas and diesel prices.

Q: A:

How would you work with the Legislature to prepare Wyoming for wildfires and drought?

I have been very active in working with the Legislature and our congressional delegation to prepare as much as possible for wildfires and drought.

The state now has a $20 million contingency fund for fighting wildfires. I’ve also worked with the Legislature to add additional “Good Neighbor Authority” positions at state forestry, which allows the state to partner with the U.S. Forest Service to

promote healthy forests.

As we work to protect our water rights, I have established a working group on the Colorado River Compact and added more staff with the attorney general and state engineer offices.

I have also upgraded water storage and irrigation infrastructure and teamed with the Legislature and congressional delegation to fund it.

Theresa A. Livingston, Worland, Democrat

Q: A:

What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

Seventy-two years of being a human on this earth, 28 years of that time residing in Wyoming including Lander, Cheyenne and Worland. I have visited most of the state during those years.

I served in the USAF for nine years, living in Germany, Turkey and Spain. I also lived in other states.

As a teenager I lived in Taiwan with my parents.

My dad was in civil service. He was in the Army Air Corps. WW II. I worked for the DOI/BLM for 15 years so I have a background in land management.

Being a para in special education gives me a good background in education. I often bring a different perspective to life from living in so many places.

Q: A:

What are your top two issues for the Wyoming government to address in the next four

Q:

What specific measures would you propose to enhance state revenue?

years?

Health care for women without restrictions.

Medicare expansion. I want to include better mental health care. Healthy people make for a healthy state. This is good for everyone. The second issue is project-based education with an emphasis on aptitude testing. We need to help students find their “why” so they will be happy and productive in life. I think this will make for happy teachers which will be a great outcome for all.

See GOVERNOR on 20E

• Restore Fiscal Responsibility and Rein in Spending • Property Tax Relief and Reform • Action on Workforce Housing • Protect This Valley That We Love

We Are a Community First, a Resort Second

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20 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

GOVERNOR

Continued from 19E

A:

Outdoor recreation that brings in revenue.

It’s working already. Tourism is up. Also, rare minerals could bring in revenue. Get the younger generation to help with ideas to bring in revenue. They are amazing.

How would you work with the Legislature to prepare Wyoming for wildfires and drought?

I worked in wildfire for the BLM so I have some knowledge of the process. It was wonderful to see how all the agencies, state, county and federal, work together during fires.

They also work together to prevent fires through prescribed burns and other methodologies. I was there to get them what they needed. Being that close to the fire was endless education. The Legislature needs to keep up the funding they give to the fire programs. They also should work on educating the citizens of Wyoming to understand what is being done especially when it comes to drought. Drought is something we should all help with by using the resources and water wisely.

Q: A:

James Scott Quick, Douglas, Republican

Q: A:

What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

After graduating from Douglas High School I went into the Marines. I chose to come back to Wyoming after my honorable discharge. I’m deeply rooted in Wyoming. I’ve worked in the energy business — oil, uranium, coal, pipeline — and I’ve owned my business for 14 years and am still working. The last few years have been hard on everybody. I feel we’ve lost our voice in Wyoming. I refused to be silenced anymore. We need someone to step up and be the voice for the people.

Q: A:

What are your top two issues for the Wyoming government to address in the next four years?

Get rid of the reservation-only system on our state parks. I want to keep 10-15% of the spots that can be reserved for tourists. I want the reservations taken in-state. I want to protect the jobs we have in Wyoming first and worry

VOTE

about new jobs second. I want to keep the coalfired power plants open. Could Wyoming citizens form a co-op to take them over and keep them open? I’m not against nuclear power, but a lot more is not being shared with the general public.

Q: A:

What specific measures would you propose to enhance state revenue?

We need to open our drilling back up. We need to fight DC on that and we need to fight more to get the coal out. Let’s cut back some of the regulations; that will invite good businesses to come to Wyoming.

Q: A:

How would you work with the Legislature to prepare Wyoming for wildfires and drought?

We need to open our logging industries; that will help manage our forests better and increase our revenue. We need to protect our water rights at all costs. Let’s just implement good common sense suggestions and work together. If legislators have good ideas for the people of Wyoming, let’s get it done.

Rex Rammell, Rock Springs, Republican

Q: A:

What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

Conservative constitutionalist, veterinarian small business owner, rancher, sportsman, faith-based family man.

Q: A: Q: A: Q: A:

What are your top two issues for the Wyoming government to address in the next four years?

State sovereignty over all our natural resources and education reform What specific measures would you propose to enhance state revenues?

State control over all our natural resources

How would you work with the Legislature to prepare Wyoming for wildfires and drought?

Appropriate money to prepare for fires and advocate for fire prevention measures like controlled burns.

Rex Wilde, Cheyenne, Democrat

Q: A:

What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

259th BCT, the 82nd Airborne, and the 1022 Medical Detachment of the National Guard in Cheyenne. Bilingual (Italian and English). I’m just a regular guy, not a rich man. This campaign is being run on my own; no one is giving me money, so I’m not beholden to anyone.

I’m honest, hardworking and determined. I was a cabinetmaker for 34 years of my life. The only reason I’m running for office is water.

Q: A:

What are your top two issues for the Wyoming government to address in the next four years?

Water. Water, water, water. Our C.F.S. are tremendous. When we were a territory, people basically took advantage of us. In 1922 there was the Green River Accord; they basically put Wyoming in a high chair and put us in the pantry. It belongs to all of us, and it flows out of here, but it’s ours. I think that Wyoming should be recognized as an autonomous region with our low population, our large area and everything we give to the U.S. — water, minerals, coal, uranium. If I become governor I would support legislation that the federal government recognize Wyoming as an autonomous region and then compensate us.

Q: A:

What specific measures would you propose to enhance state revenues?

First is I would raise licensing fees for out-of-state hunting and fishing. I want to make I-25 and I-80 toll roads for people crossing our state: $25/truck, $5/car, but not for people with Wyoming license plates. We probably wouldn’t need federal funding to maintain our roads.

Q: A:

How would you work with the Legislature to prepare Wyoming for wildfires and drought?

That’s a tough question; we’ve got global warming. It’s here. We’ve seen more wildfires than ever before. I think the National Guard should be trained as firefighters.

Brent Bien, Sheridan, Republican Did not respond.

Watch candidate debates online at WyomingPBS. org/election2022

to Re-Elect

Anne Comeaux Sutton, M.P.A. Clerk of District Court

“Anne Sutton provides friendly and expert customer service to the public, the lawyers, and the court. Anne is a smart, proven, cutting-edge leader in her field.

Vote for Anne.”

— Tim Day, District Court Judge, Retired

Paid for by the Committee to ReElect Anne Sutton

Your Democratic primary vote is important. Electronic filing and paperless court records start March 2023.

Teton County needs a trusted, experienced and prepared Clerk. More information and the candidate forum at www.suttonforcourtclerk.com PROVEN PERFORMANCE • TRUSTED LEADERSHIP • KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING

VOTE LIZ STORER Democratic Primary Candidate, House District 23

As your Representative in Cheyenne, I will advocate to: • • • • •

Secure property tax relief for Teton County residents Restore women’s reproductive rights Protect wildlife, wild spaces and clean water Increase education and social service funding Diversify Wyoming’s revenue streams

Paid for by Storer For State House Teton County Values | Wyoming experience | Honest and effective leadership

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PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 21

Secretary of State

Elections, land use top Secretary of State debate All side with Teton County on land use, only one candidate denounces election fraud claims.

By Sophia Boyd-Fliegel Three Republicans are running for secretary of state, a position that oversees Wyoming’s elections, campaign finance, business and other registrations.

The secretary of state also has one of five votes on the State Board of Land Commissioners and the State Loan and Investment Board. The secretary of state’s term is four years with no term limits. Annual salary is $125,000 with some benefits.

Despite few documented cases of voter fraud in Wyoming — the Republican think tank the Heritage Foundation has documented only three cases of voter fraud since 2000 — election integrity is voters’ top concern this year for the secretary of state race.

Candidates on elections: Mark Armstrong is a geologist and engineer from Centennial. Armstrong has not held political office and came in fifth in the 2020 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate with 3.7% of the vote.

Armstrong wants to stop crossover voting and dramatically limit mail-in or absentee voting to people with special circumstances like being in the military, out of town, homebound or a resident in a nursing care facility.

Armstrong takes issue with how his home county of Albany opened absentee ballots. None of his nearly two dozen Freedom of Information Act requests and criminal complaints on the matter submitted to the district attorney and the office for which he’s running were taken seriously, he said.

In 2020, 46% of Wyoming votes were absentee.

Sen. Tara Nethercott is a Cheyenne lawyer and state senator since 2017.

Nethercott is the only candidate running for secretary of state to firmly denounce claims of an ille-

gitimate 2020 presidential election, citing a lack of objective or persuasive evidence of fraud presented to courts with judges from across the political spectrum.

In addition to practicing business, labor and trusts law, Nethercott has served on the secretary of state’s “home committee” — the Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee.

This year Nethercott carried a bill through the Senate that was sponsored by all 23 county clerks that would have allowed them to keep up with absentee votes by beginning to count a few days before the election.

Rep. Chuck Gray began his career as a conservative radio show host and has served in the Legislature as a Casper representative since 2017.

Gray has called the 2020 election a “disaster” and “fraudulent.” He cites the controversial 2022 documentary “2,000 Mules,” directed by a rightwing commentator Dinesh D’Souza, which claims evidence of third parties funding ballot box stuffers or “mules” in swing states, not including Wyoming.

The film has been debunked by all major factchecking outlets and criticized in the media, including Fox News, for relying on a few anonymous sources and improper analysis of cellphone location data.

Gray emphasized his “outsider perspective” compared to Nethercott, though he’s been in the state Legislature for the same length of time. He wants to ban Wyoming’s ballot drop boxes (rolled out in 2020 to keep up with an increase in absentee voting during the COVID-19 pandemic), ban large third-party political donations and preserve voter ID laws, which he helped pass in 2021.

Gray opposed the 2022 bill that Nethercott carried to let county clerks count absentee votes a few days early.

and similarities on other potential duties like recording the state’s businesses, keeping watch on “dark money,” and making state land investment decisions.

A recent decision from the State Lands and Investment Board didn’t comply with local Teton County zoning, leading the county to sue the state.

All candidates said they would not have voted to approve 800 storage units and 11 glamping structures near Teton Village and that state land should conform to local zoning.

There could be exceptions to that rule, Nethercott pointed out, if local regulations didn’t permit state lands to benefit state schools. Gray similarly said local rules should be “reasonable” if the state is to follow them.

The generous privacy that Wyoming affords businesses and transactions started a conversation about how much information the secretary of state should request from business filers.

As a member of the Select Committee on Blockchain, Financial Technology and Digital Innovation Technology, Nethercott said the secretary of state office should do more to track the practices of technology businesses.

Gray, like Armstrong, said he had concerns about the so-called “Cowboy Cocktail” and would increase back-end audits, but still wanted small businesses to be able to file for less.

Notably, there’s no evidence that “bad actors” or oligarchs have sheltered money in Wyoming as some media has alleged, Nethercott said. But with the generous privacy that makes Wyoming “business friendly” comes the potential to be taken advantage of. More restrictions, she said, would assuredly make it harder for businesses to file.

Find online candidate forums organized by the League of Women Voters, Teton County Library, KHOL 89.1, Buckrail and the News&Guide at TCLib.org/candidates.

In a Teton County candidate forum, candidates revealed their differences in election principles

Find YouTube links to watch the full forum at TCLib. org/candidates.

On business and land use oversight:

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22 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Wyoming State Treasurer

Candidates both run on incumbent’s record

By Mike Koshmrl, WyoFile.com Treasurer Curt Meier and his lone challenger — Cheyenne resident, fellow Republican and political newcomer Bill Gallop — both say they’ll base their campaigns on the incumbent’s record of performance. They differ widely on how they believe that record should be viewed.

Gallop formed his first impressions of Meier, he said, during the treasurer’s service on the board of the Wyoming Retirement System, where Gallop worked as a senior investment officer.

Fellow trustees overseeing the investment of pension funds for state employees were less than kind in their critiques of Meier, according to Gallop.

“Board members literally sent out images to Wyoming Retirement System investment staff of Curt Meier asleep in public meetings,” Gallop said.

Gallop said he’s not trying to score political points by recalling those emails. But he thinks he could do better.

“I’m focused on the skill requirements for the Wyoming state treasurer,” Gallop said. “I’ve been a professional investor working large pension plans for three decades.”

Meier, in contrast to his opponent, is a known commodity in Wyoming politics. He served as a state senator representing Goshen, Niobrara

and Weston counties for 23 years before being elected treasurer — one of only five statewide elected offices — in 2018. He secured the Republican nomination that year with 50.2% of the vote before cruising to victory in the general election. During Donald Trump’s May 28 rally in Casper, the former president even gave Meier a shout-out.

Meier is running on his record leading the Wyoming State Treasurer’s Office for 3 1/2 years despite some admitted flaws. During the Wyoming Legislature’s 2022 budget session, Meier graded his office’s accounting performance as subpar.

“Disappointing. A C-minus. Some people might think we’re lower,” Meier said at the time. “I’m transparent.

It’s not as good as we would like.”

That self critique came while Meier’s office was failing to produce legally mandated financial reports on time, raising transparency concerns, threatening the state’s creditworthiness and inhibiting the work of budgeters and state agencies. At one point in the process, Meier’s office was unable to account for roughly $106 million in state funds. That tardiness held up the State Auditor’s Office’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for six months; the tell-all audit of Wyoming’s financial assets was finally released to the public in mid-June.

But Meier stands behind his tenure as treasurer when taken as a whole.

He’s proud, he said, of shoring up and guiding the investment of funds at the Wyoming Retirement System, where his opponent once worked.

“When I started at the system, I

think they were at $5 billion,” Meier said. “Now we’re knocking on the door of $9-plus billion.

“It’s changed from when I was first there,” he added. “The board made all the decisions about [investment] managers, frankly based on who bought the best bottle of wine the night before. When I got on the board we shook things up. We got rid of favoritism and nepotism.”

In addition to the Retirement Board, by law the Wyoming treasurer also serves on the Board of State Land Commissioners and the State Loans and Investments Board.

Meier also touted his performance at his core duty: Overseeing management of the state’s coffers. Investment income from Wyoming’s sovereign wealth is a critical source of revenue that the state relies on to balance its budget.

“We went from $20 billion to, within three years, over $25 billion,” Meier said. “There are a lot of good things going on in the treasurer’s office.

We’re looking forward to going from the median into the top quartile in our investment funds.”

Gallop disagreed, saying Meier ought to be doing better. The gains Meier points to came during a period of historic growth, a rising tide that lifted all ships.

“If you’re a fisherman, the fish were jumping in the boat during these three years,” Gallop said.

Wyoming’s approach to investing has cost the state billions of dollars, and left it trailing comparable institutions, according to a 2020 WyoFile investigation.

“We’re sitting on $25 billion that’s

being under-managed and is underperforming,” Gallop said. “And you have somebody who has no idea what they’re doing and no professional investment background. There’s a skill requirement there. It’s not a legal requirement, but I don’t think the public is aware how bad the treasury portfolio has underperformed its nearest neighbor up the street: the Wyoming Retirement System.”

Meier, whose academic and professional backgrounds are in agriculture, stood behind his qualifications. He grew his LaGrange ranch into a multimillion dollar operation, he said.

“I’ve signed the front of the check and the back of the check,” Meier said.

“I know about business. There’s a lot of practical experience that I bring to this job, just not something that you learn about in a college class.”

Gallop has never run for office, but intends to play up his professional background while campaigning, which he admitted has not started in earnest other than online. After growing up in Connecticut he enrolled in the United States Military Academy, graduating from West Point in 1986 with a degree in computer science. He served active duty as an Army officer, then went back to school, earning a master’s of business administration from Cornell University. His first civilian job was on Wall Street in the early 1990s, then he oversaw a $10 billion endowment for a Hawaiian private school. He also worked for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation before coming to work for the Wyoming Retirement System, where his employment spanned from July 2016 to February 2019, according to the state office.

VOTE

State treasurer is responsible for, among other duties, managing the state’s investments.

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PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 23

Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Five Republican candidates are vying for the post; only one will advance to the general election to oppose Democrat Sergio Maldonado, Sr. The term of office is four years with no term limits. Annual salary is $125,000 plus some benefits.

Compiled by the League of Women Voters

Megan Degenfelder, Laramie

Q: A:

What qualities, training, experiences and skills would you bring to this office?

I come from a six-generation Wyoming ranching family. I attended Wyoming public schools, kindergarten through the University of Wyoming. I have a master’s degree in economics and have built my entire career right here in Wyoming, with experience in both the private sector and in education. I previously served in a cabinet level position for the previous State Superintendent Jillian Balow, where I made meaningful budget reductions, staff consolidation, partnered with the Legislature to update the “educational basket of goods” for the first time in 20 years, and oversaw a $30M budget and 25-person staff.

I also have years of experience in the coal and oil and gas industries, where I fight for Wyoming and against harmful regulations and policies.

Q: A:

Do you support or oppose school-based suicide prevention programs for students?

Wyoming has the highest rate of suicide deaths in the nation, which is unacceptable, and we cannot expect children to learn if they are struggling mentally. Wyoming law requires school staff to receive suicide prevention training at least every four years, and that the state superintendent provides appropriate education/training materials to school districts. As superintendent I will ensure that the department is a “clearing house” for best practices and we provide districts with individual support to prevent suicide. I am also a strong believer in local control, and I support local school board ability to allocate funds to school-based suicide prevention programs, based on what the individual needs of their communities are.

Q:

Please discuss your opinions about the various options for providing K-12 education in Wyoming?

A:

I believe that the greater the number of choices and opportunities for students and parents, the better. From school buildings to program pathways, by increased choices we can best meet the needs of individual students. We have hardly scratched the surface when it comes to school choice in Wyoming and there are many exciting opportunities to explore, including those within the current public education system. At the end of the day it is our responsibility to educate every single child in the state. But the more options we can give to them and their parents, the better.

Q: A:

Is current school funding adequate? Explain.

Yes. Wyoming’s Constitution requires the state provide a complete and uniform education system adequately funded by the Legislature. The Legislature creates this system or

“basket of goods,” which is then priced out. This structure ensures school funding is adequate based on the system created. Unless the Legislature changes the basket of goods, they are constitutionally required to fund the current basket at an adequate level. The block grant is then set up so local school districts allocate funding based on individual or unique needs in their communities. As superintendent I will advocate for school funding to be as close to the classroom as possible, with students and teachers, and that it be transparent for parents and the community.

Thomas Kelly, Sheridan

Q: A:

What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

I’m the chair for the Department of Political and Military Science at American Military University, with a Ph.D. in American government and an MA in education. I’m a former public school teacher of social studies and special education. From managing a team of professors who largely disagree with me politically and from teaching teens with severe behavioral disabilities, I’ve learned to be assertive and supportive to lead teams and foster open communication for productive results. I also have several children in Wyoming public schools, and I’ve seen what happens to the public schools of other states when left-wing indoctrination replaces actual education and teaching.

Q: A:

Do you support or oppose school-based suicide prevention programs for students?

Parents and guardians should be primary in any suicide prevention program. School faculty and staff can be helpful to alert parents to potential issues and support families who are struggling. As superintendent my job would be to review current resources that the state makes available to all districts in regards to providing programs. With that in mind, I would only support programs that made parents and guardians central to any efforts and did not encourage public schools to overstep their bounds. I also would consider successful faith-based programs on the list, as the information would be voluntary and optional, not mandated.

Q:

Please discuss your opinions about the various options for providing K-12 education in Wyoming?

A:

The one-size-fits-all approach to public schools rarely has successful long-term results academically or financially. Wyoming is behind the curve on charter schools, which allow for innovation and greater liberty for communities. Vouchers could be useful to provide choice for parents who pay their taxes but cannot afford private schools out of pocket. Educational professionals should treat homeschooling with the respect it deserves, but state funding for homeschooling is a bad idea because it opens the door to government asking what parents are teaching their kids at home. That is also why I firmly op-

pose the NEA’s position that homeschooling parents must have their curriculum approved by the state, and parents must be licensed.

Q: A:

Is current school funding adequate? Explain.

Yes. The amount of funding is not the issue in Wyoming. Utah spends half as much per student with better results. Wyoming is eighth in per-student spending in the U.S., spending more than liberal states like Illinois and California.

Wyoming also has top-heavy administrative costs with superfluous numbers of assistant superintendents, assistant principals and directors who are paid large salaries and never set foot in a classroom to teach. There is plenty of money in the system to pay teachers better without spending more. While this is an issue for local districts primarily, the superintendent can provide incentives through regulations to increase teacher pay and reduce the amount of bureaucrats.

Brian Schroeder, Casper

(incumbent) What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

Q: I am a 16-year veteran of teaching with school administration experience, and A: have served as Wyoming’s Superintendent of

Public Instruction since January 2022 after being appointed to the role by Gov. Mark Gordon. I am an advocate for parents and against indoctrination, and I believe strongly that the purpose of education is simple: to learn to think.

My wife Susie and I have been blessed with seven children, each of them having attended public schools. I have worked in public and private schools, and as a result, I have the necessary experience to serve in this role knowing the perspective of a parent, teacher, administrator, and community stakeholder.

you support or oppose school-based suiQ: Do cide prevention programs for students?

In what other profession must one be an exA: pert in math, English, history, science, government, vocabulary, reading, spelling and be able

to gracefully address the mental health needs of young people? Teachers, next to parents, have the most difficult job on earth. Suicide prevention programs for students help teachers to do their job, and I support these programs — so long as they do not disrupt the student-parent relationship. If the schoolhouse is intended to be an extension of the community, programs designed to help students and parents find mental health support are worth funding, promoting and supporting.

Q:

Please discuss your opinions about the various options for providing K-12 education in Wyoming?

A:

Every child is unique. As a former private school administrator, a public See SUPERINTENDENT on 27E

Mark Newcomb Stands Strong √ Protecting Rural Values

√ Supporting our Workforce √ Caring for Young & Old Paid For Committee to Elect Mark Newcomb 407763

24 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

U.S. House of Representatives

House hopefuls square off over voting, Jan. 6 Candidates bashed federal infrastructure funding and COVID-19 vaccine policy.

By Billy Arnold When the five Republican candidates vying to represent Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives met on a debate stage in Sheridan on June 30, there was some consensus.

All five agreed: The recent spate of federal infrastructure spending was bad for Wyoming.

But congresswoman Liz Cheney struck a markedly different stance on elections and the Jan. 6 committee, which she vice chairs, than the four candidates vying to unseat her. Cheney, who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for the role she says he played in inciting the violence at the U.S. Capitol, threw barbs at her primary opponent, attorney Harriet Hageman, who has received Trump’s endorsement.

Hageman is up in the one independent poll conducted so far in Wyoming — by a roughly 20-point margin.

Going into the Aug. 16 primary, Cheney is leading the fundraising pack, with just shy of $7 million on hand, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign finance.

Hageman has $1.5 million in her war chest, while the other three candidates have significantly less.

State Sen. Anthony Bouchard has just shy of $38,000 available, while Denton Knapp, a Gillette native and Iraq and Afghanistan U.S. Army veteran, has about $1,800 on hand. Robyn Belinskey, a Sheridan resident who owns a housekeeping and property management business, has just under $1,100.

That’s all according to end-of-June reporting.

Infrastructure and elections were only some of the issues the five candidates tangled with in the hourand-a-half debate. They also argued about combatting inflation, health care and COVID-19 policy.

Here’s a snapshot of what they had to say, with a sidebar providing additional context to some of the candidates’ claims about the 2020 election. You can watch the full debate at WyomingPBS.org.

What happened on Jan. 6?

Cheney, responding to a question about the Jan. 6 committee, said it was a “tragedy” that “there are politicians in this country, beginning with Donald Trump, who have lied to the American people.

“I’d be interested to know whether or not my opponent Ms. Hageman is willing to say here tonight that the election was not stolen,” Cheney said. “She knows it wasn’t stolen ... She can’t say that it wasn’t stolen because she’s completely beholden to Donald Trump.

And if she says it wasn’t stolen, he will not support her.”

Hageman, in response to the same question, did not directly say the 2020 election was stolen but did say

Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney

Challenger Harriet Hageman

she had “serious questions” about it — a repeat of her past rhetoric, including at a Trump rally in Casper, and an event with Donald Trump Jr. in Teton County.

Federal election officials have said the 2020 election was “the most secure in American history.” Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr has said there is no evidence of voter fraud widespread enough to have changed the outcome of the election, which Trump lost to President Joe Biden.

Hageman said she rarely hears from Wyomingites about Jan. 6.

“What people are concerned about in terms of the J6 committee is it’s just totally unfair, and so contrary to everything that our country stands for,” Hageman said, arguing that the press and Democrats use it to deflect attention from the Biden administration.

Other candidates took a similar tack. Bouchard said that Congress has a “bone to pick.”

“That’s the problem with that committee,” Bouchard said. “They don’t want President Trump and they’re pushing back. And quite, frankly, the American public is sick and tired of it.”

Belinskey called the Jan. 6 committee a “distraction from what is actually going on in our country right now.”

“We have lawlessness in our country,” she said. “Instead of dealing with those issues, we’re dealing with something that again happened a while ago and was a setup from the beginning.”

Knapp didn’t directly speak to the Jan. 6 commit-

tee, going instead after the 2020 election.

“I had time in Iraq where I actually had helped support their elections,” he said. “I’m sorry to say theirs went a lot smoother than this last one here.”

Election integrity

Hageman, for her part, said that people should get involved with Wyoming’s elections and they’ll have “more confidence” and “understanding” of Wyoming’s election laws.

She said “election integrity issues” exist elsewhere.

“What I think that you see, in terms of the election integrity issues are what we’ve seen more on the national level,” Hageman said, “that has a lot of people concerned, including me.”

Hageman cited Dinesh D’Souza’s “2000 Mules” movie, saying she had “great concern” about the use of ballot boxes. She pointed to Pennsylvania, where she said, mistakenly, that the state’s supreme court determined that changes to absentee voting violated the state’s constitution. And she called out the $400 million that Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated to election administrators for the 2020 election.

Cheney, for her part, said election integrity is “critical,” voicing support for Voter ID laws, like one that passed in Wyoming during the last legislative session.

Voters will now be required to show ID on election day.

But she also went after Hageman again, saying See HOUSE RACE on 27E

Fact checking claims about election procedures and results ‘2000 Mules’ Dinesh D’Souza’s film alleged that Biden’s victory in 2020 was due to “mules” paid by unnamed nonprofits to stuff drop boxes with fake ballots in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — states Trump lost to Biden. Reuters and other news outlets have fact-checked the claims in the movie and determined that it doesn’t show “concrete, verifiable” evidence of “widespread vote fraud.” Those outlets raised concerns about the way filmmakers tracked voters and interpreted video of alleged “mules” dropping off ballots, particularly in states like Georgia where ballot harvesting — picking up and dropping off mail-in ballots for people unable to do so — was legal during the 2020 election.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has not, as Hageman said, ruled on the constitutionality of absentee ballots in the Keystone State. The state’s appellate court ruled in January that the state legislature’s bipartisan decision to expand mail-in voting through the traditional bill process was unconstitutional and instead required amending the state constitution. The state’s supreme court considered an appeal in May, but had not made a decision by press time Thursday.

Zuckerberg’s donations The money Zuckerberg funneled into election systems, meanwhile, was donated to two nonprofits that distributed grants to state and local governments to help administer the 2020 election amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The donations came as election offices tried to switch to mail-in voting and helped pay for equipment to process mail ballots, administer drive-thru voting locations and install equipment to prevent the spread of

COVID-19, according to The Associated Press. Conservatives have argued the money aided Democrats by disproportionately going to Democratic-leaning counties in swing states. Election officials, including Republicans, have vouched for the program’s impartiality to The Associated Press. Politifact reported that Republicans have objected to Democratic areas getting the largest amount of money, though every jurisdiction that applied received funds from the nonprofit. That outlet reported, however, that independent elections experts agree that government, rather than the private sector, should fund elections. A handful of states have since passed laws banning private funding of election administration.

Giuliani and Powell’s law licenses The situation around Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell’s law licenses is complicated. Both are attorneys who attempted to reverse the results of the 2020 election. Giuliani and Powell are facing disciplinary proceedings in various jurisdictions.

Giuliani, the former New York mayor who attempted to reverse the results of the election for former president Donald Trump, had his law license suspended in New York for making “demonstrably false and misleading statements” about the election, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Disciplinary proceedings could lead to his disbarment, the Journal reported, but the results of those hearings haven’t yet been announced. They could take years. In June, officials in Washington, D.C., also filed formal ethics charges against Giuliani for statements he made in federal court alleging that the election had been stolen, Reuters reported. Those charges could also lead to disbarment.

Powell, also working on Trump’s behalf, is fighting the state

bar of Texas’ case against her. The case could end in disbarment.

A Texas judge rebuffed Powell’s attempt to dismiss the case in June, and a trial is set for October. Powell is also facing possible disbarment in Michigan and Arizona, though the results of those investigations have also not been announced.

Who said what Cheney said that Trump’s former attorney general, deputy attorney general, campaign manager, White House counsel and own family have said there was not “sufficient fraud to change the results of the 2020 election.”

Former Attorney General Bill Barr told the Jan. 6 committee that he believed Trump’s claims about the election being stolen were “bullshit.” Former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue told the committee he looked at an “arsenal of allegations” Trump was peddling and “went through them piece by piece to say, no, they were not true.” Former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said he thought Trump should have conceded the election, and agreed with statements Majority Floor Leader Mitch McConnell made from the Senate floor about the election being over.

Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter, also told lawmakers that she respected what former Attorney General Barr was saying about the election, leading to backlash from her father.

Bill Stepien, Trump’s former campaign manager, told the committee he distanced himself from Trump’s orbit after Rudy Giulaini started spreading false claims about the election being stolen, saying he “didn’t think what was happening was necessarily honest or professional.”

Stepien is now advising Hageman’s campaign.

PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 25

U.S. House of Representatives

Three Dems vie to replace Rep. Liz Cheney Lynnette Grey Bull, Meghan Jensen and Steve Helling square off for nomination to Wyoming’s lone U.S. House seat.

By Rone Tempest, Wyofile.com Sweetwater County Democratic Party chief Meghan Jensen is a concrete contractor, a former school cook and a soccer mom who views both leading Republican candidates for Congress as “elitists” who are out of touch with working class Wyoming.

Fremont County Native American activist Lynnette Grey Bull is seeking a second straight run as the Democratic Party nominee but encourages her supporters to “cross over” and vote for Republican Liz Cheney in the Aug. 16 primary.

Casper attorney Steve Helling supports former President Donald Trump but is running for Congress as a Democrat. He thinks Trump’s chosen candidate, Harriet Hageman, is a “hypocrite” because of earlier statements she made calling Trump a “racist” and a “xenophobe.” Trump has since apparently forgiven Hageman, but Helling has not.

In the face of the intense national scrutiny and the mountains of money surrounding the Aug. 16 Republican primary, it might be easy to forget that there will also be a Democratic primary on the same day. The high-profile GOP primary pits incumbent Liz Cheney against

Hageman and three other challengers: Cheyenne state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, Gillette native Denton Knapp and Sheridan small-business owner Robyn Belinskey.

Up until the last day of the state filing period it was not clear that there would be a Democratic Party candidate for the state’s sole congressional seat.

In a state that once elected the likes of Democrats Gale McGee, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 1977, and Ed Herschler, who served three terms as governor from 1975 to 1987, the party is at a low ebb.

According to the most recent state records, registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in the state by a 4-1 margin, 197,868 to 44,643. The last Democrat to win the U.S. House race in Wyoming was Tino Roncalio in 1976. The last close race for the seat was in 2006 when incumbent Republican Barbara Cubin, who was tainted by having the highest rollcall absenteeism rate in Congress, edged out Jackson’s Gary Trauner by just over 1,000 votes.

But just as officials were preparing to close the primary books on May 27, three Democratic candidates suddenly appeared. None are widely expected to successfully challenge the Republican nominee in the general election, but their candidacies could still impact the outcome in multiple ways, particularly if there is significant crossover voting.

WE HIRED MARK GORDON TO LEAD WYOMING ROUGH SOME TOUGH TIMES.

ND HE’S DONE JUST THAT. Lynette Grey Bull

Lynnette Grey Bull, 45, is a so ­

WE HIRED MARK GORDON

LEAD ­ WE MARK GORDON TOHIRED WYOMING

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TO LEAD WYOMING THROUGH SOME TOUGH TIMES. AND HE’S DONE JUST THAT. THROUGH SOME TIMES. AND DONE THAT.

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cial activist based in Fort Washakie, where she is co-founder of Not Our Native Daughters, a nonprofit organization aiming to increase awareness of “missing, exploited and murdered indigenous women and children.”

Raised in southern California, Grey Bull is the daughter of a Hunkpapa Lakota father and Northern Arapaho mother. Her family came to Wyoming often when she was a child to participate in powwows and dances. A divorced mother of three, Grey Bull moved to Wyoming in 2017 from Phoenix, where she had been active in the United Way and social welfare programs through her church, the evangelical Christian Vineyard Movement.

“The elders here in Wyoming invited me to help with homelessness and addiction issues here on the reservation,” Grey Bull said.

By 2020 she was entrenched enough in the community to run for Congress in the Democratic primary. She won the primary handily to become the state’s first Native American candidate for Congress, but lost to Liz Cheney in the general election by nearly 120,000 votes.

After consulting with friends and political advisors, she said she decided to run again in 2022, setting up a potential rematch. But this election, she acknowledges, is different because of the battle for survival it represents between Trump and his main Republican antagonist, Cheney.

“I think all eyes are on Wyoming because of the political dynamics involved,” she said. “From what I

hear from other Democrats across the state before I got into the race, a huge number of Dems were going to support Cheney.”

“In fact, many of them are still going to vote for Cheney. Their viewpoint is, ‘You know, Lynnette, we are going to vote for you in the general election, but we have to get Cheney in first.”

In fact, Grey Bull said, had she not decided to run, she too would likely have switched registration to vote for Cheney in the primary against the Trump candidate, Hageman. Grey Bull said she expects to “take a hit” from supporters crossing over to vote in the Republican primary, but she still hopes to get enough votes to win the Democratic primary and face off for a second time against Cheney in the general election.

“If I do get the Democratic nomination,” she said, “I would rather enjoy going against Cheney in the general.”

Meghan Jensen

Meghan Jensen, 38, is co-owner with her husband of a small concrete company in Rock Springs that specializes in installing residential driveways, RV pads and garage floors.

It is hard work for the mother of a blended family with five children, including four stepchildren. In addition to helping her husband pour concrete she serves on the Sweetwater County Library board and, since 2018, as chairperson of the Sweetwater County Democratic Party.

See DEMS FOR HOUSE on 26E

Republican State Treasurer Curt Meier has

Good News for Wyoming Since I took office in 2019, our team has done some really good work for Wyoming.

We’ve grown the state’s investment accounts from $20 billion to $25 billion.

- We’ve beaten benchmark returns two years in a row.

- We’ve provided hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to Wyoming each year.

- We’ve modernized the office’s accounting and administrative functions.

- We’ve returned an unprecedented amount of funds to a record number of people through our Unclaimed Property Division.

- We’ve ensured that fiscal accountability, transparency and conservative free-market values are always the cornerstones of our operation.

Wyoming now has the #1 rated sov-

ereign wealth fund in the United States, and I’m proud of what my team has done for the people of Wyoming.

We can’t wait to show you what we can do in our second term!

More Good News at www.curtmeierwyoming.com

vote.

Thank you.” vote.

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Thank you.”

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26 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

DEMS FOR HOUSE Continued from 25E

I'M BACK!

Jensen disagrees with Grey Bull about the significance of the potential Democrat crossover vote in the Republican Primary.

“Talking to folks in my county and a few outside of my county,” Jensen said, “I’ve had people tell me they actually changed their registration. But after sitting on it for two or three weeks they said, ‘I can’t do it. I can’t keep registered as a Republican. I’m going to switch back to the Democrats.”

Like Grey Bull, Jensen admires Cheney for taking what she feels is a principled stand against Trump.

“I call her a formidable foe,” she said, dodging potato chips thrown at her by one of her children. “As a Wyoming woman I connect with her because she does take a stand in what she believes in. And while that may not be right for me, I do admire her for that.”

Jensen feels the problems in Wyoming go beyond the issue of Trump.

She said her primary campaign will be called “Face it” and serve as a kind of wakeup call for the state’s electorate.

“I think Wyoming has been going this way for a long time and it is coming to a head. So it doesn’t really need to put Trump in the equation.

It is really a Wyoming problem. We need to find a bridge between the regular folk and the federal government.”

Unlike Grey Bull, Jensen said she could never bring herself to vote for Cheney, even in a primary.

“That’s an absolute ‘No,’” she said. “I’m very, very firm in that.”

Steve Helling

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Steve Helling, 68, is a civil litigation attorney specializing in truck accident cases who has lived in Cheyenne, Laramie, Rock Springs, Green River and Casper.

A former deputy prosecutor in Sweetwater County, Helling moved back to Wyoming in March after 20 years in Colorado Springs, where he practiced law and helped care for his ailing mother, who has since died.

But Helling, a graduate of the University of Wyoming law school, stresses that his real home is in Wyoming, where several of his children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren now live.

“Prior to moving to Colorado, I lived 24 years in Wyoming, including 16 years in Casper.”

Over the years, Helling said, he has been a registered Democrat and Republican as well as an independent.

“I’ve tried to make it clear that I don’t have strong party loyalties,” Helling said. “In the spirit of full transparency, I actually contemplated doing this as a Republican,

but President Trump had asked the Republican field to coalesce around his selection, Ms. Hageman, so that would have been in direct conflict.”

Instead, Helling chose to run as a last-minute, pro-Trump candidate in the Democratic primary. “There are radical left-wing forces within the Democratic Party that need to be challenged from within the Democratic Party,” Helling said.

Helling said he does not support the former president on every issue. A journalism graduate of the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, he does not agree with Trump’s blanket condemnation of the media as “fake news.” And unlike Trump, he supports same-day registration at the polling place that allows “crossover” voting.

But he thinks Trump did a “fantastic job” in his one term as president. He dismisses the January 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol as “a peaceful protest that got out of hand” and agrees with those who contend the 2020 election may have been stolen through massive voter fraud.

However, Helling said he cannot support Trump’s hand-picked candidate Hageman, whom he describes as a hypocrite for positions she took against Trump before the 2016 election, when the Wyoming delegation supported Ted Cruz.

“If there is one thing I can’t stand, it is hypocrisy,” Helling said.

“She attacked President Trump right before he was elected. She tried to keep him from getting the nomination that he had earned. She called him a racist. She called him a xenophobe.”

Helling looks to his wife Kathy Helling’s experience as a precedent for a maverick, little-known candidate winning the Democratic nomination.

As a 32-year-old college undergraduate running as an antiabortion Democrat, Kathy Helling came from nowhere to win the 1990 Democratic primary and face off against incumbent Republican icon Alan Simpson for the United States Senate. Steve Helling was her campaign treasurer in that race. She lost by a lopsided margin in the general election but was able to use her nomination to promote her views on abortion in a statewide televised debate with Simpson.

Given the sparse turnout for Democratic Party primaries (Grey Bull won the 2020 primary with 14,153 out of a meager 23,576 votes), anything is possible, although Steve Helling admits he is a long shot.

“I think God would have to place me in Washington, D.C.,” Helling said. “I think my chances are slim.

However, I think my chances as a Democrat would be much greater than a Democratic candidate who hewed the leftist line.”

TOWN REPORTER

Tim Woods A journalist since 2005, Tim has covered everything from biker gang shootouts in Waco, Texas, to border issues in Southern Arizona prior to arriving in the valley. Here, he focuses on all things Jackson, including the Town Council. Skiing, kayaking and walking the dog are his free-time pursuits.

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PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022 - 27

HOUSE RACE Continued from 24E

the claims she is making about the 2020 election are the same that got Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani “disbarred” and led to Sydney Powell having her law license “revoked.” Cheney said that Trump’s former attorney general, deputy attorney general, campaign manager, White House counsel and own family have said there was not “sufficient fraud to change the results of the 2020 election.”

“Now if Mrs. Hagerman is standing up here claiming that the election was stolen or that there was fraud that was sufficient to overturn the election, she ought to say it,” Cheney said. “Otherwise she needs to stop making claims that are not true. And she ought to tell the people of Wyoming the truth.”

(See the sidebar “Fact checking claims ...” for more information on both candidates’ claims.)

Bouchard, for his part, went after Cheney’s statement about fraud.

“What I just heard was, ‘There wasn’t enough,’” Bouchard said. “So that is the problem here. That’s the problem — that there is fraud happening, and we know it. That’s where we have to fix it.”

He, like Hageman, said Wyoming is on a “good track” in running its elections, in part because it purges voter rolls. He pointed to other states as the problem.

Belinskey, for her part, said that “we need to get rid” of ballot drop boxes. And she said elections should be run under the “one vote, one ID” principle. Absentee ballots, she said, should be “addressed in the beginning,” especially for folks in the military. She said “there was a definite setup for the whole 2020 election.”

Knapp, for his part, said America is “demanding the truth,” arguing there should be “prosecutions” for people who vote more than once, that “states need to follow their own laws” and audits should be done correctly.

“This non-transparency of what’s going on in the election system needs to be fixed,” Knapp said.

Infrastructure spending In 2021 President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law, which authorized $550 billion in new spending on physical infrastructure. That came after the White House and U.S. Congress approved the $1.9 million American Rescue Plan Act, a stimulus package aimed at COVID-19 recovery.

Money from both bills is set to flow to Wyoming, but the five candidates broadly agreed that the newly approved federal funding comes with costs.

“They can give us money,” Belinskey said, echoing a point Bouchard also made. “But there [are] strings attached to everything that we get from the federal government.”

“It’s a carrot that has a stick,” Bouchard said, arguing that the federal government wasn’t “telling states” how to spend the money, but rather bribing them.

Knapp said that “there are some things that fed-

SUPERINTENDENT Continued from 23E

school parent, and teacher, I know the importance of school choice.

Every child’s educational needs are different, and the more choices there are, the better. I believe in an “all-of-the-above” approach to school choice: I support public schools, private schools, charter schools and home schooling.

Wyoming is a leader in the school choice movement, thanks to the Legislature’s efforts to allow the State Loan and Investment Board to authorize charter schools.

Q: A:

Is current school funding adequate? Explain.

Yes. Wyoming has been blessed with abundant natural resources, and in turn, with ample funds for our public school system. In order to ensure that we lead the nation in education, we must properly prioritize how these funds are spent. As a former classroom teacher, I know that the most impactful place to spend public funds is in the classroom.

Jennifer Zerba, Casper

Q:

What qualities, training, experiences, and skills would you bring to this office?

MAGGIE MULLEN / WYOFILE

The five Republican candidates running for Wyoming’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

From left to right: Harriet Hageman, Robyn Belinskey, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne, and Denton Knapp.

eral money will help.”

But he took issue with language about “illegal immigrants” and “other items snuck in as [lawmakers] pigeonhole different things for special interests.”

Democrats have thrice tried to include language that would provide temporary protections for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally in a broad, $2 trillion “human” infrastructure package that would include spending on education, health care and climate.

But the Senate parliamentarian in December said for the third time that measure couldn’t be included in the larger bill, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, has also recently torpedoed Democratic hopes that the larger infrastructure package could pass as is.

Cheney and Hageman both lambasted the recent infrastructure spending, with Cheney saying it caused inflation and Hageman saying it would harm the state’s fossil fuel industry.

“It’s not just the infrastructure bill,” Cheney said.

“The additional spending that we’ve seen in the Biden administration is clearly irresponsible. It’s clearly led to inflation.”

“It’s going to cost us,” Hageman said. “It is going to go to states and it is going to go to entities and it’s going to go to organizations that are absolutely hell bent on destroying our fossil fuel industry. We need our fossil fuel industry a lot more than we need money from Washington D.C.”

Knapp, who responded first, said coronavirus was “made to kill people, and it made its way over to the United States and did just that.” But he didn’t say anything, specifically, about vaccine mandates.

“In the military, we did our shots,” Knapp said.

“When you raise your hand, you take your oath, you give up some rights unless it’s unethical or immoral or illegal.”

Hageman, who went next, called Dr. Anthony Fauci “one of the most corrupt individuals in Washington, D.C.” She said she was “absolutely opposed” to vaccine mandates.

“They violate the law and they violate the Constitution,” Hageman said.

Belinskey said the coronavirus was a “sham” and that she opposed “any vaccines and any mandated situations that have been forced upon the American people.”

Cheney said the federal government does not have the authority to impose a federal vaccine mandate, but said “everybody ought to get vaccinated.”

“We can protect ourselves from future viruses like this one that really was unleashed by the Chinese Communist Party,” Cheney said.

Bouchard, who answered last, said the “body’s reaction” COVID-19 was the “biggest killer,” and said the government “shut down everything that was out there that could stop people from dying.”

In a lightning round the candidates responded to a one-phrase prompt about “coronavirus vaccine policy.”

Contact Billy Arnold at 732-7063 or barnold@ jhnewsandguide.com.

COVID-19

A:

As a Wyoming native I have been walking the halls of Wyoming school districts since 1976. My daughters graduated from NCHS in Casper. I was an empowered and involved parent. As a Wyoming educator my experience needs to be represented in the Superintendent of Public Instruction role. I have been a cosmetologist for over 30 years. I have my BSBA and MPA. I’m in my third semester for an Ed.D. LDT at UW. I owned my own business and have been in management, leadership and communication for over 17 years. I have been interim executive director for the Milton-Freewater Chamber of Commerce and executive director for Toastmasters International for Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. My experience ensures Wyoming students are ready for Wyoming.

Q:

Do you support or oppose school-based suicide prevention programs for students?

A:

I favor school-based suicide prevention programs for students and will support getting the necessary resources to our schools and classrooms by improving mental health and all things related to suicide prevention. I will encourage our schools to work with parents and with community-level training and activities. Community Preven-

tion Specialists work with local coalitions to strengthen prevention efforts around thoughts, feelings, risks and events that place a person at risk. Prevention focuses not only on the drivers of suicidality but on suicide prevention using protective factors and strengths on the individual and community levels. Together we can support getting our students the help they need. Our students’ lives are important.

Q:

Please discuss your opinions about the various options for providing K-12 education in Wyoming?

A:

My opinion about the various options for providing K-12 education in Wyoming falls under the purview of educators’ feedback and available resources.

What works in one school district or school doesn’t necessarily work in another. Urban schools and rural schools need different options to provide education. Technology access for all students is critical to providing K-12 education. Wyoming is in dire need of educators to implement K-12 education. Providing a mentally, emotionally and physically safe environment must be at the core of providing K-12 education. I will uphold our Wyoming constitution with the various options for education. I will also encourage

parental involvement in their own children.

Q: A:

Is current school funding adequate? Explain.

No. Over the last few years Wyoming’s education budget has been cut by $300 million.

The effects of this are hundreds of job openings for the 2022-23 school year and 65% of educators wanting to quit. There is not enough school funding. Our educators are burnt out, overworked to tears and left to figure it out themselves. Some current state and federal funding that is given to support programs is not being spent on those programs. Accountability for this issue is imperative. I support ensuring program funding goes to the proper area and that educators are involved in decisions about where programs are needed and where they are not. I also support transparency in every district budget and publicizing them on district websites.

Robert J. White III, Rock Springs Did not respond Learn more about the candidates by watching this WyomingPBS debate at: TinyURL.com/yzatwxnw

28 - PRIMARY ELECTION 2022 - JACKSON HOLE NEWS&GUIDE, Wednesday, July 27, 2022

PETER LONG FOR TETON COUNTY COMMISSIONER

A Voice for Our Working Class.

A Vision for Our Future.

As your next County Commissioner, I will fight to: • Reduce Property Taxes and Cap Annual Increases • Work with the Private Sector to Get Workforce Housing in the Ground • Make Childcare and Healthcare More Affordable & Accessible • Make Teton County a Place Where Workers & Small Businesses Can Succeed

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