As “redistricting” proceeds, Wyoming lawmakers have adopted a new draft map that gives outsized influence to rural lawmakers, decreases the number of viable Democratic seats in Albany County, and zig-zags around the homes of some Laramie County legislators in an embarrassing display of gerrymandering.
State tax revenue has recovered from last year’s bust, and Wyoming is receiving substantial federal pandemic funds. But instead of investing in education, infrastructure, and healthcare—things Wyoming residents need right now and that could help develop our economy in the long term—Gov. Gordon wants to pad the state’s savings account and prop up coal.
Lawmakers have drawn voting district lines in Laramie County so that a large bloc of Democrat-leaning neighborhoods are split between five House districts, resulting in an all-GOP Cheyenne delegation. There is also racial gerrymandering splitting the Latino vote.
The special session starting Tuesday in response to new federal COVID-19 directives gives politicians the chance to bluster and beat their chests. But it does little to help normal Wyomingites, even as the state faces multiple crises that have nothing to do with vaccines.
1. Tens of thousands of people in Wyoming don’t have health insurance. They earn too much to get “traditional” Medicaid, but they earn too little …
A key part of redrawing Wyoming’s voting districts is determining where “communities of interest” exist. No one plays a bigger role in that process than your local county clerk.
The medical treatment the former U.S. Senator received after his recent accident starkly contrasts the Wyoming healthcare system most of us are stuck with—counties that can’t afford ambulances, hospitals that can’t treat patients, and people for whom a trip to the ER means massive medical debt.
The Wyoming Liberty Group founder described allegations that she funded an elaborate spy operation as a “nothingburger.” But that burger might come with a side of prison time if it turns out she’s guilty of serious election crimes. Now that one of the project’s masterminds has been located in Wyoming and subpoenaed, more light might come to the case for investigators.
With one hand, Wyoming lawmakers throw support behind the declining coal, oil, and gas industries, providing public investment and political support. With the other hand, they gut sectors where women work like healthcare, education, and retail. No wonder we have the nation’s worst gender wage gap.
Every 10 years the Wyoming Legislature redraws the voting map that determines which lawmakers represent which people. On its face, “redistricting” is dull. But it’s a critically important process that often invites creativity—as well as creativity’s relatives, corruption and abuse.
Political economist Sven Larson worked 10 years for Gore’s Wyoming Liberty Group. In a new statement, he condemns Gore’s plot and states she has “wiped out whatever credibility she had.”
Political spies with ties to the Wyoming Liberty Group, Project Veritas, and Blackwater founder Erik Prince targeted Better Wyoming as part of a yearlong operation to gather intel and make secret recordings to weaponize against the organization.
