Dusty Spomer

At the request of Powell’s two senators, the Wyoming Senate on Wednesday rejected Gov. Mark Gordon’s attempt to reappoint Powell engineer Dusty Spomer to a state board that helps review large industrial projects. However, the body reversed course on Thursday and confirmed Spomer's nomination.

During Wednesday morning’s floor session, Republican Sens. Tim French and Dan Laursen asked their colleagues to oppose Spomer’s reappointment to the Industrial Siting Council.

“Sen. French and I have concerns with this individual,” Laursen said. “We know other individuals in our area that can do a great job in this position who are more closely tied to our energy sector, which will benefit our state.”

French added to his Senate colleagues, “We know our community and I ask that you respect our decision.”

The body overwhelmingly agreed to do so, blocking Spomer’s confirmation on a 24-7 vote. He was the only one of Gordon’s 114 appointments to draw formal opposition from the Senate.

However, at the start of Thursday's session, Sen. Jim Anderson (R-Casper) made a motion to reconsider Spomer's appointment. The motion passed on a 17-13 vote and the Senate then voted by an identical margin to confirm Spomer to another six-year term on the Industrial Siting Council. Sens. French and Laursen were among those who voted no. 

The motions to reconsider and then confirm Spomer's appointment were not debatable, so there was no discussion among the senators about how they viewed his nomination or why they reversed course.

In an interview following Wednesday’s vote, Laursen declined to elaborate on why he opposed Spomer’s reappointment. However, he indicated they were not related to Spomer’s service on the Industrial Siting Council, which reviews the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of industrial facilities like major solar and wind farms and a proposed gold mine.

“I don’t know that much on what he’s done on siting,” Laursen said.

The Tribune was unable to reach French on Wednesday afternoon.

For his part, Spomer said Wednesday that, “Obviously, this was political.”

“My guess is there are no actual concerns,” he said. Spomer noted he’s been openly critical of Laursen and French in the past.

“It’s public service that I was offering on the council, and it’s too bad that the politics of the situation is really going to take a senior member off of the council — and I think I’ve done some pretty good work there,” said Spomer, who’s served on the board for the past six years and currently serves as its chairman. “But, you know, I guess it’s just proof that we do live in a political world and it doesn’t have to make sense.”

Spomer is no stranger to politics. Last year, he was reelected to a third term on the Northwest College Board of Trustees and he won a seat on the Park County Republican Party’s Central Committee, which remains divided between more conservative and more moderate factions of the party.

“It’s no mystery that I think that they are, I guess, what I consider the far extreme of conservatism,” Spomer said of Laursen and French. “I’d like to believe that I’m a strong conservative and that I uphold the party platform, but I’m sure they would tell you that I don’t go far enough.”

Spomer said he was caught off-guard by his rejection on Wednesday and “I would have thought that I would have at least been given some notice of this.”

Sen. Laursen expressed similar frustration, saying he wished the governor had given the Senate a chance to review the appointments before they were publicly announced last week.

“These things should have been dealt with inside, before the governor does that,” Laursen said, saying the Senate’s been given advance notice in the past.

“It would be kind of a good idea to not put it out and then have somebody taken off,” he said.

The governor’s 113 other nominees for the state’s many volunteer boards sailed through the confirmation process and received Laursen’s and French’s aye votes. Those successful appointees included former state senator and incoming State Board of Education member R.J. Kost of Powell, who Laursen defeated in last year’s Republican primary election.

(This story has been updated to reflect the Senate's reversal of its decision on Thursday morning.)