Expanded openings — and expanded interest — tell a tale of active politics at the local level with heavy filings for positions on the Park County Republican Party Central Committee in this 2022 Wyoming election year.

Seats on the central committee are filled by election of precinct committeemen and committeewomen in the county’s 29 precincts. The precinct committee races will be decided at the primary election on Aug. 16 since they are strictly a party function.

The additional 19 Republican precinct committee seats this year, up from 2020, are based on the number of registered Republicans in each precinct. Democratic registrations in Park County qualify for just one committeeman and committeewoman per precinct, for a total of 58 seats in 29 precincts.

At filing deadline in May, 113 Republicans signed up as candidates for committeeman and committeewoman positions in the 29 Park County precincts.

Thirty-one seats on the GOP central committee are contested. Another 55 seats (committeeman and committeewoman) in various precincts have only a single candidate, and 30 seats have no candidates at all.

On the Democrat side of the ledger, only seven candidates have filed for 58 available seats on their central committee; none of them are contested. 

The scramble for a seat on the county Republican central committee is particularly keen in two Cody area precincts.

In Precinct 2-1 in Cody, eight men and eight women are running, and only four committeemen and four committeewomen will be seated. In Precinct 4-1 in the Cody area, six men and eight women are vying for four seats each as committeeman and committeewoman.

The field of candidates for the Republican Party Central Committee in the county has also attracted sitting legislators Dan Laursen, Rachel Rodriguez-Williams and Sandy Newsome; and legislative candidates David Northrup and Troy Bray. A number of GOP county commissioners and county officeholders also seek a seat on the central committee.

Martin Kimmet of Clark, chairman of the Republican Party leadership in Park County, acknowledges division within the party central committee in the recent past, but he stops short of saying that is driving the flurry of filings. Kimmet is running for one of two precinct committeeman seats in Precinct 1-1.

“I think it is the state of the country as a whole,” he said. “When things are good, there’s complacency. When there’s division within the party, it’s because people have different ideas. That doesn’t mean we don’t like each other and can’t have a decent conversation. If we live in a civil society, we have to do it that way.”

The name of Liz Cheney came up, but Kimmet went out of his way to emphasize that “I don’t hate Liz Cheney.”

“I just don’t like the things she said,” he continued. “You’re always going to find that people just think differently.”

Kimmet says he has tried to be fair in running the party central committee.

“There are people on the committee who are too far right and too far left,” he said, “but I have tried to be fair. I’ve let everyone speak, because that’s my job.”

Kimmet says he is an ardent supporter of the Republican Party platform and believes Republicans should be expected to follow the platform adopted by the state party at least 80% of the time.

“The rules are the platform,” he said. “If you don’t like the platform, you can change it; go to the caucus and propose changes, then go to the convention” and propose the changes be adopted.

“If you’re a member of the Elks, for instance, there are rules you have to follow to be an Elk,” he said. “In my mind, it’s no different as a political party.”

Kimmet made it clear that he doesn’t like crossover voting in Wyoming which allows registered Democrats to change their party registration to vote in the Republican primary. He noted reading that former Democratic Gov. Mike Sullivan says he is going to cross over and vote for Cheney in the Republican primary.

“I think he was a pretty good governor, but I just can’t see that. I would support change in state statute to do away with crossover voting.”

Cody Mayor Matt Hall is a member of the Park County Republican Central Committee, and he has filed for reelection to retain his seat in Precinct 24-1 in Cody.

Hall said he has heard from people reacting to the harshness in tenor of discussion coming out of the central committee. He has encouraged them to become candidates.

“The politics has been pretty divisive at times,” he said. “People I’ve talked to want to get involved so the central committee has a little bit broader voice. I think some people feel their voice isn’t being represented. Their intention is to show they want to get involved and lighten the discussion a little.

“I think people kind of stopped going,” he added. “If we can get seats filled up so people can engage and have some say-so, I think we’ll be all right.”