Rebecca Bextel

After a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, Teton County Republican Alex Muromcew stood and asked for the Teton County GOP’s attention.

“I think it’s important for us to address the controversy in Cheyenne regarding our state committeewoman,” Muromcew, a Melody Ranch Republican, said at a Saturday precinct caucus meeting.

Muromcew was asking for the Republicans to tackle the elephant in the room at the Ordway Auditorium at the Teton County Library. In early February on the first day of the legislative session, East Jacksonite Rebecca Bextel, a prolific fundraiser for Republican candidates and the party’s state committeewoman, passed campaign checks from donor Don Grasso to lawmakers on the House floor, sparking a statewide controversy. 

The fallout has spurred one member of the Teton County GOP’s executive committee to resign, an executive order from Gov. Mark Gordon banning campaign contributions in state buildings, similar rules in the House and Senate, and a criminal investigation from the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office. 

A House investigation is set to start Thursday.

Muromcew wanted to bring a motion to censure Bextel — an “official scolding” as he put it. But his proposal fizzled because of procedural rules.

Members can’t pass a censure at a precinct caucus meeting, Chair Katherine “Kat” Rueckert said. 

The point of Saturday’s meeting was to allow rank and file members to discuss and propose changes to the party’s bylaws or formal platform. None of those changes are immediately adopted. Party members could, however, consider censuring Bextel at the Teton County GOP’s convention, which is scheduled for March 21 or at a Teton County GOP leadership meeting that could happen before then.

If a quarter of the party’s elected precinct committee people sign on to a request for that meeting, technically of the party’s “central committee,” Rueckert must schedule it. Bylaws don’t specify when the meeting must happen.

Muromcew got the necessary signatures and submitted them to Rueckert, he said. By Tuesday evening, Rueckert had not verified the signatures.

Last week, Rueckert penned a statement saying Bextel’s actions are not reflective of the “intent or posture” of the party. John Fox, the party’s vice chair, resigned in response to that letter.

“I hoped that we could put this to bed,” Rueckert said Saturday. “I am still hopeful of that. We’ll see what transpires.”

Bextel did not attend Saturday’s meeting. She did not respond to a request for comment.

After Muromcew’s request to have the full party discuss Bextel’s role in the check passing controversy sputtered, party members went about their work. In precincts, members snacked on donuts and sipped McDonald’s coffee and discussed the check controversy along with a host of other political issues: Flock surveillance cameras, the Town of Jackson and Teton County finances, the Second Amendment and unsafe speedy bicyclists.

The meeting was productive, Rueckert said.

“It’s not a super sexy meeting by any stretch of the imagination but it is important,” Rueckert said.

The News&Guide asked about 15 Republicans about Bextel’s role in the check-passing controversy. Eight declined to comment. Seven agreed to interviews.

‘Stupid’ or overblown?

Steve Duerr, another Teton County Republican, spent some of Saturday’s meeting handwriting a resolution that would both censure Bextel and ask her to resign from her post as state committeewoman.

The state committee woman is a member of the central committee and attends Wyoming GOP meetings as a voting member.

“If she fails to resign, we demand that the leadership of the Teton County Republican Party take appropriate action to remove her from the position of Teton GOP state committeewoman, ASAP,” Duerr’s resolution read.

Duerr declined an interview, referring the News&Guide to the resolution itself, but went table to table Saturday, asking Republicans sorted by voting precincts to discuss his proposal.

Kasey Mateosky, who has run for a seat on the Teton County Board of County Commissioners as both a Democrat and a Republican, did not mince words when asked about Bextel’s actions.

“I’ve never seen anybody be that stupid,” Mateosky said. “Stupid is as stupid does.”

Redeemer Lutheran Church Rev. David Bott said he found the incident “most unfortunate” and said he would consider a censure but would want to hear from Bextel first. Bad optics and poor timing are not against the law, Bott said.

Bott did not like that the Laramie County Sheriff Office announced its investigation on Facebook.

Tote Turner, another Melody Ranch Republican, said Bextel’s role in the check passing controversy could stain the party’s reputation. He called her actions “arrogant grandstanding.”

“It’s an embarrassment on behalf of the Teton County Republican Party,” Turner said. “She hurts Republicans everywhere.”

“She needs to be not only censured, but removed,” Turner said.

Back to housing

Shortly after the Jackson Hole News&Guide and WyoFile confirmed that Bextel had handed a lawmaker a check on the House floor, she said on a podcast that the controversy was about two things: Her success funding the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, and her push to end Teton County’s housing mitigation fee program. Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, the former leader of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, has sponsored a bill to do exactly that, which is working its way through the Wyoming Legislature.

Driving instructor Vicky O’Donoghue, a 2024 Independent candidate for County Commission, has closely watched Bextel’s work related to housing. She attended a meeting Bextel held at the library in October, where the conservative activist probed the Flat Creek Apartments affordable housing project and criticized town and county housing policy. Bextel has focused on eliminating a property tax exemption the Flat Creek Apartments developers received.

Bextel’s message resonated with O’Donoghue.

“It’s the Democrats presenting this against Rebecca,” O’Donoghue said. “They’re pushing against Rebecca because she’s finding evidence.”

Mary Martin, a former chair of the party, has a long history of working on housing projects and she worked with Bextel as a part of the “Save the Rodeo Grounds” movement. But Bextel has not presented the party’s position on housing, Martin said.

On Facebook and in public meetings she hosted, Bextel has repeatedly taken jabs at April Norton, the town and county’s housing director. But Martin said officials working on housing projects are acting with good intentions.

“They are hard-working, honest people trying to do what their job says to do,” Martin said outside the library.

Housing is complicated and the issue can not be distilled in a single slide show, Martin said.

The media

Rueckert and Martin, the current and past party chair, differ on how they think the media has covered the check passing saga.

While Rueckert has not been reading all the articles in full, she has noticed the headlines.

“They’re fueling division,” Rueckert said. “I don’t know if it’s productive.”

Members of Martin’s precinct caucus raised similar concerns Saturday about whether the media intentionally reports negatively on Republican issues. She does not think so.

“I just appreciate that our media is trying to help us work through the issues that Jackson has,” Martin said.