ROCK SPRINGS — Commentary on what is being called the “Checkgate” controversy continues three weeks after the incident.
The House voted last Wednesday to continue its investigation into the incident as the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office conducts its criminal investigation. According to reporting by Wyofile, House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, spoke about receiving a check in the Speaker’s office and denied any wrongdoing because there wasn’t a rule preventing a House member from receiving campaign contributions in the Capitol during a legislative session. The House, Senate, and Gov. Mark Gordon have since implemented rules barring that action.
One Sweetwater County legislator called the situation disappointing, though he doesn’t believe the lawmakers involved believed they were doing anything wrong in accepting the checks. Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, said he doesn’t believe Rep. Darin McCann, R-Rock Springs, or Rep. Marlene Brady, R-Green River, were acting with malice or willfully being corrupt when they received the checks. Kolb says running a campaign for a seat in the legislature can be costly and receiving a campaign contribution is validating because it both helps a campaign and it shows the lawmaker someone supports what they’re doing.
However, he admits the view of the situation looks bad and said the legislators should have had more self awareness in accepting the campaign contribution on the House floor. Kolb said legislators do receive training geared towards issues like sexual harassment, but training focused on lawmaker ethics isn’t included. Kolb believes ethics training will likely be added after the controversy ends. Kolb said if a person handed similar checks on the Senate floor, he would seriously consider voting to remove the senators who openly received those checks from the Senate hearings. Kolb said one member of the Senate, Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper, received one of the checks, saying it wasn’t done on the Senate Floor. Kolb said Ide has been very forthcoming about how he received the check once the controversy began to swell.
Matthew Shaffer, chairman of the Sweetwater County Democratic Party, issued a statement on the Sweetwater County legislators’ actions in accepting the checks and questioned their judgement.
“Representative Darin McCann says he doesn’t attend interim committee meetings because he didn’t know they were part of the job. Representative Marlene Brady believes chemtrails deserve the Legislature’s attention. Those things alone raise serious questions about judgment. Accepting campaign checks on the floor of the Wyoming House only confirmed them,” he said. “But it’s their response that’s worse. Instead of accountability, we’ve seen excuses and apparent lies. That’s not just poor judgment, it’s a lack of integrity. Sweetwater County deserves better. We deserve representatives who understand the job, respect the institution, and exercise basic common sense. McCann and Brady have shown they’re not up to it. It’s time for serious, responsible people to step up and replace them.”
SweetwaterNOW previously attempted to contact Brady and McCann about the incident. McCann didn’t respond to SweetwaterNOW’s initial request for comment. Brady told SweetwaterNOW she had no comment.
