We are less than two weeks away from the primary election here in Wyoming and I don’t know about you, but my mailbox is stuffed with some of the most ridiculous out-of-state mailers I have ever seen. Mailers telling the most outlandish lies about candidates and there seems to be no end in sight.

Some days I get five to six mailers at once. Sadly, many voters who don’t know these are lies are going to fall for them. And good people may lose their elections over lies perpetrated by outside groups with motives yet unknown.

Once this election is over a litany of questions will need to be answered in the postmortem. Let me give you just a few of mine: In the fallout from this election, who will be identified as the major players? Who inside Wyoming is going to get the most blame for coordinating and orchestrating this out-of-state circus using Young Americans for Liberty’s campaign wing Make Liberty Win? And what will the price be for those lawmakers who benefited from this?

By price I mean both the political damage it may or may not do to them as well as the price they themselves will have to pay or should I say repay back to Young Americans for Liberty.

While some lawmakers have said statements along the lines of “that’s not me doing that” or “I can’t stop people who support me from doing this” and “I’m grateful for anyone’s support” about the Young American for Liberty’s mudslinging, I have my doubts about the sincerity of most of those statements.

First off, I can guarantee you that “gratitude” will not be the form of payment these out-of-state PACs will accept for what is likely to be an over $1.5M infusion of cash into Wyoming this election cycle for the sole benefit of Freedom Caucus-aligned candidates. All of whom are currently reaping the benefits (and the liabilities of angering so many voters with their over-the-top lies). While Freedom Caucus members in the Wyoming Legislature are pretty used to doing what they are told from their superiors (DC-generated spreadsheets, text messages on the floor from their leaders, marching orders while they sit on the first floor of the Capitol, etc.) they may now have yet another master to answer to, their Young Americans for Liberty overlords who helped them smear their way back into the Legislature.

How do I know this?

Well, there are plenty of other states where the Young Americans operate and they have made it clear that when legislators don’t vote their way, they will turn their nasty tactics on them the next election cycle.  And they’ve done it.

In Ohio, for example, the Dayton Daily News reported that Make Liberty Win spent over $1.8M on elections this year trying to take out lawmakers who didn’t do their bidding. But they also turned on some members who had previously benefited from their tactics.

Take Rep. Adam Mathews, a prior supporter of Make Liberty Win who this year the PAC’s director described as a “turncoat,” and further said there was a “moral obligation” to attack him because he had “gone bad.” 

What offense did Mathews commit? He voted for the state budget, in part because it contained what he described as substantial tax cuts he worked on personally for his constituents. I wonder how much longer Wyoming’s state budget will remain in the hands of Wyoming.

Wyoming Freedom Caucus members better get ready for more of the same should they win their election bids, because toeing the line will now be their full-time jobs. And Young Americans for Liberty will no doubt be delivering an invoice to each one of them, payment expected in full.

I also asked the question, who inside Wyoming is going to get the most blame for coordinating and orchestrating this out-of-state circus?

First, yes, I believe there has been some kind of coordination and orchestration because that’s how Young Americans for Liberty and Make Liberty Win have done it in other states, so it stands to reason they have folks helping them here. 

The PAC’s director made those coordinated efforts in Ohio seem altruistic. “Since we’re not a think tank or an organization that engages in lobbying, we’re humble enough to seek an abundance of counsel,” Barrett Young said. “We chatted with many activists, organizations, and elected officials as a part of our decision-making process.”

Sounds quaint but I’m not buying it.

Here in Wyoming, given the Freedom Caucus candidates are the sole beneficiaries of their dirty deeds, we can make an educated guess of who Make Liberty Win may have “chatted” with. The voters deserve to know who supported the use of outright lies in our campaigns because this is not how we operate in Wyoming.

I served for six years in the Wyoming House of Representatives and after each election I would return to the chamber knowing my party, even those who weren’t excited about me being there, had not worked to get me unelected.

I also returned to the chamber as my own person. I owed nothing to anyone. I was a conservative free to vote as my constituents understood I would vote. I had no entanglements. That can’t be said anymore for many Wyoming lawmakers.

George Orwell said that freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. By that definition, those elected by Young Americans for Liberty here in Wyoming will most definitely not be free. And that means that many Wyoming districts will lose any real representation they have to the dictates of outside groups. This is not the model for conservatism. It’s not the model for Republicanism.

We believe in government closest to the people. We believe in small, efficient government and more importantly local control. We do not believe in outside groups spending millions of dollars to elect people who will do their bidding instead of doing what’s right for their local communities.

Wyoming Freedom Caucus members talk about how they are conservatives, but they are not. Wyoming was built by men and women who cherished our rugged individualism, our toughness and our free spirit.  That’s the real Wyoming.

The election is almost here. I hope Wyoming voters see through these dirty tricks, and tell the Freedom Caucus and their outside proxies, Wyoming isn’t for sale. And then we can cry out in victory, “Powder River let’er buck!”

Amy Edmonds is a former state legislator from Cheyenne. She can be reached at amyinwyoming@icloud.com.

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