Dark money pours into Senate race

BUFFALO — A dark money political action group is throwing resources into GOP primaries across Wyoming, Idaho, Ohio, New Hampshire, Indiana and others, including the Senate District 22 Republican Primary between Reps. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, and Mark Jennings, R-Sheridan.

Make Liberty Win, a super PAC based in Alexandria, Virginia with no known ties to Wyoming, has sent dozens of mailers attacking Republicans, including Crago, and backing Freedom Caucus members or those closely aligned with the hard-right of the party.

The PAC is funded by Young Americans for Liberty, a libertarian student activism organization headquartered in Austin, Texas. Its platform includes universal school vouchers and legalizing marijuana, psychedelics and opioids. In February, the University of Wyoming chapter of YAL hosted a drug legalization fair on campus.

By law, super PACs cannot coordinate or donate to political candidates or candidates' committees. They can, however, raise and spend unlimited funds to promote candidates or target opponents.

YAL boasts 16 Wyoming legislators, mostly current and former members of the Wyoming House Freedom Caucus, as belonging to its Hazlitt Coalition, including Freedom Caucus chair Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, and Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray. Gray is the only secretary of state in the United States listed as a member of the coalition.

Mailers

The mailers sent to Senate District 22 voters are nearly identical to those Make Liberty Win has mailed in Laramie, Cheyenne, Rock Springs, Riverton and others and address a variety of topics from education to property taxes and gun rights.

The PAC did not return phone or email requests for comment. To date, none of the mailers sent in Senate District 22 have advocated legalizing drugs.

Crago said the mailers raise real questions about why an out-of-state group is targeting certain candidates and boosting others.

"The group that's doing that wants to legalize marijuana,” Crago said. “My question is, how are you picking the candidates you're going after? No one's going to buy my vote."

Jennings did not respond to either a phone call or text message sent Friday morning requesting comment. In July, Jennings posted a photo of one of the mailers to his campaign's Facebook page with the following statement: “I had nothing to do with sending this postcard out. My mailings simply give you information to make an informed choice on voting records.”

One mailer sent in Laramie and surrounding communities stated the wrong dates for early voting in Wyoming.

That mailing also used a photograph of Keith Kennedy of Virginia to portray candidate Keith Kennedy of Wyoming. That prompted Kennedy of Virginia to file a cease and desist lawsuit against the PAC.

Several mailers sent in the state incorrectly identify challengers as incumbents.

Crago said that in addition to being inaccurate, the mailers have negatively impacted political discourse, forcing candidates to spend time debunking lies instead of engaging in meaningful conversations with constituents.

“Instead of having normal conversations with our friends and neighbors, we're out there trying to tell the truth. Tell the story of here's what's really going on, here's what's really happening,” Crago said. “These mailers are not based in fact at all. You spend all of your time refuting lies that these people know are lies. And so instead of just having conversations about real things, about real policies, about problems affecting Wyoming, we're talking about some made up lie that someone from Virginia or Texas made up.”

Unprecedented spending

Make Liberty Win was funded to the tune of $7.9 million this year by YAL, according to federal election filings. Because YAL is a 501©4, it is not required to disclose its donors.

The PAC is expected to spend over $1 million in contests for house and senate seats in Wyoming, which is unprecedented in the state.

For context, as recently as 2018, total PAC spending in the state amounted to $423,000, according to Federal Elections Commission records – most of that was spent on the U.S. House of Representatives race.

"It might be the most that's ever been spent in Wyoming,” Crago said. “I would venture to say that that will be the most that's been spent in Wyoming, and especially by some group that's not even from Wyoming, and has literally no ties to Wyoming.”

Historically, running for legislative office in Wyoming has not required a huge war chest.

According to a recent report from the Equality State Policy Center, the average candidate spending for a state house seat was $5,047 in 2010 and $7,347 for a state senate seat. Those figures more than doubled by 2022 to $12,791 for Wyoming House of Representative races and $17,745 for Wyoming Senate races.

Crago said that heavy spending by PACs has the potential to make it impossible for anyone without the backing of wealthy special interests to enter legislative races.

"If you don't have the ability to raise the money, you can't compete with this," he said. "We're going to have who knows how much spent in this senate district raised by a group that has nothing to do with Wyoming. They're going to spend $25,000 to $30,000 (in this race) it appears. I can't go write a check for that, and neither can anybody else that I know that is trying to run for office.”

Another PAC – Americans for Prosperity – has also been involved in the Senate District 22 race, sending a mailer in July that was critical of Jennings' record on natural resources and school choice. AFP is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group affiliated with brothers Charles Koch and the late David Koch. A former state representative, Tyler Lindholm, is the PAC's state director.

AFP has endorsed 16 Republicans for the Wyoming House and Senate; many are members of the Wyoming Caucus, a group of Republican legislators who organized in opposition to the Freedom Caucus.

Who are these outside groups?

The sources behind most of the money raised by politicians and political groups are publicly disclosed. Candidates, parties and political action committees – including the super PACs that are allowed to accept and spend unlimited amounts of money ? must report their donors' names to the FEC.

However, certain politically active nonprofits – including 501©(4) and 501©(6) – are generally not required to publicly disclose their donors, and that lack of disclosure is why money from these organizations is called “dark money.”

These groups may not contribute directly to a candidate, but they may contribute unlimited amounts to a Super PAC supporting a candidate.

That is the relationship between YAL and Make Liberty Win. YAL, as a 501©(4), can raise money without disclosing its donors; it passes those funds onto Make Liberty Win which has used the funds to back candidates and attack opponents.

In addition to legalizing marijuana, YAL has been active in efforts to pass teacher concealed carry bills and universal school voucher bills. The organization handpicks state legislators, so-called Hazlitt Coalition members, to sponsor and advance legislation at the state level.

During the 2023 interim legislative session, the Joint Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions Committee spent considerable time discussing campaign finance and past electoral issues. The committee sponsored House Joint Resolution 02, which would have urged Congress to put forth a constitutional amendment identifying sources of political contributions or expenditures.

Despite being a committee-sponsored bill, Joint Resolution 02 failed to garner the two thirds vote needed for introduction.

Crago voted in favor of introducing the resolution; Jennings voted against introduction.

Others who voted against introducing the bill include the following: Bear, Rep. Bill Allemand, R-Midwest; Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Laramie; Rep. Ben Hornok, R-Cheyenne; Rep. Tony Locke, R-Casper; Rep. Chip Neiman, R-Hulett; Rep. Sarah Penn, R-Lander; Rep. Daniel Singh, R-Cheyenne; Rep. Scott Smith, R-Lingle; and Rep. Jeannette Ward, R-Casper: all of whom are members of the YAL's The Hazlitt Coalition.

“I think we should know whose money we're taking, because it's just a shell game," Crago said.