Skip to main content

Converse County Republicans to vote on censuring Chadwick

By
Matt Adelman with the Douglas Budget, via the Wyoming News Exchange

DOUGLAS — The Converse County Republican Party is considering a resolution to censure one of its two state representatives, but the central committee appears divided on the issue. The central committee – comprised of county party officers and committee men and women (four or eight from each of the county’s 19 precincts) – was given the resolution to censure Rep. Forrest Chadwick (R-Evansville/ Glenrock/Rolling Hills) over his voting record. 

After a discussion last week at the most recent county party meeting, the resolution was tabled for a month. County GOP Party Chairman Bill Tibbs said it will return to the Oct. 17 meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. in the Douglas branch library. 

Tibbs said the resolution came from the county resolution’s committee, comprised of committeemen Jim Creaser, Jim Shillenn and George Etchemendy. 

It wasn’t clear if the resolutions committee or someone else initiated it, but Tibbs said he wanted it to be available to the full committee before the meeting, so once he received it from the resolutions committee, he sent it out via email. 

That email surprised some members of the central committee who were not pleased that the county party would censure one of its own – even though the censure, if it passes, is nothing more than the party expressing its displeasure with a member’s actions. It carries no weight of law or other repercussions, except possibly as fodder for a political campaign to oust Chadwick. 

“The county party doesn’t have any power, really,” to do more than share its opinions, Tibbs explained about the resolution. “There’s no weight to it. It’s just a public statement, that if it does pass, that the majority of the party doesn’t approve of how you voted.” 

Tibbs and several other committeemen and committeewomen (some of whom asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal) said the motion to table the resolution Sept. 19 passed on a voice vote mostly over the issue of allowing Chadwick to address the committee. 

Chadwick, who lives in Evansville and represents House District 62, was not at the meeting. 

He learned of the censure resolution from Tibbs and others a couple of days leading up to the meeting, but he was scheduled to be in Cheyenne for a legislative interim meeting, he said. Chadwick said he plans to attend the October meeting. 

“I see this as an opportunity to have this conversation” about his voting record and stance on issues, which he indicated seem to be misrepresented in some cases. 

“We are inviting him to come and be there” at the October meeting, Tibbs said. “Personally, I don’t like his voting record, but I don’t like the censure” resolution, either. 

If Chadwick attends the October meeting as he intends to do, the biggest question will be defending his voting record. 

Tibbs said holding elected officials to the county and state platforms is important. 

Chadwick on Monday said the main voting issue seems to be over House Bill 152, called Life is a Right. The anti-abortion bill, he pointed out, was said to be unconstitutional by the state’s attorneys and others, so he voted for the amendments trying to make it constitutional. 

“First and foremost, I voted to uphold the Constitution. They would disagree with that (is what I did). Of course, I would disagree with them,” Chadwick said, noting the near 100% Republican support for an anti-abortion bill in the Legislature. “The problem is making it constitutional.” 

He said he was elected to represent his district, not a “bunch of special interest groups. Nor am I going to be beholden to a bunch of special interest groups.” 

Along those same lines, Chadwick thinks his votes on some spending bills also earned him some unfair criticism. 

With the legislature putting $1.4 billion into savings, his votes on spending were to refill “the pots” of agencies which had been cut heavily during the economic downturn.

“So spending was not out of control . . . not in any stretch of the imagination were we on a spending spree. There were just some things that needed to be caught up,” he said. 

He explained the rules for resolutions changed after the full committee was surprised earlier by another resolution and had to vote on it after only considering it briefly. Now, any proposed resolutions have to go to the new resolutions committee first and be distributed to the central committee days prior to the meeting. 

 
“For the most part, we won’t keep something from being discussed,” he said . . . “That way it brings out some good discussion. And it did the other night (about Chadwick and censure resolutions.)” 

Committeewoman Becky Constantino (R-Orin) was one who spoke out against the resolution and voted to table it. She was joined in that effort by Rhonda Dilts, Bob Russell, Robert Short, Bruce Jones and Robert Clausen, among numerous others. 

While their argument in September was about Chadwick not being there to defend himself and his votes, Costantino said her concern is the resolution is based partly on WyoRINO.com and some other similar ratings websites. 

WyoRINO has been criticized for anonymously attacking legislators and other politicians its creators don’t like. Efforts by some to unearth who is behind that organization have been futile so far. 

“In this resolution, the scoring of Rep. Chadwick’s voting record was made primarily by sources whose members cannot be identified or verified, nor are the financial supporters of the groups revealed,” Costantino said. “The groups pick and choose which bills to score, don’t explain their processes and often score based on the information (or only the title of) the bill when first introduced, with no regard for what changes may have been made by the time the final vote is taken. 

“(It is) unfair to make a charge or official criticism without offering the person being accused the opportunity to defend themselves.” 

Jones said only that Chadwick should be allowed to speak to the committee, but he declined to offer additional insights as to the origin of the resolution. 

Others, who asked not to be identified, referred to WyoRINO’s scoring of Chadwick’s voting record, which included how often he voted with Democrats on bills. They said often in Wyoming the majority votes together so it is not uncommon for Democrats to vote in sync with Republicans on those bills, and even the most ardent fair-right Republicans would score high on that. 

One committeeman said it appears some of the bills considered by WyoRINO were in fact unconstitutional or “made no sense,” but he didn’t identify which bills. 

The proposed resolution, in part, states the following: “Whereas Representative Chadwick has failed to vote in a manner that has any semblance to the oath that he made to God to ‘support, obey and defend the Constitution’ or any semblance to the Wyoming Republican Party Platform; 

“Whereas WyoRINO which is based on the Wyoming Republican Party Platform scores Representative Chadwick 10%; 

“. . . Therefore, let it be resolved that the Converse County Republican Central Committee does CENSURE Representative Forrest Chadwick for his blatant disregard to the oath that he made to God . . . and his failure to honor the Wyoming Republican Party Platform.” 

Chadwick takes exception to the resolution’s underlying concept. 

“The attitude that you don't have a right to think differently than I do is totally . . . foreign (within the Republican Party) and confounds me,” he said.

This story was published on September 27, 2023. 

--- Online Subscribers: Please click here to log in to read this story and access all content.

Not an Online Subscriber? Click here to subscribe.



Sign up for News Alerts

Subscribe to news updates