Bextel's backers, detractors square off as Teton County GOP votes down 'Checkgate' censures
Republicans trade barbs, debating rebukes for activists, people who criticized her.
JACKSON — On Saturday, Teton County GOP leaders voted against censuring Rebecca Bextel for her role in a check-passing controversy that roiled the Wyoming Legislature this budget session.
They also voted against censuring two Republicans who criticized Bextel in interviews with the News&Guide: Kasey Mateosky and Tote Turner.
Mary Martin, the party’s former chair, brought the motion to censure Bextel and wanted to broaden the scope of the resolution to make it about decorum for all Republicans.
“It’s a behavior issue,” Martin said. “Let’s behave ourselves.”
The motion failed 19 to 29 after heated debate. Only the party’s elected precinct committee people could vote. Republicans used a secret ballot. Members could vote by proxy for absent precinct committee people.
Bextel handed campaign donation checks to lawmakers on the floor of the Wyoming House of Representatives after the first day of the session, spurring political scrutiny, an executive order, policy changes, a criminal bribery investigation — which has not yet concluded — and a House investigation, which wrapped up March 6. The House committee found no evidence of wrongdoing, but concluded that Bextel’s activity on the floor was “undesirable and must never happen again.”
In political circles, the controversy has become known as “CheckGate.”
On Saturday, Bextel defended her right to free speech, including via campaign donation checks. She pledged to continue fighting Teton County’s housing mitigation fees — a tool local governments use to charge homeowners and developers to fund affordable housing — took shots at Democratic lawmakers and vowed to continue raising money for Republicans. She also pledged to sue the Jackson Hole News&Guide, WyoFile and the Cowboy State Daily.
“I’m not going to apologize for handing someone a $1,500 check,” Bextel said. “I don’t care what some of the people in this room think.”
Bextel brought her family and friends to the meeting and roved around the Teton County Library’s Ordway Auditorium giving hugs and greeting her fellow party members. She declined to comment after the meeting, and declined to answer a follow-up question Monday regarding when she planned to sue the news organizations.
The meeting became heated when Martin suggested that Bextel had not been forthcoming about her actions.
Martin said Bextel “denied handing out the checks” and referenced the Ten Commandments. But Martin qualified her statement by saying that she didn’t know whether Bextel lied.
“I never denied it,” Bextel said. “That’s fake news.”
Shortly after she passed out the checks, Bextel told a reporter that it was “nobody’s business” when asked about them. Bextel later said on Facebook that she handed out the checks. She did the same in a podcast episode produced by The Open Range Record, an online media outlet she co-owns with David Iverson, who interviewed her.
As Martin spoke, Bextel filmed her with her phone and said Martin’s comments would add fodder to her future lawsuits. A man also filmed the meeting and exchanged a hug with Bextel at one point. When approached by a reporter, the cameraman said one of his clients asked him to film. He wouldn’t say which client or why they asked him to film.
More debate
Teton Republicans tangled over the House investigation committee’s findings — and whether Bextel’s actions deserved admiration or admonishment.
Matt Hall, a Republican who wore a “Make Jackson Hole Great Again” hat, praised Bextel and called Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, “our common political enemy.”
“We should hope that her behavior is repeated across our great nation,” Hall said.
Tote Turner, himself a target of a possible censure, disagreed.
“Based on the grandstanding that occurred on the House floor Feb. 9, it’s time for Teton County GOP to take action and set precedent for this type of behavior,” he said.
John Fox said Bextel has been a stalwart party member who has energetically gone after “waste, fraud and abuse” in Teton County. Fox, the party’s former vice chair, resigned in protest after Teton County GOP Chair Katherine “Kat” Rueckert penned a statement critical of Bextel. The House committee exonerated Bextel, Fox said.
“There’s nothing that Rebecca Bextel did wrong, period,” Fox said.
Republican Alex Muromcew countered, saying the House investigation was not a trial but a fact-finding inquiry.
“The eyes of Wyoming are on Teton County right now,” Muromcew said. “If we say ‘Nothing wrong, let’s move on,’ we lose a lot of credibility and respect.”
Critics not censured
Hall brought the motion to censure Turner and Kasey Mateosky for comments they provided to the News&Guide.
Both motions failed on voice votes, with only a few Republicans, including Hall, casting “aye” votes. Mateosky voted for his own censure after telling the News&Guide that he would consider the rebuke an honor. “If that group of people censures me,” Mateosky said, “it may be my biggest political achievement in Teton County to date.”
Mateosky has run for office — and lost — multiple times.
But Turner and Mateosky were not the only Republicans who spoke with the News&Guide about the check-passing controversy — and Bextel’s role in it — at a February meeting. In justifying his motion, Hall said only the GOP chair should serve as party spokesperson. A total of seven Republicans, however, agreed to speak with the News&Guide about Bextel, including Muromcew.
Some supported her, while others were critical, including Muromcew, though Mateosky and Turner’s comments were perhaps the most critical.
During the meeting, Hall did not clarify why the others who spoke with a reporter should not be censured. He declined to comment after the meeting.
Rueckert, Mateosky, Muromcew, Martin, Turner, Rev. David Bott and Vicky O’Donoghue spoke with the News&Guide in February. Rueckert is the party chair and Martin, the former chair, is a member of the party’s executive committee, a group of the highest ranking local Republicans.
“The media is a tool,” Hall said. “It’s like a knife, you can cut your food or you can cut your finger.”
Bextel chimed in. She said Mateosky may not “qualify as a Republican.” Mateosky has run for office as a Democrat, and also as a Republican. Rueckert intervened and said Bextel’s comments were out of order and a personal attack.
Mateosky said he’d hang his censure on his wall, calling the effort a “pathetic waste of time.”
“I’d love to be censured by these type of people,” Mateosky said. “Everybody is afraid to speak out against them. They roll over. They’re afraid of a lawsuit.”
Turner defended his right to speech.
“As an individual citizen, I believe I can go to the paper just like anybody in this room can,” Turner said.
Release the names?
Early in the meeting, Fox, the former vice chair, asked Rueckert to release the names of those who signed the petition calling for the meeting. The motion failed on a voice vote.
Muromcew collected signatures. Under party rules, if 16 elected committee people signed the petition, Rueckert had to call the meeting. Eighteen committee people did so.
But Republicans debated whether the petition simply called for the meeting where the censures were discussed — or called for censure outright. Those who signed were calling for a meeting, not necessarily advocating for censures, Muromcew said.
“We’re simply acknowledging that we have unfinished business that we need to resolve as soon as possible so the party can move on,” Muromcew said.
Fox, the former vice chair, said party members deserved to know who signed onto Muromcew’s petition before electing three new leaders.
Fox pointed to Muromcew’s 2021 vote against censuring Liz Cheney. Muromcew cast that vote while the Wyoming GOP voted to rebuke Cheney in 2021, criticizing the former Wyoming representative for voting to impeach President Donald Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Martin was against releasing the names.
“What is the purpose of asking for the names?” Martin said. “Are we going to punish them or shoot them, or what’s the intention?”
This story was published on March 11, 2026.