Park County Republicans lobby Senate president; Laursen to receive committee seat after session

POWELL —Though he’ll need to wait several more weeks, freshman Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, will be seated on a state Senate committee. 
“My intent — and it can go in print — is that we get a committee restored to [Laursen] right after session,” Senate President Ogden Driskill, RDevils Tower, said Wednesday afternoon. “Assuming everything goes good — and I expect it to, we’re doing well — we’ll put him on [the Select Water Committee] and some of his other committees that he wants to do.” 
When Driskill assigned senators to committees last month, he intentionally left Laursen off the list, citing critical comments about other lawmakers and Senate leaders that he saw as breaching the chamber’s decorum. 
Driskill said the Senate has had “some real issues with decorum” in the recent past and he’s taken “a very hard stance.” 
“I know it seems unfair, but sometimes you get the example made of you,” Driskill said. 
He believes the situation with Laursen helped everyone in the Senate understand the expectations — and both he and Laursen said their communications have improved in recent weeks; Laursen joined the Senate president for the Wednesday call to the Tribune. 
Driskill said the General Session has gotten off to a good start and that Laursen — who previously served four terms in the House — has “been a gentleman to deal with.” 
“We’re really looking, I think both of us together, for a good session,” Driskill said. 
“I agree,” said Laursen, adding, “I think it will work good.” 
Driskill had received feedback from multiple individuals unhappy with his decision to leave Laursen off any meaningful committees; all of the other 92 members of the Legislature received at least one assignment. 
At their Jan. 5 meeting, members of the Park County Republican Party’s Central Committee voted to send Driskill a letter and ask that he reverse course. 
Park County Precinct Committeeman Larry French of Powell proposed the letter, saying Laursen had been treated terribly by the Senate leader. 
“I think it’s a childish move on his [Driskill’s] part — and there’s about 30,000 people that Dan [Laursen] represents that are disenfranchised,” French said, drawing some applause from the dozens of Republicans gathered at the Cody Cowboy Church on Jan. 5. 
The motion passed on a voice vote, with the ayes overwhelming the nos. 
French also proposed that, if Driskill didn’t reconsider his decision, members of the Park County GOP “should go and protest at the Capitol.” 
However, that portion of French’s motion was tabled to see how Driskill responded. 
“We just want to show Sen. Driskill our disapproval of what he did,” Party Chairman Martin Kimmet said of the letter, “because we’re all voters, too, and we should be represented on a committee.” 
Precinct Committeeman and former House Speaker Colin Simpson concurred that Laursen “ought to be on a committee,” though he recommended the party make a positive request for a committee assignment instead of chastising Driskill. 
“He’s gonna react negatively if you just attack him and want to censure him,” Simpson said. 
Park County GOP Vice Chairman Bob Ferguson agreed, but said the party also needed to “admonish the actions,” which he described as coming from Washington, D.C. 
“This is, as far as I’m aware, kind of an unprecedented move in the Wyoming Legislature,” Ferguson said. “I mean, this was done by the Democrats in Washington, when they took [U.S. Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene off committees. And, you know, all of a sudden, this seems to be an acceptable practice.” 
For his part, Chairman Kimmet said that “we want to be as positive as we can.” 
Simpson and French collaborated on the letter, which was reviewed by the party’s leaders and sent to Driskill before Tuesday’s start of the General Session. 
The central committee typically reviews the text of such letters, but since the body won’t meet again until early February — when the session will be halfway over — members voted to let the executive committee finalize the wording. 
The Jan. 5 meeting was the first for the GOP precinct committeemen and women elected in last year’s primary. A total of 80 of the committee’s nearly 120 voting members were represented. 
The party continues to be split between more moderate and more conservative members, and a couple of the new precinct committee people expressed unease about voting on a letter they hadn’t read. 
“Maybe it’s because we’re newbies, maybe it’s what we read in the paper previously from this group on other letters …,” said Committeewoman Kim Borer. 
However, State Committeeman Vince Vanata assured the body that the letter would be professional and on-point. 
Kimmet said the document would be shared with the central committee and the public later in the week, after Driskill had the opportunity to review it. 
President Driskill told the Tribune that his decision to leave Laursen off a committee was not personal and that his intent was never to muzzle debate, nor to slight Senate District 19 and Laursen. 
“It’s just, we’re not going to do things that attack people personally, or attack our institution,” Driskill said. 
“We’re just not going to beat up each other personally,” Laursen said. “If we don’t like policy, the way it’s going, we can talk about that.” 
Driskill said he “somewhat apologize[s]” to residents of the district, but he reiterated the importance of upholding decorum in the Senate. 
“Sen. Laursen and I will appear up in Powell at some point in time and I’ll take some stones from some upset people,” Driskill said, “and hopefully we can get them to understand part of what we did and why.”
 
This story was published on Jan. 12, 2023.