Wyoming Governor Election: Mary Throne

NLJ: Please tell us why you want to hold this office, and what you intend to accomplish if elected. Please be specific about your goals and objectives, so our readers can measure your progress over the course of the term. Also tell us what qualifications and characteristics you possess that will help ensure that your stated goals can be achieved. (The same question was posed to all candidates for the General Election.)
Mary Throne
I was born and raised on a ranch in Campbell County. After earning my law degree and serving as Assistant Wyoming Attorney General, I went to work as an attorney defending our energy industry. I have litigated and defeated the Sierra Club (twice) to protect local energy jobs, and I took on the Obama administration to stop their regulatory overreach in oil and gas, and won. I’m an independent thinker who will always put the needs of Wyoming first.
Tired of politics as usual, I stepped up and ran for the Wyoming Legislature in 2006. Throughout 10 years in the legislature, I earned a reputation for bipartisan problem solving and forging common sense solutions that helped every community in our state. A nonpartisan analysis by FiscalNote showed me to be one of the most effective legislators in Wyoming. I’m running for governor to end the boom and bust cycle, and to secure a prosperous future for our state.
During my last few years as a legislator, I noticed a disturbing trend: we were beginning to get more partisan, and more like the folks in Washington, D.C. When I first started, most legislators did not care if something was a Democratic idea or a Republican idea — they cared if it was a good idea. By the end of my service in the legislature, I felt that this common-sense approach had become much too rare. 
The simple fact is, our state works better when we leave partisanship at the door. We’ve had good Democratic governors and good Republican governors, but the state works best when our governor isn’t beholden to the platform of their party, but rather free to speak their mind and advocate for Wyoming values. Loyalty to the party should never replace loyalty to the people we serve.
Wyoming leaders have kept our state in a boom and bust state with shortsighted decisions. It is essential to expand beyond our dependence on boom and bust industries. Wyoming relies on minerals to provide about 70 percent of the state’s revenue. So, when energy crashes, we crash too. We need to look for new opportunities in all sectors, as well as continue to look for new opportunities within our mineral industries. 
We need to strengthen our communities, so they can grow their economies. We must expand Medicaid to provide affordable insurance to 20,000 Wyomingites who currently have none, and to stabilize rural hospitals, as well as taking other steps to make health insurance more affordable. We must make broadband more available, and properly fund our public schools so that our kids are prepared for the future and so young families want to raise their children in Wyoming. We must protect and have access to our incredible public lands.
Walking down the same paths will not break Wyoming out of the boom and bust cycle, nor will DC-style politics. Today’s problems deserve better than yesterday’s solutions. That is the leadership I will bring to Cheyenne and I would appreciate your support on Nov. 6.