While only six of the 11 county commission candidates attended a Park County Republican Party-hosted debate on Saturday, the event showcased the divisions between some of those running for the three available positions.

The debate — held just a day after the filing period closed — drew a crowd to Grizzly Hall at the Cody Library.

Commissioner Lloyd Thiel was present for the debate, along with challengers: Karin Richard, a Cody business owner running for the second time; Sen. Dan Laursen, a Powell senator and prior House member; Duncan Bonine, a real estate broker and Park County Planning and Zoning member; Sandra Allshouse, a Park County native; and Tim Lasseter, a Cody resident who previously ran for Cody school board and county clerk.  

Four of the five candidates who didn’t attend — Commission Chair Scott Steward, Bucky Hall, Barb Poley and Andrew Whitlock — shared a reason explaining their absence, with some at graduations. Steward, meanwhile, said he would be attending a funeral and took issue with the party’s plans to endorse candidates.

Joseph Baugher never responded.

At the beginning of the event, moderator and Park County GOP Chair Vince Vanata called on the attendees to not simply agree with each other. When the discussion came to a close nearly two hours later, Vanata thanked the candidates for the disagreements.

The debate highlighted many of the challengers’ frustrations with the current county commissioners. That put Thiel — the lone incumbent in attendance — in the hot seat at various moments to defend current commission decisions and explain various aspects, from elections to the Wyoming County Commissioners Association.

Richard, Laursen, Allshouse and Lasseter all criticized the commissioners’ decision to stick with electronic tabulators for elections.

“I want to do away with the machines totally,” said Laursen, who along with Lasseter and others, has been part of a group for years trying to get the county to hand count elections.

“I like to comment that we ought to melt [the tabulators] and make bars out of them for putting up in the jails,” he said, adding, “We’ve been going to the county commissioners meetings for quite a few years, and trying to convince them that they can make that decision. It is in statutes that you can use hand counting only if that’s what you choose, and so I’ll be there to get rid of them.”

The commissioners have said they are doing what an opinion from the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office says they have to do, which is stick with the machines.

Allshouse — a lifelong county resident who also opposes electronic tabulators — said her views were “old fashioned.” She discussed wanting to “get rid of pornography” within Park County regulations, likely referring to a section in the first phase of revised regulations passed last year which goes into detail on what counts as an adult business; County Planning and Zoning Director Joy Hill has said the language is needed as a way to better identify such businesses and to restrict where they can be located.

Bonine said he supports maintaining the current system of electronic voting tabulators, saying there's misinformation on the topic and "I'm not convinced that there's actually an issue with our voting machines." He also defended the work of the commissioners and planning and zoning commission to create a new set of land use regulations that look much different from they did months ago, when certain zoning areas had caused consternation. 

“I encourage you to dig into that, look into that, see where it's different, because it is different,” he said. “We all talk about wanting less regulation. Well, you're going to see less regulation being proposed, and so I challenge you to dig into that.”

Outsiders and insiders

Beyond that, the debate touched on many of the hot button issues in the race, including how the county commissioners engage with and listen to constituents, whether the commission should shrink from five to three members, how money is spent and how involved commissioners should be with the Wyoming County Commissioners Association. 

Richard has been a frequent critic of the commissioners’ communication, or lack thereof, and continued that theme during the debate. 

“When you talk to people and you look them in the face and you let them tell you what's on their mind, they’ve got a lot to say,” she said. “There is a lot of feelings and a lot of angst. There’s a lot of anger. There’s a lot of frustration. It’s all floating out there. People do not feel listened to. I know a lot of you in this audience do not feel listened to. You don’t feel respected. Just vote for people who are different.”

Lasseter has said he, Richard and Laursen are the three “true conservatives” in the race. He moved to the county eight years ago from Missouri and has said he was frustrated to find Park County not as conservative as he had expected. 

“There’s a clear distinction in this election. For the first time ever, we have a chance to make a clear, decisive change in the Park County Commission,” Lasseter said. “You could have a conservative commission in Park County, you can change how we do everything.”

Thiel, meanwhile, countered that point.

“I think there’s definitely some differences here between some of our candidates and the definition of conservative, and I’m fifth generation from here — I’m not saying that makes it right, but that is why I ran originally,” Thiel said. “I could see the people that move here that always want to make things different, better, because we don't know what the hell we’re doing, and that's why I’m still running for commissioner, because I don’t need outside people moving in telling us how we can do things different.”

It wasn’t all division on display, as all six candidates said they were committed to maintaining good communication with constituents. All six also said they were in support of a ballot measure this November that would cut by half the residential property taxes paid, and thus lop off a chunk of county and special district revenue. 

Making endorsements?

Vanata said the debate will be used by the party to determine which commissioners to endorse for the primary.

Ahead of the event, Steward said in an email to Vanata that, in addition to needing to attend his father-in-law’s funeral on Saturday, he didn’t think going to the debate would have any effect on who the local party will endorse.

"Your groups’ choice for endorsement has already been made and I will not be involved in the debate,” Steward wrote. “Lastly, I refuse to be involved in a group that publicly states they will ignore election law.”

At the event, Vanata disputed Steward’s assertion that the group is breaking state law by endorsing candidates before the Aug. 18 primary election.

“The Wyoming statutes say that we cannot directly or indirectly support candidates financially before the primary. This isn’t costing us anything. This is all a volunteer effort,” Vanata said, adding, “And we’re not endorsing any candidates at this point. This process is a means for the voters to gain the information about who’s running, where they stand, etc. So it’s informational, and it’s also for the Republican Party to take a position on who we’re going to endorse.”

In July, the party will endorse all the candidates who align with the values of the party, member Richard Jones said afterward, so they could endorse more than three commission candidates.

Most of the candidates, whether they attended or not, filled out a questionnaire to determine how aligned they are with the state Republican Party platform. All those present scored between a 95% and 100%, while those who were absent and filled out the form had scores that varied from 100% to 74%.