A local conservative group is hosting a pair of candidate debates over the next two weeks, but a number of candidates won’t be participating.

Greg Buchel of Park County Patriots — formerly known as the Sons of Freedom/Park County Republican Men’s Club — said all candidates were invited, but some never responded, some declined to attend due to schedule conflicts and two candidates raised concerns about potential bias from the group.

Buchel said the intent is to have a debate format where candidates can respond to each other on issues of concern to voters. That differs from previous forums in which candidates didn’t have any chance to directly engage with one another.

However, because of the slew of declinations, it appears there will be little debate.

At 6 p.m. tonight (Thursday) at The Commons, Park County Patriots will host state legislative candidates running for House Districts 25 and 50 and Senate District 18.

Each of those races features two Republican candidates who are going head-to-head in the Aug. 20 primary election. However, only the candidates endorsed by the group — HD 50 Rep. Rachel Rodriguez Williams (R-Cody), SD 18 Sen. Tim French (R-Powell) and HD 25 challenger Paul Hoeft — are slated to attend.

French’s challenger, Cody resident and former city councilman Landon Greer, bowed out over scheduling conflicts while current HD 25 Rep. David Northrup (R-Powell) and HD 50 challenger David Hill cited the group’s endorsements as one reason they aren’t participating.

“… as Park County Patriots has already endorsed by my opponent, I do not believe they can offer an unbiased format for a debate,” Hill wrote in his declination, which he provided to the Tribune. He also expressed concern that the group hasn’t registered as a political organization.

Although Northrup won’t be at the Park County Patriots event, he said he welcomes all of the events as a way to show the differences between candidates.

“I think it’s good there’s been a lot of forums. There’s a lot to discuss, a lot of differences between candidates,” he said. “People need to be aware of the differences.”

The group offered candidates the choice to attend either the July 18 or July 25 debate, but Northrup said he had a family conflict with the first date and noted the second is during the Park County Fair, where he’ll be manning a booth all day.

However, the lawmaker said the fact that Park County Patriots has already put out its preferred list of candidates was also a factor in declining the invite.

“The fact is they put out a card saying, ‘Here’s our choices,’” Northrup said. “What are we going to debate? … It seems like it was a waste of time when they’ve already made their choice.”

Buchel, however, dismissed the candidates’ concerns of bias, saying the group’s endorsements won’t factor into the debate.

“Quite frankly, this is nonsense as each candidate will be asked the same questions and have equal opportunity to respond to the questions and each other,” Buchel said.

Only at the Park County Patriots’ second debate — set for 6 p.m. at The Commons on July 25 — will it be possible to have debates within contested races. That’s because the Park County Commission race is the only one in which a candidate not endorsed by the group is set to participate. Incumbent Commissioner Scott Mangold has agreed to appear alongside challengers and Cody business owners Karin Richard and Casey Edwards — the two candidates endorsed by the Park County Patriots in the six-person race. Buchel said Kelly Simone declined an invite, while the other two candidates, Cody residents JP Jones and Tanner Beemer, did not respond.

Powell Ward 3 City Councilman Lesli Spencer also did not respond to the group, leaving challenger Troy Bray as the only candidate set to appear in that race. Bray serves as the secretary of Park County Patriots and has its endorsement.

The Powell mayoral race, which is being contested between Mayor John Wetzel and challenger Kade Richmond, isn’t a part of the event. Buchel said the group initially didn’t think there would be time to add the race, but said they’ll add it to future debates being planned amid a busy season of forums, debates and other candidate events.

(CJ Baker contributed reporting.)