The pragmatic progressive's guide to the 2022 Albany County elections1.pdf -

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The pragmatic progressive's guide to the 2022 Albany County primary elections Hello from the Pragmatic Progressive. I’m here to let you know how to use your vote in the 2022 Albany County primary elections to do two things: 1. At the state level, stop the rising tide of facism that’s encroaching into powerful positions in the Wyoming government. 2. At the local level, protect and improve upon the progressive victories we won in 2020. First, if you’re a Democrat, that’s cool. But not for this election. I get that you want to support Sheriff Appelhans. We all do, but he’s going to be fine for the primaries. He’s famous, he’s been doing a solid job, and he’s got the backing of the local Democratic establishment (not to be confused with the official Albany County Democratic Party). He’s going to sail through the primaries. You can vote for him in November (yay!). There are no other Democratic 2022 primaries of any real importance. However, depending on where you live in Albany County, there are at least two huge reasons (and maybe more) to vote in the GOP primary: the races for Secretary of State and for Superintendent of Public Education. These are contests where real, live fascists have serious chances of seizing the reins of power. It’s up to us to stop them. Oh yeah, and there’s Liz Cheney, too, if you’re into that kind of thing. Anyhow, if you’re not already registered to vote in the Republican Primary, you’ll need to ask to change your registration when you get to the polls, before you receive your ballot. It’s easy. Just remember to bring your ID and ask the clerks nicely. HERE IS THE GUIDE! STATEWIDE AND NATIONAL U.S. Congress - Liz Cheney vs. Harriet Hageman These two candidates are essentially identical on policy positions that do not have to do with Jan. 6, Trump, or overturning elections. But those things are pretty important. VOTE CHENEY Wyoming Governor - Mark Gordon vs. a bunch of dorks Mark Gordon has been, to put it lightly, a disappointment. But certainly none of the other candidates are an improvement. There’s also a decent chance he’ll “pull a Matt Mead” and start supporting things like Medicaid expansion during his second term, when he no longer has to worry about reelection. We’ll see. VOTE GORDON Wyoming Secretary of State - Chuck Gray vs. Tara Nethercott vs. some other dude This is one of the big ones. Chuck Gray is a sitting state representative who has sponsored all kinds of awful legislation, including a proposal that would have named a major thoroughfare in Casper the “Donald Trump Highway.” As you know, the Secretary of State oversees all elections in Wyoming. Gray’s campaign has centered around hosting screenings of 2,000 Mules, a propaganda video claiming the 2020 presidential election was stolen. In short, Gray’s campaign for the position to oversee Wyoming elections is based on the Big Lie. Gray’s main opponent, Tara Nethercott, is a Wyoming Senator and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. We don’t love her stances on criminal justice, but she is by any measure a reasonable, intelligent person who does not believe in or promote conspiracy theories. VOTE NETHERCOTT Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction - Megan Degenfelder vs. Brian Schroeder vs. some other nuts This is biggie number two. The superintendent of public instruction oversees the Wyoming Department of Education—all our K-12 schools. Brian Schroeder, the sitting superintendent, was appointed by the far-right Wyoming State GOP a few months ago and has since spent his time using transgender children as fodder in his “war” against President Biden—potentially costing Wyomig $40 million a year—and to rail against Critical Race Theory. He also moved to Wyoming, like, a year ago. If we had the choice of anyone in the world to run Wyoming’s Department of Education, it would not be Megan Degenfelder. She’s a consummate political insider (i.e. Good Ole’ Boy) and leans distinctly conservative. But, again, she’s a reasonable person who does not spend her nights salivating over Tucker Carlson’s every word, unlike pretty much every other SPI candidate. VOTE DEGENFELDER Wyoming State Treasurer - Curt Meier vs. Bill Gallop Curt Meier, the sitting treasurer, campaigned for his seat in 2018 on an anti-trans platform. I’m not sure what gender has to do with being treasurer, but it pretty well sums Meier up. He’s also just bad at his job. I don’t know much about Gallop, but it’s worth a shot. VOTE GALLOP Wyoming State Treasurer - Kristi Racines (running unopposed) This one would probably be easy even if Racines had a challenger. She’s a nice lady, good at her job, competent, etc. VOTE RACINES WYOMING LEGISLATURE There are only two primary elections in Albany County for state legislative seats—in House District 46 and House District 14. These are both mostly rural districts that each include a small chunk of the City of Laramie. Not sure what House district you live in? Click here to find out. House District 46 - Ocean Andrew vs. Richard “RJ” Lennox The incumbent, Ocean Andrew, is a rich kid from Washington who moved to Wyoming a few years ago and thinks it’s his job now to define “real Wyoming values.” He seems to be mostly focused on gutting public education and replacing it with homeschooling and private religious schools. But he votes wrong basically every time. RJ Lennox is a former school teacher who supports public education. He is also in favor of Medicaid expansion, reproductive rights, and tax reform. Pretty much a no-brainer: VOTE LENNOX House District 14 - Brian Shuster vs. Julie McCallister Shuster, a current city council member, seems confused a lot. He doesn’t believe humans cause climate change, he voted against oversight of police, and he once equated Pride flags to Nazi flags. To his credit, he’s at least somewhat pro-choice and he supports Medicaid expansion. Julie McCallister’s big issue is supporting the legalization of medical cannabis. She promotes tax reform (though she wrongly thinks an income tax would be regressive), renewable energy development, and is an avid outdoorswoman. She’s also pro-choice and supports expanding Medicaid. VOTE MCCALLISTER ALBANY COUNTY County Commission - Heber Richardson vs. Terri Jones vs. Tony Kirchhoefer This one is not so hot on the GOP side. The candidates all occupy slots somewhere between “milquetoast” and “pretty bad” on the policy spectrum. Luckily, Sue Ibarra is not up for re-election and Pete Gosar is in a strong position to retain his seat in the general election. WRITE IN YOUR DOG County Coroner - Tiffany Reed (running unopposed) A former veterinarian, it’s rumored that Reed lost her professional license after several unfortunate mishaps—i.e., spays and neuters gone wrong. Not the kind of person we want handling Albany County’s deceased. Luckily, there is a Democrat running against her in the general election. WRITE IN YOUR LATE AUNT Sheriff - Raphael Delgadilllo vs. Joel Senior Whoever wins this election will face Appelhans in the general. Delgadillo, a longtime cop from California, at least knows what the right thing to do is—he speaks well about building community trust, appropriate use of force, and other subjects. But he is calling himself a “constitutional sheriff”—meaning that if he decides a law is unconstitutional, he won’t uphold it—and he has some questionable political allegiances (he’s a generous donor to Harriet Hageman, for instance). It’s unclear if he would withstand pressure from the GOP to ignore what he knows to be good policing practices in favor of a Thin Blue Line approach. At the same time, electing Senior would almost certainly amount to a step backwards for the Sheriff’s office and a return to Good Ole’ Boy rule. VOTE DELGADILLO County Clerk - Sue Redding (running unopposed) I don’t know much about Sue Redding other than she’s allegedly connected to the people who have been down at the courthouse this year during early voting hassling the county clerks and accusing them of not having their voting machines plugged in. Again, thankfully there’s a Democrat, Kayla White, running in the general. WRITE IN YOURSELF County Assessor - Chelsie Matthews (running unopposed) Assessor is one of those seats where it’s confusing as to why it’s a partisan position. Oh well. Matthews is a longtime assessor’s office employee who was appointed after the last assessor resigned. She’s the only game in town, and that seems fine. VOTE MATTHEWS Clerk of District Court - Stacey Lam (running unopposed) See above. Lam won in 2018 and I’m unaware of anything bad that’s happened since. VOTE LAM LARAMIE CITY COUNCIL Click here for a map of Laramie’s City Council wards Ward 1 - Micah Richardson vs. Allison Cunningham vs. Fred Schmechel Two candidates will advance from this race to the general, and only one will be selected in November to fill a seat on the council. Richardson is the clear favorite. The current city planning and zoning member has solid positions on housing and aquifer protection, as well as support for civilian oversight of police. Schmechel, who was appointed last year to the council, has been solid on housing. But he has been a complete dipshit on law enforcement—after the council initially voted to move forward to explore the creation of a civilian oversight board, Schmechel secretly called his co-councilor during a break in that same meeting and lied to him in order to convince him to change his vote. They colluded to kill the proposal in the shadiest way possible. Talk about transparency. Cunningham opposes the 6th Penny Tax, which is a significant funding source for road and sewer, recreation, and other important and popular city services. She also opposes not just civilian oversight of police, but city council oversight of law enforcement, as well. Yikes. VOTE RICHARDSON Ward 2 - Brandon Newman vs. Brett Glass vs. Ray Kaskow vs. Chris Dixon vs. Michael Armagost Like Ward 1, two candidates will advance from this race to the general, and one will be seated in November. Newman’s campaign slogan might as well be “Let’s go Brandon.” He’s running on a Laramie First platform, whatever that means, and in explicit opposition to civilian oversight of police. He claims that he is, somehow, a victim of discrimination. Brett Glass … what can we say? Love landlords? Love crappy internet? Love mansplaining? Vote Brett Glass. (But, really, don’t.) Kascow is the progressive pick. They speak eloquently about embracing and supporting the parts of Laramie that have upheld them as a trans nonbinary person in Wyoming. They also have youthful exuberance and a depth of experience as a city planning and zoning official and the former ED of Alliance for a Historic Wyoming. Michael Armagost and Chris Dixon seem fine, but meh. VOTE KASCOW Ward 3 - Erin O’Doherty vs. Joe Shumway Four candidates will advance from the primary to the general to eventually fill two Ward 3 seats in November. Since there’s only two people running—and they are both incumbents—it’s pretty clear who that will be. O’Doherty is generally good, while Shumay is not, but he at last was clever enough to make his signs a parody of the Subway logo. Interestingly, the two other candidates who proceed to the general election will have to be write-ins. So if you have any good ideas for someone to run as a write-in candidate, they only need three votes total to qualify for the general ballot. VOTE O’DOHERTY AND WRITE IN YOUR FAVORITE WARD 3 RESIDENT