JACKSON, Wyo. — Republicans again failed in their efforts to prevent Democrats from switching party affiliation in order to take part in the GOP primary and then changing their voter registration back to Democrat before the general election.
The ‘switch’ can go both ways, but in the staunchly Republican state, it has mainly been used by Dems to disrupt Republican primaries where Democrats sometimes look to derail certain candidates they truly cannot align with. Republicans have also been accused of ‘vacationing’ from their party if a primary seems well-in-hand for their favorite in order to prop up someone they feel is most beatable on the Blue ticket.
Does any of this actually happen? Sen. Bill Landen, R-Natrona County, doesn’t believe so. “I can’t find hardly anybody in my district who sees this as an issue. In fact, quite the opposite,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press last year when a similar bill failed.
Following the 2018 GOP primary, gubernatorial candidate Foster Friess accused ‘RIROs’ (Republicans In Registration Only) of sinking his bid to seek the GOP nomination.
A watered-down version of last year’s bill made promising progress through the House, HB209 (Change in Party Affiliation) passing easily through committee 8-1 and at third reading of the House floor 44-14 on February 28. All of Teton County’s House Reps (Jim Roscoe, Andy Schwartz, and Michael Yin) voted against the bill.
It was received for introduction into the Senate Corporations Committee where it languished so long it missed a deadline today to hit the Senate floor, effectively killing the bill yet again.
