Photograph shows conservative activist handing slip to Darin McCann and Marlene Brady holding a similar paper
Controversy has engulfed Wyoming’s state legislature after a conservative activist was photographed handing checks to Republican lawmakers on the state house floor, in an incident that has highlighted intra-conservative divisions and the role of money in the Cowboy state’s politics.
The political storm started on 9 February, when Karlee Provenza, a Democratic lawmaker, took a photo showing Rebecca Bextel, a conservative activist and committeewoman for the Teton county Republican party, handing a check to Darin McCann, a Republican representative, on the legislative floor. Marlene Brady, another Republican representative, stands in the photo’s background, a similar piece of paper pinched between her fingers.
“You have a person from the richest county in the country coming down to Cheyenne to hand out checks on the house floor,” Provenza said. “I have never seen something so egregious.”
The fact that they think they don’t need to hide it anymore.
That’s what’s new. And the consequences for everyone else are pretty fucking dire. Before, they had to pretend to be honest, and some were, if only because they feared repercussions, like a big investigation that would kill their reelection. And a federal investigation would likely mean actual jail time. It’s happened before, not often, but it has happened.
The threat of a federal investigation is gone, so any hesitancy to rob the public coffers is also gone.
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