Out of state political action committees (PAC) are still required to disclose all financial contributions to political campaigns and individuals in Wyoming after a ruling from the state legislature. But this fact alone may not be of much consequence for campaigns in the state.
The Wyoming Legislative Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee decided last week to uphold the current state statute which maintains that all PACs registered in other states must file the proper paperwork in order to contribute to Wyoming candidates in state or federal elections.
Board member, State Representative Matt Greene (R-Laramie) said that the information presented to the committee at the November 28 session prompted concern over a lack of continuity between state laws.
“The board did not want to allow PACs to contribute money to political campaigns in this state based off of another state’s law,” Greene said.
PACs registered with the Federal Election Commission are still exempt from reporting campaign finances within the state, as per state law.
The proposal itself would have allowed PAC contributions in this state to go unfiled so long as the PAC in question had complied with all the reporting requirements within its state of formation.
“Basically the board’s decision was merely to continue requiring PACs to file paperwork in his state,” Greene said. “We did not want a situation where PACS could somehow contribute without reporting the information in any state.”
Previous to this year no out of state PACs had contributed money to a Wyoming candidate.
Andrew Garner, a University of Wyoming professor of political science, feels that out of state money does not truly have the capabilities to alter a race in a significant way.
“While I won’t argue that money contributed to campaigns plays a small role in the outcome,” Garner said, “I don’t think it’s as big of a factor as people perceive it to be.”
More important factors to consider in any race as indicators of possible outcome are incumbency, partisanship and the overall national mood said Garner.
“While measures of transparency are always positive things in the political process, there are many other aspects to consider in a state such as Wyoming when election season comes around,” Garner said. “There really isn’t much political infrastructure here to begin with. The democrats who did well in the recent elections were not the ones who necessarily had more funding. They just had very well run campaigns.”
