On Wednesday, Oct. 23, ASUW hosted an event in the Union Ballroom inviting the public to talk to candidates running for positions in the upcoming election. The Cowpokes and Candidates Meet & Greet began at 6 pm and included candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives, Wyoming Senate and House of Representatives, Albany County Commissioners, Laramie City Council, and the School District.
Event organizer and ASUW Director of Community Affairs, Sophia Gomelsky, explained that the goal of the evening was to provide students and community members the opportunity to ask questions of potential representatives and discuss matters important to them.
”A big part of the reason [ASUW] wants to host events like this is access. So many people don’t have access to their representatives or even know how to make their voice heard in an election,” Gomelsky explained. “When it comes to a piece of legislation that directly affects them, for students to not know how to influence that at all is, I think, kind of a detriment to like our democracy and our way of life in Wyoming in general.”
As the evening commenced a common theme was observed through a majority of the candidates: concern with renting and housing throughout the community. Marissa Carpio, wife and Cowpokes and Candidates Representative of Jim Fried, validated these concerns and explained that one of Fried’s main goals if elected for City Council Ward 2 is to help try to solve the complex problem that is housing in Laramie.
“There are good landlords out there, and there are maybe some folks that have had some not-so-great experiences,” Melanie Vigil, candidate for City Council Ward 2, corroborated. “I want to provide young people the knowledge to advocate for themselves, and if I were to be elected, I’d also be an advocate.”
Beyond her motivation to educate on Laramie’s rental ordinances, Vigil expressed her passion for ensuring that the community maintains clean water sources for generations. As a resident of West Laramie, she is also pushing for better public transportation beyond the available WyoRoundup and Paratransit through the university.
Paul Montoya for City Council Ward 1 brought up statistics relevant to the discussion on the housing crisis. Montoya claimed that Laramie currently has 53% of its population renting, compared to the standard 27% for other cities. To lower this percentage, the issue of availability versus safety must be taken into account.
”The city got involved [with the renting dilemma] by registering landlords, but the problem is that when they did that, the available number of units dropped by 23%,” Montoya said.
Gary Crum, running for Senate District 10, explained his stance on the housing issues as well. Crum currently sits on a housing task force that has met a couple of times a month for the past few years. If elected for his position, he claims he would like to figure out a way for the legislature to invest in housing development.
“I think that the state should invest in subdivisions with the expectation that once a lot would sell, or a house be built on it, they get paid back for their investments, along with some interest, some capital gain appreciation for it,” Crum said.
Crum also expressed his hopes to create a better parking situation in town by building more lots or garages in underused areas of downtown.
Bryan Shuster, candidate for Wyoming House District 14, also expressed his concerns over the parking matter, “We have got to do a better job in parking everywhere,” Shuster said. “I don’t care if it’s downtown or at the university, we’ve got to do a better job.”
Shuster also addressed that as a city of over 30,000 people, the Mayor is elected by only 9 council members. He claims to have plans to petition to make the position of mayor elected by the people of Laramie.
Another candidate to express their concerns towards non-housing-related issues was Albany County School Board candidate Sylvia-Grace Fonfara. She aims to improve the communication between the school district and community members by surpassing the barriers and providing information in a much more accessible way. As an individual on the Autism Spectrum Fonfara believes that she would be of value to the Board by being able to speak about her experiences in education. Fonfara also said that she would do “whatever is necessary to protect the lab school’s presence on campus.”
When asked about the concern of the school’s closure, Fonfara said “I went to the lab school from kindergarten through ninth grade. They did everything for me. I owe them the world.”
Towards the end of the evening, Peri Hennigar, ASUW Chief of Staff, voiced their excitement for how many candidates were in attendance. With this being the first year that ASUW hosts the event by themselves, they hope to gain more interest and curiosity from students in the future.
“We just want to make sure that all students are aware of who they can vote for…,” Henningar said. “Especially nowadays, so few young people want to go out and vote, so making sure [ASUW is] bringing the resources to them and we’re helping provide them with the tools to make sure they have a better idea of people’s policies, what they can vote for, what positions are up [for election].”
