Wyoming Secretary of
State. Term is four years; there is a limit of 8
years within 16 years for a person serving in this office. Salary
is set by state statute at $92,000 plus benefits.
Incumbent Joe Meyer is term limited and cannot succeed
himself.
The candidates are Dennis Brossman (Libertarian Party)
and Max Maxfield (R); no Democrat filed.
Biographical Information:
Dennis Brossman
(L): Age 52, 23 years Wyomingite, always a westerner or midwesterner
before that. Married (Marie), 3 children, grown and
gone. 3 grandkids. High school and about 3 years college.
Worked mostly in construction and have my own roofing
business. Have been very active in rights, constitutional
issues, and libertarianism for many years. Have been involved
with LP since early 90s, sometimes as a candidate or officer. My own,
main "agenda" is …make thousands of WY Constitutions
available to every school kid at least twice, and at all courthouses,
POs, libraries, etc. Free and plenty. State Constitutional
literacy my goal.
Max Maxfield (R): Age:
61; Married: Gayla, four children, two granddaughters; Methodist;
Member of Hospice Board; Rotarian-Paul Harris Fellow; Education: Attended University of
Wisconsin/Stevens Point and Whitewater, Continuing professional
educational opportunities; Professional Experience: 23 years in
private/non-profit management positions, Seven years as director of
Wyoming cabinet level agencies, including two years as director of the
Wyoming Recreation Commission and five years as director of the Wyoming
Department of Commerce; Elected in 1998 and currently serving my second
term as Wyoming State Auditor.
Would you advocate a
Western regional primary or caucus?
Explain.
Dennis Brossman
(L): Regional primary? Why? The west is as
politically and interest-group fragmented as the whole country. States,
counties, cities, etc. are plenty of subdivisions of
Americans. Why more offices, personnel, tax costs,
etc? I oppose the "associations of" such as WAM,
FCAG, Regional Governors, etc already. We lose identity and
uniqueness doing these things. We lose real and important
differences as states which the Founders wanted and for many good
reasons.
Max Maxfield (R): If
this was an easy issue, western states would have come to agreement by
now. The advantage
is that Presidential candidates might focus more on Western issues,
seeking many votes, than if they were only courting Wyoming’s
three electoral votes.
The difficulties are that each state has its own laws,
timing of election activities and processes which fit that particular
state’s needs. Although
Western states have much in common, it has been difficult to meld
state’s differences…
Do you advocate changing
the date of Wyoming’s primary election? Explain.
Dennis Brossman
(L): The whole year is wiped out by election noise and bother
anyway--while media and ad sellers make a mint--so why should an
earlier or later date matter? What's the complaint?
Minor parties don't need primaries anyway, but select candidates by
approval meetings called "nominating conventions." As for unified,
multi-state, same-day primaries, I oppose. Allow people and
journalists and candidates to travel and observe. Same day
kills this.
Max Maxfield (R): There
would be advantages to moving the Primary somewhat earlier in the year
because the time frames for performing all the statutory election
duties are very tight under the current statutes.
If it were to move to a significantly earlier time,
there are issues with required pre-election tasks falling during the
legislative session and political issues of having a much longer
campaign period for candidates…