CHEYENNE – Torrington attorney and former Speaker of the Wyoming House Ed Buchanan of Lingle, is one of three finalists selected Saturday for possible appointment to fill the vacant office of Wyoming Secretary of State.
Buchanan, attorney Darin Smith from Cheyenne and Richard George, a farmer from Cody, were selected during a meeting Saturday of the Wyoming Republican Party State Central Committee at the Little America Hotel and Resort in Cheyenne. The three names were selected by ballots from local county Republican committee representatives from among eight candidates who’d expressed interest in filling the remaining 10 months of the four-year term vacated by the Feb. 9 resignation of former Secretary of State Ed Murray.
Others seeking the recommendation of the committee Saturday were current state auditor Cynthia Cloud, Hot Springs County Clerk Nina Webber, former Secretary of State Max Maxfield and former state Representative Pete Illoway. An eighth applicant for the position, Robert Elwell of Cheyenne, was not in attendance at the meeting.
Buchanan ran for the office in 2014, losing by just 1,600 votes out of more than 90,000 votes cast. He said Saturday he believes his experience in the state legislature, as well as his work as a lawyer, makes him an ideal fit for the position.
“The Secretary of State’s office does a lot of things that relate to my occupation,” Buchanan said. “That position seems to be a natural fit for someone like me,” he said. “I thought it was something I’d be interested in.
“I’ve always been drawn to public service,” Buchanan said. “That experience has kept me energized, kept me eager to continue with that.”
Buchanan was born in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., moving to Goshen County with his family in the late 1960s when his parents, Wade and Kay Buchanan, bought a ranch eight-miles north of Lingle.
He grew up farming and ranching in Goshen County and attended Lingle schools.
Most of his family still lives in Goshen County. He has two daughters, Emily and Erin, from his previous marriage to Renee, and two sons, Reece and Cash, with his current wife, Amber.
He attended the University of Wyoming in Laramie, graduating in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. While in college, he participated in the UW ROTC program, graduating with an officer’s commission in the Air Force, where he worked four years in the space intelligence command in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Following his service, Buchanan returned to UW, graduating in 1994 with a Master of Arts degree in public administration. He again returned to UW in 1998, where he earned his Juris Doctorate, eventually opening his own law office in Torrington.
For the last decade or more, Buchanan has assisted district attorney’s offices around the state as a trial lawyer, prosecuting felony cases.
“I love being in the court room,” Buchanan said. “I found this kind of niche, where a lot of county attorneys, they want to do the civil stuff but don’t want to do the criminal prosecutions. But there’s a need for that.”
In 2002, he was elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives for District 4, rising through the ranks of majority whip, and majority floor leader to serve two years as Speaker of the House.
He left the legislature in 2012.
“Part of stepping away from politics, there’s a tradition,” he said. “After you’re the Speaker, that’s kind of the final position you’ll hold.
“The reason I got involved again in 2014 was simply, serving in the Legislature – next to my family – was one of the greatest experiences of my life,” Buchanan said. “In Wyoming, you can make a real difference, you can solve people’s problems, you can actually make (solutions) happen in a matter of months. That’s
very rewarding.”
During opening remarks before the Central Committee delegates on Saturday, Buchanan and the rest of the candidates for the position introduced themselves and outlined their goals, should they receive the appointment. Buchanan’s included using technology to make things easier and more efficient for business and the public, increased transparency of rules and regulations and increased cost savings.
Buchanan, and all the candidates, also stressed the importance of addressing alleged fraud, in the corporate and consumer realms and, perhaps most importantly, in the state’s election system. Responding to direct questions posed by the individual county delegations to all the candidates, Buchanan said guaranteeing the integrity of the elections process is vital.
“I’m one of those folks who think, if we lose the integrity of the elections, the people lose their trust in government and elected officials,” he said. “Once they lose that trust, they’ve lost a lot.”
Election integrity was a popular topic. Other questions proposed by the county delegates and posed to the candidates included photo identification for voting and moving to a mail-in ballot system.
Candidates mostly came down in favor of identification requirements and against opening the election system to voting by mail.
“Look at Washington and Colorado,” said Richard George, one of the three candidates recommended to Gov. Mead. “As soon as they went to mail-in ballots, (the states) went blue. I’m not in favor of it.”
Buchanan, on the other hand, recognized there are two sides to the issue. While being in favor of making the elections process as simple as possible for both county clerks and legitimate voters, the state also must maintain the security of the process.
Buchanan told the delegates, anecdotally, that he’d heard of instances where individuals who’d moved out of Wyoming had received absentee or mail-in ballots, for example.
Darin Smith, the third candidate on the short list for consideration by the governor, also said he’s “diametrically opposed” to mail-in ballots, saying it opens the process up for voter fraud.
“In my opinion, it’s the Left that cheats,” Smith said. “There’s no way to prevent voter fraud on mail-in ballots.”
All three candidates also came down in favor of transferring control of public lands currently administered by the federal government back to state hands, with the potential to bring the estimated $1.9 billion in annual revenue back to Wyoming coffers. Also popular with the trio is the “prudent” use of State Loan and Investment Board monies to continue to assist local communities. Currently, SLIB funds are primarily issued as matching grants or low-interest loans for projects communities otherwise couldn’t afford on their own.
“I like the way it’s set up, because it requires the communities to have ‘skin in the game,’” Buchanan said. “Those are sovereign public trust funds – they belong to all of us, they belong to all the people.”
By state statute, the governor has five days to meet with the three candidates and make his appointment. David Bush, Mead’s communication director, said Monday the deadline for naming the next Wyoming Secretary of State is Thursday.
