Shannon Brennan’s attendance was a surprise at the Oct. 14 League of Women Voters forum for House District 23. The Republican said she changed her decision not to attend the last of five such voter forums last week after a driver sideswiped her car while driving U.S. Highway 89.
The League allotted her a brief presentation. Broadly, Brennan has signaled alignment with the values of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and describes herself as a constitutional conservative advocating for limited government to support solutions for conservation, housing and other key issues, according to her website.
During the forum, she challenged two-term incumbent Rep. Liz Storer’s use of PACs to fund local elections and her demeanor after three traffic-related deaths on Teton Pass.
“I’m going to ask you today, Liz, are you empathetic with what happened to me two days ago?” she said after holding the broken remains of her car’s side mirror in front of her Democratic opponent. (Liz Storer is a financial supporter of KHOL. Contributions do not influence KHOL’s journalism).
Brennan’s two minutes ended before Storer could answer the question from her seat in the audience. Brennan promptly left the room. In a later interview with KHOL, Brennan said that was her plan. She wanted to make a point that more roads in the county need more attention.
“I didn’t expect dialogue,” she said. “When will we have a death on Highway 89?”
Storer didn’t address Brennan’s question in her allotted 10 minutes to pitch her campaign and field questions from journalists.
The forum also included a debate on the citizens’ initiative to cut property taxes. Brennan did not address Proposition 1.
Storer opposes the ballot initiative to slash tax burdens on primary residences by 50%, saying the tax break will go to people who don’t need it (she has championed more targeted tax relief) and essential services will suffer without a plan to backfill revenues. A full recording of the presentation and discussion is available on Teton County Library’s YouTube.
As for the issue Brennan did raise, Storer has spoken publicly about her proximity to one of the July 7 crash victims on Teton Pass and said she wants to see change. Brennan said she listened to the Aug. 3 community meeting in Wilson, which included Storer’s explanation of how to make state roads safer through legislation.
But that wasn’t enough for the energy consultant and board member of St. John’s Health.
“I didn’t hear, ‘I care, and this was bad,’” Brennan said.
Later, in a statement, Storer said Brennan had “asked — rhetorically — if I’m empathetic. Yes, of course. I’m glad she’s safe. I was just taken aback by that question after her combative speech attacking me.”
Instead of addressing Brennan’s confrontation during the forum, Storer used her time to emphasize her wins working across the aisle.
“I proved I could do that my freshman year, getting a bill to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot,” she said, referencing an amendment to separate residential property from commercial and agricultural.
If Prop. 1 passes, it will be “all hands on deck” to backfill local governments and schools, she said in answers to a media panel. Funding affordable housing may gain traction after the Freedom Caucus lost its majority in the House during the August primaries, she said, and continuing data center development deserved “strong guardrails,” but was “not the worst revenues” for the cold, loosely populated state to consider capitalizing on.
Teton County is a Democratic stronghold in a majority-Republican state. Former Rep. Keith Gingery was the last Republican to represent the district and chose not to run again in 2014.
