Spotlight: Wyo. State House Rep. Pete Illoway

Spotlighting Wyoming’s State Congressmen: Wyoming House Representative Pete Illoway
Meg Lanker
Friday, August 28, 2009 2:54 PM MDT

Wyoming State House Representative Pete Illoway, R-Cheyenne believes it’s time for Wyoming to assert its sovereignty to the federal government granted under the Tenth Amendment.

“We don’t have much input in Washington compared to larger states, but we need to let the federal government know that we matter as a state,” Illoway said. “The federal government has run amok and I feel Wyoming should stand along with other states who believe the same as we do.”

Illoway authored a state sovereignty resolution similar to those passed in other states recently. The bill requests that Congress “cease and desist from enacting mandates that are beyond the scope of the enumerated powers granted to Congress by the Constitution of the United States.”

State sovereignty resolutions similar to the one drafted by Illoway gained popularity in recent years, particularly with conservative legislators who feel the federal government has expanded to the point of encroaching on individual states’ rights.

The resolution is non-binding but can be officially entered in the U.S. congressional record. Illoway said, “Sometimes resolutions work and sometimes they’re ignored, but we won’t know what will happen unless we make our views known.”

The resolution contains a paragraph naming specific federal laws that “constitutional authority for which is either absent or tenuous,” including the Real ID Act and the Endangered Species Act. Illoway said those specific laws were added by Governor Dave Freudenthal at the suggestion of Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg.

According to Illoway, Wyoming should not be entirely disconnected from the federal government. Wyoming received federal stimulus funding for infrastructure improvement projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

“The money WYDOT [Wyoming Department of Transportation] received went to shovel-ready projects which put Wyoming people to work,” said Illoway. “If Wyoming didn’t take the money, it would have gone somewhere else.”

Illoway was recently attacked by the Wyoming Patriot Alliance as not supporting sovereignty “because he believes in it.” The Wyoming Patriot Alliance's website describes the group as “concerned citizens that have banded together and want to hold Government (at all levels) accountable for their actions.” They also claim no allegiance to political parties and state: “We've adopted the 9 Principles and 12 Values from Glenn Beck's 9/12 Project because they are a great starting point.”

Illoway met with several individuals at the request of Janie White, a constituent of his who is a member of Wyoming Patriot Alliance and owner of the group’s website. According to Illoway, White told him they wished to discuss the state sovereignty resolution.

He said he told White and those present at the meeting his reasons for sponsoring the resolution but White abruptly switched gears into asking him to support a copy of the federal Defense of Marriage Amendment (DOMA) being inserted into Wyoming’s constitution.

Social conservatives in Wyoming have attempted to get the DOMA into the Wyoming constitution for many years. The latest effort in 2008 was House Joint Resolution 17 which failed on the House floor with 25 members voting “aye” and 35 members voting “nay.” Illoway voted against the bill.

The heavily-debated resolution read: “A Joint Resolution proposing to amend the Wyoming Constitution by creating a new section specifying that a marriage between a man and a woman shall be the only legal union that shall be valid or recognized in Wyoming” – fundamentally stating that Wyoming will not recognize same-sex marriages performed out of state.

Illoway said he had no warning White and the others wanted to discuss a DOMA resolution and characterized the meeting as “an absolute ambush.” Illoway said, “I was told we were there to discuss the state sovereignty resolution and nothing else. I feel these are two separate issues, and when I tried to explain this to Mrs. White, she became defensive.”

White wrote a post about the meeting on Wyoming Patriot Alliance’s website later. “He [Illoway] said he will NOT discuss marriage between one man and one woman because he doesn't believe in it,” she said.

Illoway said this assertion by White is false. He disagreed with HJ 17 because Wyoming already has a statute defining marriage as between a man and a woman – HJ 17 would add the extra piece of not recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states.

He also disputed the necessity of HJ 17 – Wyoming recognizes Common Law marriages from other states, so HJ 17 would single out one type of marriage for non-recognition. “We have a statute already that says marriage is between a man and a woman period – we don’t need to go any further. Gay people are people too. They have the right to exist like the rest of us,” Illoway said.

White also criticized Illoway as “pro-abortion” and said his “positions on abortion, gay marriage and other conservatives [sic] values did NOT coincide with the base.”

In a statement to The Underground, Illoway said he is not “pro-abortion” but is pro-choice. “I am pro-choice. I have been for years – this is nothing new,” he said. “No one is ever pro-abortion. Abortion is never something anyone wishes to happen.”

Illoway emailed White to clarify his positions on same-sex marriage and abortion. White pasted the email exchange below the original post about her meeting with Illoway. In the exchange White said, “If Ms. Lone and I believed I had mis-stated[sic] your comments, I would have been glad to retract but as you can see, and with the witnesses of that meeting, I have not and will not.”

On the Wyoming Patriot Alliance’s website, White said, “I don't have to work with Legislators and I definitely don't work for them, they work for me.”

Illoway disagrees with this notion and said the best way for constituents to get legislation passed is to work with legislators to reach common ground. “The town halls are a good example,” Illoway said. “It’s good for people to get involved, but nothing gets done by screaming at the people in office. There’s a level of respect needed.”

White did not respond to a request for comment from The Underground.

Illoway came to Wyoming in the early 1960s and was elected to the Wyoming State House to represent House District 42 in 1998. He previously served as the Vice President of Cheyenne LEADS (Cheyenne-Laramie County Corporation for Economic Development).

As the Wyoming legislature prepares to returns in 2010 to a rapidly changing economy, The Underground will put the spotlight on members of Wyoming’s House and Senate. Rep. Pete Illoway can be reached through his website, www.peteilloway.com

Sen. Kennedy: The lion who roared

Photo: Sen. Ted Kennedy speaks at the Democratic National Convention in 2008. (Photo from http://kennedy.senate.gov)











The lion who roared: Remembering Sen. Ted Kennedy and moving forward
Meg Lanker
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 5:35 PM MDT
To truly measure a legislator’s worth, one must not look at the amount of legislation simply passed, but at the quality of the legislation, the effort, and the compromise necessary to get that legislation passed. By this standard, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. was a priceless civil servant in the U.S. Senate.

Kennedy diligently advocated for bipartisan compromise on divisive issues: health care, education reform, immigration, welfare, et cetera. In 1983, Kennedy outlined his hopes for America and said, “I hope for an America where we can all contend freely and vigorously, but where we will treasure and guard those standards of civility which alone make this nation safe for both democracy and diversity.”

Twenty-six years later, as this lion of the senate is silenced, it is devastatingly obvious these standards of civility hoped for by Kennedy have fallen away – if they even existed at all. With the passing of Kennedy, the book is closed on one of the last, great statesmen left in this country. According to the Los Angeles Times, Cal Thomas, a conservative columnist who forged a friendship with Kennedy in the 1980s, said, “I was opposed to his politics, but I came to love him as a person.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is often considered one of the most conservative members in the Senate, yet still counted Kennedy as a friend. According to The Salt Lake City Tribune, Hatch came to the Senate 32 years ago with one goal in mind: "To fight Ted Kennedy."

Hatch and Kennedy wound up working together on numerous pieces of legislation ensuring children of low-income parents could see a doctor, and most recently, legislation boosting the funding to the AmeriCorps volunteer program and the stipend its volunteers receive.

On Wednesday, Hatch said Kennedy was "an iconic, larger than life United States senator whose influence cannot be overstated," and a treasured friend.

Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. issued a statement Wednesday, and called Kennedy a “true, thoughtful, and caring friend” and gave his condolences to Kennedy’s family.

“The history books will show that Ted was a dedicated public servant who worked tirelessly for the people of Massachusetts and the nation,” said Enzi. “He leaves behind a long list of bipartisan legislative accomplishments, the impact of which will continue to be felt for generations to come.”

Wyoming’s former U.S. Senator Al Simpson served on the judiciary committee with Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. Previously, Kennedy had also served in the senate with Simpson’s father Milward.

In a statement to The Underground Wednesday, Simpson said, “My wife Ann and I are truly heartbroken. He was a dear friend. The two of us would put politics aside in order to make things work.” He called Kennedy a “master legislator” and cited their accomplishments together as an example of Kennedy’s bipartisanship.

“He will be deeply missed. A giant tree falls from the skyline. A great loss to the world,” Simpson said. “Our love, thoughts and prayers go out to Vicki and all of their dear ones.”

Seth Stern, writer for CQpolitics.com, shared an anecdote Wednesday regarding Al Simpson’s arrival to the U.S. Senate 30 years ago. Stern said when Al Simpson first arrived in the Senate in 1979, his father, who served with Kennedy in the 1960s, told his son to get to know Kennedy.

“Although they didn’t agree on much politically, Kennedy made a favorable impression when he was the first to arrive at a reception that year for the elder Simpson, who by then was suffering from Parkinson’s disease,” said Stern. “Kennedy kneeled on the ground for half an hour to talk to his former Senate colleague, who could not get out of his wheelchair.”

The Wyoming Democratic Party also issued a statement Wednesday and said it joined the nation in mourning the passing of Kennedy. State party vice chairman Mike Bell pointed out that Kennedy campaigned in the West for JFK and stood with the Wyoming delegation when the state put Jack Kennedy over the top for the Democratic presidential nomination at the 1960 convention.

Bell said, “Ted Kennedy was such a force in American life for nearly fifty years that it will take a while to get used to the fact that he is gone.” The outpouring of remembrance from liberals and conservatives alike reminds us that political views are, or should be, separate from the person.

Kennedy was a vehement defender of working-class and poor Americans and yet was able to give and take during negotiations on legislation without compromising his values or his friendships.

The idea that one can be opposed to an individual’s politics but not to the person seems alien to my generation. Those of us in our mid-twenties have foggy memories of former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. My generation grew up in the Clinton era – I still remember my father changing the channel when news anchors began discussing Ken Starr’s vicariously prurient interest in former President Bill Clinton’s sex life.

For my generation, politics have always been personal. In the past fifteen years, we’ve endured debates about stains on blue dresses over dinner as the level of political discourse in America sunk to the point of commentators pouring “gasoline” (read: water) on others to demonstrate what President Barack Obama is doing to the American people while insisting the “-ism” of the day was on the march.

Where was Kennedy in all this chaos?

Through all the name-calling and mudslinging, he continued to urge Democrats and Republicans to work together in order to bring about necessary reforms successfully. Kennedy advocated for single-payer health care beginning in the 1970s. Calling healthcare reform “the cause of my life,” he pressed for bipartisanship, writing in Newsweek July 27, “Our response to these challenges will define our character as a country.” Kennedy’s absence from the healthcare debate in recent months left a gaping hole in the Senate and indicated how precarious his health had become.

In March, Rush Limbaugh criticized the healthcare reform efforts put forth by the Democrats in Congress saying, “Before it's all over, it will be called the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill.” As of Wednesday, he had not backed off his comments.

Limbaugh cited Kennedy’s death from brain cancer and the extensive treatment he received to prolong his life as reason to oppose the healthcare overhaul he espoused since the 1970s. "Why support the rationing of healthcare when Ted Kennedy, the lion of the Senate, did not?" said Limbaugh.

The debate over health care has now reached a nasty, shrill crescendo – led by pundits like Limbaugh and Glenn Beck – and will hopefully, respectfully be turned down. False accusations over government sponsored euthanasia and horrific waiting periods will not do anyone favors.

One of Kennedy’s Massachusetts colleagues, U.S. House Rep. Barney Frank expressed his frustration recently with the devolving healthcare debate. After a woman compared the proposed policies on healthcare reform to the policies of Adolph Hitler, Frank sighed and said, “When you ask me that question, I’m going to revert to my ethnic heritage and ask you a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time?” As the crowd began to boo, he continued: “Trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table – I have no interest in doing it.”

Sen. Ted Kennedy would have argued with that dining room table, and I have no doubt in my mind about him he reaching a compromise with it. Kennedy represents an era hopefully not past, when citizens respected the office – if not the congressman – and congressman treated each other with dignity.

I implore the Democratic Party to remember Kennedy as a diligent civil servant and to pass the kind of reform he wanted – coverage for all Americans, which he saw as a right and not a privilege. I also beg his colleagues, if they so desire to name a healthcare bill after him, that the bill be the type of reform he would support, and not a watered-down tweak of our current system.

I encourage all Americans to remember the words his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, used on the campaign trail in 1968, quoting playwright George Bernard Shaw: “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”

Eulogizing his brother Robert in June 1968, Kennedy said, “My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”

Kennedy concluded his eulogy with what is now my wish for him: “Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.”

Meg Lanker is the editor of The Underground and can be contacted at meglanker@gmail.com

The Underground mourns Sen. Ted Kennedy

On behalf of The Underground, I wish to issue a statement expressing my condolences to the Kennedy family and friends of Sen. Ted Kennedy. Sen. Kennedy was a great statesmen and a tireless champion for those who truly needed a warrior.

This is the time to put aside the divisiveness over health care reform and remember that Sen. Kennedy worked for on this issue for nearly 50 years in office, never seeing it come to fruition as he hoped.

This is the time to mourn the "lion of the senate" as he was called by his colleagues and to celebrate the reforms he did enact - many with bipartisan support.

And this is the time to pay tribute to Sen. Kennedy and truly reach across the aisle, both as legislators and Americans, to see his dreams of health care for all actually come into being.

-Meg Lanker, Editor

Freudenthal supports state sovereignty resolution

Freudenthal supports state sovereignty resolution
Meg Lanker
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 6:35 PM MDT
update: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 8:12 PM MDT

Gov. Dave Freudenthal supports reminding Washington D.C. that Wyoming is a sovereign state under the Tenth Amendment.

The resolution was authored by Wyoming State House Representative Pete Illoway, R-Cheyenne and transmitted to the Wyoming Legislature’s Management Council July 29. Freudenthal said, in a memo attached to the resolution on his website, “From time to time we all wonder whether sending resolutions to Washington D.C. really does any good. On the other hand, it’s nice to at least get our view on the record.”

The proposed resolution is similar to resolutions adopted by other states in recent years, including Oklahoma and Michigan. The movement for states to declare sovereignty has gained momentum with the election of President Barack Obama. Much of the momentum stems from a belief, that in recent years, the federal government has gained too much power and has become what The Tenth Amendment Center calls “an oppressive central [federal] government.”

The Tenth Amendment Center, according to its website, “works to preserve and protect Tenth Amendment freedoms through information and education.” The center also “serves as a forum for the study and exploration of state and individual sovereignty issues, focusing primarily on the decentralization of federal government power.”

On the website, Thomas Grady, the founder of the Missouri Sovereignty Project, said, “It was the Bill of Rights’ final amendment, as if our Founding Fathers said, ‘By the grace of God, if the first nine amendments don’t prevent tyranny, the 10th will do so.’”

The website also features a boilerplate template for a suggested Tenth Amendment resolution for citizens to send to their governors and state legislators. Illoway’s proposed resolution follows the template closely, declaring “many powers assumed by the federal government and federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”

Illoway said Tuesday he decided to pursue a state sovereignty resolution to stand up for Wyoming's rights as a state and cited a primary reason for the resolution as a "federal government run amock."

"A majority of the States are pursuing similar resolutions and even though Wyoming has a budget session coming up, I felt we needed to pursue a sovereignty bill and stand along with other states who believe the same as we do," said Illoway.

In an interview Aug. 12 with Andrew Simons, host of Laramie’s political talk show Checks and Balances, U.S. House Representative Cynthia Lummis said she supports resolutions like these and is a “big advocate” of state sovereignty.

“The states are the most important units of government in this country,” Lummis said. “The federal government didn’t create the states. The states created the federal government.”

Simons supports Illoway's resolution as well, but had his own thoughts about the governor's support of state sovereignty.

“Governor Freudenthal supports this resolution to potentially get around current federal regulation on energy development and wolf management – not to mention currying favor with Republican voters after supporting President Obama’s candidacy,” said Simons. “He’s trying rebuild his base for a 2010 gubernatorial campaign.”

Freudenthal has not ruled out a run for governor in 2010, although he is considered term-limited. However, the Wyoming Supreme Court invalidated legislative term limits in 2004, leaving the opportunity for Freudenthal to challenge the constitutionality of his own term limits to run for re-election in 2010.

According to the Washington Post Feb. 16, when asked about the possibility that Freudenthal would seek a third term, his spokeswoman Cara Eastwood said, "When the governor has something to announce, he will announce it."

Recently, Wyoming citizens have been ramping up efforts to see Wyoming declare itself a sovereign state. At the Wyoming State Fair in Douglas, visitors were welcomed back to their cars with a newspaper published by an organization aligned with the national “Tea Party” movement. The paper accused “Gov. Dave” of supporting tyranny for not coming out against the Real ID Act and called for a Tenth Amendment resolution.

The Real ID Act, enacted under former President George W. Bush’s directive, aims to curtail terrorism by instituting a national ID program. In the state sovereignty resolution supported by Freudenthal, the Real ID Act is mentioned as one of the federal laws “where the constitutional authority for which is either absent or tenuous.”

Other federal laws mentioned were the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act – all areas where Wyoming has seen federal conflict in regards to wolf and sage grouse management, energy development and Forest Service policies.

Illoway said the specific laws mentioned in the resolution as examples of the federal government overstepping its authority were added by Freudenthal at the suggestion of Wyoming Attorney General Bruce Salzburg.

Freudenthal and his staff did not respond to repeated requests for comment.