CHEYENNE – Republican candidate for governor Rex Rammell has filed a lawsuit against the secretary of state for failing to bring a court action to remove fellow candidate Brent Bien from the primary ballot on Aug. 16.
Rammell says Bien doesn’t have lengthy enough state residency, an allegation Bien denies. Rammell first publicly raised the issue last week at a candidate debate, and then spoke about it in a follow-up interview. On Friday, in an email to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, Rammell said he had filed the legal complaint.
The Election Division of the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office responded Tuesday to a complaint made by Rammell, and said it was determined the complaint seeks a legal analysis of the term “residence,” which goes beyond what is already contained in the current statute.
“Interpretation of that nature must be done by an appropriate judicial officer,” the office stated Tuesday in an email. “Similarly, the removal of a candidate from the ballot would require a court order. At this time your complaint will be closed without further action.”
Rammell planned to have held a news conference on Thursday to discuss the details of his suit, which he had promised to file if the Secretary of State’s Office didn’t act on his complaint. The event will take place in the parking lot next to the Cheyenne Perkins Restaurant and Bakery, located at 1730 Dell Range Blvd., at 11 a.m.
“Four years ago, the Secretary of State brought action against then gubernatorial candidate Taylor Haynes for failures to reside within Wyoming for the previous five years,” Rammell’s press release stated. “But now a very similar situation exists with Brent Bien and the secretary has bowed out.”
The Committee to Elect Rex Rammell Governor of Wyoming stated that Secretary of State Ed Buchanan did not say Bien was eligible, but instead of seeking a judicial solution, Buchanan has backed out of the case in dereliction of his duty. Buchanan’s office declined to comment on the litigation, beyond providing the WTE with its recent correspondence to Rammell.
Bien tells the WTE that upon graduation from the University of Wyoming’s Engineering College in 1991, he commissioned as a U.S. Marine Corps officer. He retired from the active duty in 2019.
Throughout his time in the military, he maintained his Wyoming residency, Bien says. He says he never relinquished his drivers license, voted in all state elections by absentee and at least one of his vehicles, if not more, was registered in Wyoming for the duration.
“I spent a career voluntarily defending the freedoms of all Americans and all Wyomingites, and participated in many combat deployments,” he wrote in an email Wednesday to the WTE. “Article 6, Section 7 of the Wyoming State Constitution ensures that I do not lose my residency while serving in the United States military.”
This report has been updated, in the headline and first two paragraphs, to show that Rammell now says he has filed his planned lawsuit.
