Wyoming Vote Tracker

Just when you think you’ve explored every facet of a story, you talk with someone that gets you to dig a little deeper, unless you’re a National Park Superintendent.

This happened a few days ago. I was merely minding my own business in the blogosphere when I received a comment from a friendly reader that chooses to remain anonymous. At any rate, he allowed me to call, which I did to confirm some information and the topic of Rep. Zwonitzer’s withdrawal (which at the time was news to me) came up. We then transitioned to the topic of a particular congressional candidate that we both have some angst about. He mentioned that Dave Featherly had done some amazing research on the issue, so that prompted me to seek the help of Google.

In my first direct attack on Mark Gordon (as opposed to the subtle sarcastic lines questioning various aspects of his Republicanism), I had noted that there were 7,500 reasons to be concerned about his candidacy. It is no coincidence that 7,500 is the dollar amount I arrived at in calculating donations that Mark Gordon had made to Democrat candidates (as recent as 2006), the Democrat Party (also as recently as 2006), and Democrat-leaning causes, such as the Sierra Club. Admittedly, there was only one donation to the Sierra Club and it was made back in the 90’s, but nevertheless, it was an example of his willingness to dig deep when donating to less-than-conservative-Republican causes.

Juxtapose those numbers with his $500-or-less donations to assorted Republican causes (mostly WYGOP), until late last year when the idea hits to run as (and I do mean as) a Republican for Congress. Then it’s perfectly fine, and almost expected, to bust out the big bucks for Republicans. After all, you might help remake the party. Plus, if you throw enough dough around, nobody will pay attention to who or what you donated to back then, even if “back then” happens to be as recent as the last election cycle. After all, all us rural back-country folk in the Cowboy State barely know how to turn on a computer, let alone do complex research on this thing a former Vice President invented shortly after he discovered global warming.

Of course the little-known-fact is that word of mouth in this state has a comparable delivery speed of that fancy DSL internet, and has been known to travel at the speed of a forest fire on a hot, windy, summer day.

I stand by everything I said in that post. It is all easily verifiable on the FEC website, but there appears to be more than meets the eye when it comes to Mark Gordon’s Democrat donations. Here’s more of what Dave Featherly found:

In 1998, he gave $1,000 to the Kathy Karpan Senate campaign. In 1996, he gave a thousand of his hard-earned bucks to the Sierra Club Political Committee. Let’s see, does that group tilt Democrat or Republican? He also gave $200 more to the DNC. In 1994, he gave $600 to the (Mike) Sullivan for Senate campaign. To cover his bases, he also gave $500 to the Craig Thomas for Senate campaign. And to Robert Shuster, Barbara Cubin’s first opponent - $400. From 1982 through 1994, Mark Gordon contributed SIX times to the Sierra Club PAC in the sum of $5,100. And he wants to serve Wyoming as a Republican?

This was back in February, a month prior to me becoming informed about the issue at the Big Horn County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner and then researching it and eventually posting it. In April, the day before I published “7500 Reasons” Dave Featherly dug into the Sierra Club-Mark Gordon connection:

He has said he contributed to the Sierra Club so he could get his foot in the door. He has forgotten to mention that he served on the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club from 1991-1993. Or as Trustee of the Sierra Club Foundation from 1987-1990. Or that he was on the Sierra Club Foundation’s National Advisory Council as recently as 1998. Or that, between 1982 and 1998, he contributed $7,100 to the Sierra Club’s PAC. The Sierra Club has been described as a: “Lobbying and outdoor group attacking private property rights and free enterprise in the name of saving nature. Sole effort is to centralize control of land
and the economy in authoritarian state.”

Indeed, Mr. Gordon’s environmental affiliations and beliefs can be verified in a number of places on the web, including a 1981 wedding announcement published in the New York Times.

Mr. Gordon, a rancher, is a graduate of St. Paul’s School and Middlebury College. He is chairman of the Wyoming Chapter of the Sierra Club and Wyoming representative for the Friends of the Earth, both environmental organizations with headquarters in San Francisco.

Indeed it is interesting, at the Park County Lincoln Day Dinner in February, he supported Cody’s noble efforts in standing up to the Federal government on such issues as multiple use and public access with respect to the Sylvan Pass winter non-use plan, yet he has been a very influential member of organizations that have supported the big government bureaucracies’ over-reaching power above state’s and private property rights? Yes, after finding this information out, Mark Gordon sounds like the perfect Congressional candidate from Buffalo, not Wyoming, but rather New York.

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