A state legislative process typically involves committee members in two chambers separately discussing a bill, a conference committee, then a floor vote, then a Governor’s signature. Some of that input comes with useful comments from officials, but it’s up to the courts to decide how to weigh the a diversity of opinions and turn it into a single “legislative intent” that can be applied to citizens so they can follow the law. In this account of some Wyoming campaign finance reform legislation, we see a good example of the ambiguities of not just the law as written but the possibility of wildly different intents behind it.
An attempt to update and reform Wyoming’s campaign finance laws may have accidentally repealed all regulations covering groups that do not normally participate in political campaigns — even if they sometimes do spend large sums to support political causes.