Public lands fight has been a lifelong battle for U.S. House GOP candidate

WORLAND -Public lands and states' rights are issues that U.S. House Republican candidate Rex Rammell feels he was born to fight for.

Rammell, a Gillette resident, visited Worland Thursday as the first stop of a Big Horn Basin campaign tour this weekend.

He said he grew up in the Teton Valley in Idaho, just west of the Teton Peaks. "I grew up with one foot in Idaho and one foot in Wyoming. I have spent a good part of my life in Wyoming. I know a lot of Wyoming issues. They are the same."

He said he watched public lands issue his entire life. "My father, and my grandfather before, we saw the environmentalists move in to our area over by Yellowstone. They just took and took and took, and restricted more and more access to the mountains. So, I guess I was born to take on this fight."

The fight, he said, is the public lands issue and wanting the states to take back the federal lands. He wrote a book, "A Nation Divided: The War for America's Soul." He said the book is based on research when he was going to run for the U.S. Senate in Idaho. (He was also a governor candidate in Idaho.)

The book is his beliefs on the Constitution, public lands, immigration and the proper role of government.

"I think the only way to save the country is to get back to the Constitution. I think the Constitution holds the key to saving the country. The only way to get back to the Constitution and force the compliance is by the states. There's not enough will in D.C. to get it done in D.C.," Rammell said.

So why run for U.S. House? "The state's rights position needs a front person to stand up in Congress and defend our state rights," he said.

"I decided the way to get the federal government to follow the Constitution was to have a state's rights issue that was huge and I picked the public lands issue," Rammell said.

He said he is concerned with Wyoming not having a diversified economy and being tied to mineral resources.

"If we lose the mineral industry there could be a mass evacuation in Wyoming. If we could get rightful ownership back to the state then we wouldn't be asking them (the federal government) to mine (referring to moratorium on coal leases). The environmentalists couldn't shut us down over sage grouse territory. Wolves wouldn't be dropped in on us. We could log so that the forests are a lot healthier. It would solve so many issues," Rammell said.

"If Wyoming had control of the land, we would also have control over a bunch of other issues. I think other state's rights issues would fall into place - abortion, abortion should always have been a state issue and it would be illegal if Wyoming decided on it; same sex marriage, that would fall; gun control laws, they would fall," Rammell said.

"Long story short, my candidacy is about getting the land transferred back to the state of Wyoming and the West. This isn't a one-state battle," he said.

Rammell said he has had his own personal battles with the government, referring to his elk ranch he had in Idaho. He fought the government on regulations over elk ranching and then in 2006 his elk got loose and the governor's office issued an order to slaughter the elk out of fear of possibly spreading disease to other elk. He tried to fight the order and was arrested for interfering with a peace officer after one of his elk was shot in front of him and he tried to prevent the Fish and Game agent from taking the elk. He said six months later he was acquitted. He said he was also charged with poaching after taking an elk in the wrong area in Idaho.

Following the elk escape and slaughter, Rammell ran for Idaho governor in 2010. After the unsuccessful bid, although he did gain 42,000 votes in the primary, he decided to move his family to Wyoming.

Rammell and his wife Lynda, have three daughters and one son, with the youngest in college. They also have five grandchildren.

He has suspended his veterinarian practice in Gillette, which he has had the past four years, to focus on his campaign for the U.S. House. He said they do have some cattle on their ranch outside Gillette. He is owner of Rammell Rodeo Company which has several rodeo bulls.

Rammell said, "I'm a rancher. I have a passion for rodeo bulls. I learned to ride as a young boy in Jackson. If that doesn't qualify as a Wyoming cowboy then I don't know what does."