Baldwin, Fred

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Fred Baldwin has served in Senate District 14 for Lincoln, Sublette, Sweetwater and Uinta Counties in the WY State Legislature since 2017.  His total service has been spent in the House for 2015/2016, and in the Senate from 2017 to the present.  Baldwin’s house seat was previously held by his mother-in-law Kathy Davidson before she retired (source).

Baldwin has received a negative score for all three categories of Representation, Constitutional Competence and Integrity and therefore has been ranked as Low Trust.

He is up for reelection in 2024.

State Senator Fred Baldwin, who is also a [sic] physician, says there’s a bigger tie between physical health and mental health, than what people might realize.

 

“Maybe it’s back pain. Maybe it’s chest pain. Maybe it’s a rash. Could be a number of things. And when you really get down to it, the underlying cause is actually a mental health issue. Depression being the prime example.”

 

From video at (1 minutes 20 seconds) https://www.wyomingnewsnow.tv/video/2023/04/19/governor-gordon-holds-mental-health-summit/

Overall Baldwin scored a (-) for Representation for regularly abusing his elected seat to further his professional career and power.

Attendance 

It appears that Baldwin was present for every vote in 2023 General Session.

Public Conduct

Baldwin publicly demonstrates, regularly, that as a medical professional he believes he is an exception to WY Constitution Article 3, Section 46 – Interested member shall not vote.

Additionally, and more egregious, while serving on the Governor’s Mental Health Task Force, Baldwin is pushing a mental heath narrative that is both false and dangerous to all Wyoming citizens.  See Baldwin’s quote at his Summary tab.

Sponsorship History

In 2023 Baldwin was the primary sponsor of 6 bills, and co-sponsored 31 bills. Favored topics for bill sponsorship appear to be medical related.  For more on Baldwin’s sponsorship see his legislator webpage.

Committee Assignments

2023-Senate Labor, Health & Social Services Chairman.  We believe this committee is a conflict for Baldwin.
2023-Mental Health & Vulnerable Adult Task Force Chairman.  We believe this committee is a conflict for Baldwin.
2023-Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources
2023-State Workforce Investment Board
2023-NCSL – Health and Human Services.  We believe this committee is a conflict for Baldwin.
2023-NCSL – Task Force on Innovations in State Health Systems.  We believe this committee is a conflict for Baldwin.
2023-CSG West – Health.  We believe this committee is a conflict for Baldwin.

Baldwin scored a (–) for Constitutional Competence with an average of 45.2% on the constitutional issues listed below.

For more on the bills used to analyze these scores click here.  Special hat-tip goes out to Evidence Based Wyoming for the use of their statistical tool to generate the following vote scores:

Conflicts

We believe that Baldwin has a continuing conflict of interest by sponsoring and voting on bills, and serving on medical/health-related committees that significantly overlap into his private profession.  It appears that Baldwin uses his elected legislative seat to further his professional career and prestige/authority as a member of the medical community.  Because of this, Baldwin has earned a (-) grade for Integrity.

We do not believe any of the bills specified below (by bill number) are bad bills, we are simply detailing what we believe are conflicts specifically for Baldwin.

Professionally, Baldwin is a Physician Assistant.  As a legislator, Baldwin has consistently served on the Labor, Health & Social Services committee since he was first elected in 2015, and has Chaired that committee for the Senate since 2021.  Baldwin has also consistently served on various health related committees for both the National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL) and the Council of State Governments (CSG) since the initial year he was elected.

Baldwin currently co-chairs the Joint 2023 Mental Health & Vulnerable Adult Task Force.  This task force is the legislative prong of Governor Gordon’s Mental Health Initiative that, among other things, “intends to turn Wyoming courts into mental health treatment hubs, and Wyoming judges into social workers that write policy” (source).  The medical expertise that Baldwin proposes on Gordon’s Mental Health Task Force should alarm every Wyomingite, as he has stated that many medical conditions, such as back pain, chest pain, rashes… “the underlying cause is actually a mental health issue”. (Wyoming News Now video).

A 2017 bill that Baldwin sponsored, SF0021 – Death certificates, authorizes Physician Assistants to certify death certificates – and so he advanced the responsibilities he enjoys in his profession.

A 2021 bill that Baldwin successfully sponsored, 2021 SF0033 – Physician assistants amendments, “expand[s] the authorized scope of practice for physician assistants”.  On page 12 of the Wyoming Medical Society Fall 2021 Magazine, the Society explained this bill as “Legislation proposed by the Wyoming Association of Physician Assistants in 2020 set the stage for the latest stage of evolution in physician assistant practice.”  Equally important, the content of Baldwin’s 2021 SF33 was based on the “Optimal Team Practice” model promoted by the American Academy of Physician Assistants. The photo below shows lobbyists representatives from the WY Hospital Association and the Wyoming Association of Physician Assistants along with Physician Assistant-Senator Fred Baldwin and Governor Gordon after the 2021 bill signing.  This bill signing event was significant enough to Baldwin that he posted a picture of the pen Gordon used to sign the bill.

After the passage of their Senator Baldwin’s bill, the American Academy of Physician Assistants and Wyoming Association of Physician Assistants awarded Baldwin with their inaugural (first?) AAPA State Legislator of the Year Award for his “exceptional leadership on the PA profession’s priority issues” (AAPA 9/30/21 letter).

In 2023, Baldwin was the primary sponsor of a bill that was promoted by the Wyoming Pharmacy Association/American Pharmacist Association – SF0009 – Medicaid coverage-licensed pharmacists.  They too showed up for a bill signing with Governor Gordon and Physician Assistant-Senator Fred Baldwin in 2023:

Considering his legislative activism for his profession and the many medical organizations of which is a member (and receives campaign donations from), Baldwin appears to be representing the Wyoming medical community much more than his actual constituents in WY Senate District 14.  Note there does not appear to be any Senate District 14 constituents in any of the photos above.

An additional conflict of interest for Baldwin:  According to his Facebook page, he reports that he is a volunteer firefighter.  Baldwin voted on this additional conflict bill as well:

• 2023 HB118 – Volunteer firefighter pension-funding.

Employment/Income

According to Baldwin’s 2023 State Elected Officials Financial Disclosure  posted at Wyofile, he reports the following:

• Physician Assistant at Fossil Butte Medical Group in Diamondville, WY
• Co-owner of Victory Theatre in Kemmerer, WY

Campaign Contributions

The table below shows all campaign contributions reported by the WY Secretary of State for Fred Baldwin; Fred A Baldwin.

From 2014 to 2022 he received 123 campaign donations that total approximately $41,435.91.  Of the 123 donations, approximately 65 were from PACs & Campaign Committees.  The total amount received from PACS & Campaign Committees was approximately $28,700.00, which is approximately 69% of total donations received.

Noteworthy contributions are:

• $5,000 from Wyoming Hope (RINO donor)
• $1,900 from entities in the medical, pharmaceutical sector:
  • $1,000 from the WY Hospital Association PAC
  • $600 from the PAC for WY Medical Society (of which he is a member)
  • $300 from Pfizer PAC
• $1,600 from WY Teacher’s Union (WY EDUCATION ASSN PAC)
• $1,250 from ESG compliant energy company PACs:
  • $250 from DECPAC (Devon Energy Corporation)
  • $500 from NextEra PAC
  • $500 from PACIFICORP PAC
• $1,950 total from True family dynasty members (RINO donors)

The table below shows all campaign contributions for Fred Baldwin.  Click the arrows at the top of columns to sort the data by name, date, $ amount, etc.  (Data is publicly available records obtained from the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Wyoming’s Campaign Finance Information System)