On 18 August 2026 three candidates won the Teton County Commission Democratic primary and two incumbents did not return. The seats are elected at large: every candidate ran against the whole field, so no winner can be paired with any particular incumbent. A federally registered committee called Way Back PAC, filing from a mail drop in Sheridan, moved $6,430,160.86 through that period and disclosed 99.33% of it as two unnamed lines. It sent $5,500 to the three winners — more than the $5,300 that twelve people gave one of the incumbents who did not return. Every arrangement described in these files appears lawful, and most of it is disclosed somewhere — across the FEC, the Wyoming Secretary of State, handwritten paper at the county clerk, and IRS returns published eighteen months late. No voter could have assembled the picture before casting a ballot. How dark money works explains the general pattern first, for anyone meeting it for the first time.
$6,430,160.86
spent by Way Back PAC in the 2026 primary period, as amended
0.67%
of it stayed in Wyoming — $43,000 to thirteen named candidates
$5,500 > $5,300
the PAC’s Teton money exceeds what twelve donors gave Mark Newcomb
743 : 1
the committee’s spending against his
$11,229,750
granted by one Sheridan 501(c)(4) across 50 grants, every purpose line reading “general purpose”
5
documented crossings between the philanthropic and political channels
The documents
the primer
How Dark Money Works
“What am I actually looking at?”
A plain-language explanation of the chain in five stages — a person, a nonprofit that never names its donors, more nonprofits, committees, a local race — and where in that chain the public record goes dark.
one diagram · five stages · no prior knowledge assumed
01 · the whole case
Teton Money Map
“What actually happened, end to end?”
The whole structure in one graph — origin capital, the 501(c)(4) layer, the two committees, the consultants, the race.
39 entities · 4 tabs · the pass-through explained
02 · the worklist
PAC Network Map
“Where did the money go, and which database holds each recipient?”
Every committee and c4 reachable from Way Back PAC and Western Futures Fund, with legal type, registration date, address, officers — and the exact portal that holds its own spending. A reference list of the entities and their filings.
44 nodes · how the tracing works, and which records exist
03 · the local money
Jackson Philanthropy Map
“What do Wyss and Storer actually fund here, and where do the two channels cross?”
$10.26 million of Wyss money into Jackson since 2018 — essentially all human services. The Storer Foundation’s civic, media and conservation giving. Molly McUsic, the Arabella structure, the five crossings, and Mark Newcomb’s twelve donors.
36 nodes · the incumbents’ ledger · the two-rail structure
04 · the local hinge
Shelter JH
“How does a national structure become a local endorsement?”
One organisation, $320,000 in two known grants, no obligation to name a donor. The Wyoming node of a ten-state Arnold portfolio, funded by the same Sheridan c4 as the PACs, and the endorser of the slate that won.
12 nodes · the c4 disclosure gap · the CLI pipeline
05 · the reference
Committee Registry
“I need one card per entity, on paper.”
The same 64 entities as document 02, laid out as printable cards rather than a graph. One search box filters every field. Built for taking into a meeting.
64 cards · 9 groups · print-friendly
the statewide layer
The Wyoming Channel
“How does a family foundation sit next to all this?”
The charitable rail and the political rail side by side, every entity labelled by tax status — a private foundation and its five years of returns, the paired 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organisations that share executives, and the point where the two systems touch.
20 entities · five Forms 990-PF · the §4945 question answered
the record
Sources and Coverage
“Where does all of this come from?”
Every filing, statute, legislative recording and news report cited anywhere on this site, in one list, with primary records and journalism labelled separately.
filings · statute · floor video · national coverage
The central mechanism
The mechanism is a mirror. Way Back PAC files in two places and each filing itemises exactly what the other conceals. The Wyoming report names thirteen candidates and $43,000, then discloses $6,387,160.86 as two lines reading NON-WY EXPENDITURES. The federal report itemises 309 non-Wyoming rows and shows the Teton cheques nowhere at all. Neither document is false. No rule requires either one to show both halves. The federal filings alone — which is what national reporters and most databases consult — show no spending in Teton County at all.
The five documented crossings
- Better Wyoming — a shared EIN, not a shared brand. The Storer Foundation gave $1,231,000 to EIN 47-3490919 across five straight years; Western Futures Fund gave $20,000 to that identical EIN, then $30,000 to its c4 twin at the same Laramie post-office box.
- Unite America — Storer grants it $50,000; its PAC gives Way Back PAC $5,000, the only federal PAC contribution on the entire Wyoming report.
- Luther Propst — a Storer Foundation director who took $1,500 from Way Back PAC thirteen days before the vote.
- Ryan Lance — a Storer Foundation director shares a name with Way Back PAC’s treasurer and custodian of records. No document connects them; the FY2025 990-PF will print his address.
- The slate — Shelter JH, funded $70,000 by the Sheridan c4, endorsed two of the winners and recommended the third. Keep Jackson Whole, chaired by the Storer Foundation’s chief executive, advocated for the same three.
Records not yet examined
- Wes Gardner’s campaign filing — Teton County Clerk. Newcomb’s is in hand; Gardner’s finishes the table, and he knocked the doors himself.
- Conservation Lands Foundation Forms 990, Part VII, 2008–2014 — establishes whether Molly McUsic and Luther Propst sat on that board in the same year. Free on ProPublica, EIN 20-8924520. A record that has not been examined.
- Montana Freedom PAC, FEC C00943910 — federal, live, Schedule B public today, $1,678,954.97 still unspent.
- Middle Fork Strategies, EIN 92-2040834 — $252,000 from Western Futures Fund. A consulting name on a 501(c)(4), and the closest structural analogue to Mountain Movement Strategies in the network.
- Keep Jackson Whole’s expenditure report — still outstanding. It settles both the Buckrail buy and the slate question.
- Wyoming Way PAC’s Secretary of State entity record — organiser and registered agent. If Sinclair Communications appears, the Jackson post-office box on the 2022 return stops being a coincidence.