Jim Roscoe, a Teton and Sublette county contractor, said Monday he will seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Monte Olsen for the Wyoming House District 22 seat representing parts of Teton, Sublette and Lincoln counties.

Roscoe, 57, said he will attend the Sublette County Democratic caucus on Saturday morning and the Teton County Democratic caucus later that day. He settled in Wilson in 1971, married Jane Baldwin in 1982 and is father to Will, born in 1984, and Wyatt, born in 1988.

Olsen, 51, of Daniel, was elected to the Legislature in 2003 and sits on the Select Management Audit and Judiciary committees. He lists his profession as skier; he has been an instructor at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. He also sits on the State Employee Compensation Commission.

Roscoe said he has come to realize in the three months since friends approached him about seeking office that his relationship with the three counties in his district qualifies him to hold office. In addition to owning a home in Wilson, the Roscoes in 1993 bought the Roxanna and Gary Jensen Ranch in Big Sandy, where his family has spent summers.

His construction firm, Roscoe Co., formed in 1987, constructs homes and does historic restorations in Teton and Sublette counties. The firm hires workers from Teton and Sublette counties, as well as from Alpine, the only Lincoln County town in the legislative district.

That association allows him to have an “ear to the ground” concerning the issues of the diverse electoral district, he said.

“Over the past three months, I have come to realize that one way I might help to preserve Wyoming’s natural resources, clean air and commitment to fiscal responsibility is by giving back to this great state of ours by running for the 22nd House District seat,” he said in a statement. “As a passionate outdoorsman and hunter in Wyoming for more than 35 years and as a general contractor in Sublette County for some 15 years and in Teton County for over 20 years now, I’ve become keenly aware that Wyoming must have strong advocates in its Legislature, who are willing to stand up to the federal government to see that Wyoming, and especially Sublette and Teton counties, use their mineral wealth wisely and protect their agricultural and unprecedented natural resources in the near and distant future.”

In a telephone interview Monday, Roscoe said he was interested in the ongoing energy boom in Sublette County and how Wyoming can have a larger voice in seeing that its landscape is not overrun. He said he is interested in ensuring that Sublette County receives its share of mineral revenue from such development and that the state’s hunting, fishing and recreation opportunities are preserved.

“With things happening on BLM and [U.S.] Forest Service [land], Wyoming can have very little to say,” Roscoe said about the existing federal minerals leasing system. “I think the process is out of sequence,” with impacts not revealed before leases are issued, he said.

Owning a ranch also makes him sensitive to the lives of stockmen, Roscoe said.

“I certainly hope to protect agricultural interests in the counties,” he said.
District 22 is made up mostly of Sublette County precincts, including those in the Hoback Rim/Bondurant area, Daniel, Cora, Pinedale and Boulder. Big Piney and Marbleton are not part of the district. In Teton County, it includes both Wilson and the Hoback precincts.