LYMAN — Taking to the road in a swing across southwest Wyoming Brent Bien, candidate for the seat of the Wyoming governor was in Lyman Tuesday.

Following his stop in Lyman, Bien was going to go to the Evanston area and other points in southwest Wyoming.

Bien is a Laramie resident, who is a retired military officer who returned to Wyoming three years ago after finishing his military career as officer-in-charge of the U.S. Marine Corps base on Guam. When he retired from the military, Bien and his wife, Susan, bought a house in Sheridan where she works as a nurse at the Veterans Affairs Hospital. Although gone from Wyoming for nearly three decades, Bien said he kept his Wyoming residency because that is where he called home.

Bien resigned his position as director of safety and standardization at Big Horn Airways in Sheridan in November after deciding to run for governor.

A naval aviator since 1991, Bien, who retired as a colonel, served in both support and leadership positions in Bosnia/Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Now Bien wants to use those leadership skills to take charge of Wyoming’s government as its governor. He claims there is a lack of leadership in the governor’s office and Wyoming government is way too large. He said the statistics are there is one government employee for every four residents in Wyoming, when talked to at the LIS parking lot next to Taco Time Tuesday afternoon.

Bien is one of several candidates who are challenging Governor Mark Gordon this year in the election.

Bien questioned the cost of state government and what he called was a need to get the state back on a sound basis financially. He said there is a lot of money, but it isn’t being spent the way it should be. He said he is interested in providing government accountability.

Bien had been in the Rock Springs/Green River area on Monday and had heard of the meeting the Uinta County Conservation District (UCCD) was holding in Lyman on Tuesday on the Colorado River Compact. He said he wanted to attend the meeting.

Andy Stocks, a candidate for WHD 19, and a resident of Lyman, was on hand to talk to and promote Bien. Stock is running as a Republican and was the first candidate to file for this year’s election. He has said he has been given written information he will be formally endorsed by Wyoming’s “Right-to-Life” and the ‘Gun Owners of America.” Earlier he had said he was “tired of government overreach, taxation and watching our Wyoming Legislators pass bills that are in opposition to our conservative ideals and our Constitutional Rights.’