Max Maxfield

Max Maxfield (born February 17, 1945)

From 1999 to 2007, he was the 18th state auditor of Wyoming. Because Wyoming has no position of lieutenant governor, under the terms of the state's constitution, the secretary of state is first in the line of succession to be governor.

Early life and career Maxfield was born in Beloit, Wisconsin, to Ralph and Vera Maxfield. He graduated in 1963 from Joseph A. Craig High School in Janesville, Wisconsin. He first studied at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point before transferring to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he remained until 1966. From 1968 to 1972, he worked and resided in Wisconsin and then Michigan before he relocated to Wyoming. For twenty-three years, Maxfield served as an executive director for the YMCA and for more than a year, he was the head of the Wyoming branch of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In addition, Maxfield led the Wyoming Recreation Commission from 1987 to 1989, and the Wyoming Department of Commerce from 1989 to 1994. With his term in office coming to a close, Maxfield sought and won election in 2006 to become Secretary of State - beating Libertarian candidate Dennis Brossman 82-18 percent. He assumed the office in January 2007.

The second action is his lawsuit, beginning in late September 2011, to overturn the two-term limit on the five executive offices of the Wyoming state government, of which his own position is one. Approved by initiative in 1992, the term limits originally extended to state legislators as well, but in a separate lawsuit in 2004 that particular aspect of the initiative was declared unconstitutional and voided. That lawsuit did not cover the limit on the executive offices, but Maxfield argues the same principle which voided legislative term limits should be applied to the executive. Maxfield filed the motion as a 'private citizen' without consulting the other executive officers, but Governor Matt Mead expressed support for the attempt to resolve the legal uncertainties of the law - though he himself personally supports term limits - while then State Treasurer Joe B. Meyer supported Maxfield's position and opposed term limits. The Wyoming Supreme Court ruled in favor of Maxfield in 2013, when it struck down term limits for the positions of secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, and superintendent of public instruction.