Frequent local government critic Kyle Wheeler seeks office as county commissioner

The year 2019 came with big changes for Toledo business owner Kyle Wheeler.

He was struck by the death of a close friend. The following year, the COVID-19 pandemic fueled the decline of his dog day care and boarding business.

"It was one of those sort of pivotal moments for me," Wheeler said during a recent interview with The Chronicle. "Reevaluate your whole life sort of thing."

Looking back, he points to that time as the foundation of his ongoing push for accountability and transparency in Lewis County.

He recalls speaking with his husband about getting more involved in local politics from the outside - not as an elected official.

Now, he hopes to take it a step further with a campaign to become Lewis County commissioner in District 3, which includes Toledo, other areas of southern Lewis County and all of East Lewis County.

According to Wheeler, running for commissioner has long been on his mind. The Toledo resident has long been focused on local and county politics. He has been a vocal critic of local governments, officials and media outlets, including The Chronicle.

The way he tells it, it was ongoing online battles with Washington state Rep. Joel McEntire and feedback from a frequent rival, Lewis County Commissioner Sean Swope, that finally flipped the switch and triggered the campaign.

Wheeler describes a brief exchange with Swope during which the commissioner recognized a begrudging respect, despite their frequent opposition.

"It was like, 'hey, I appreciate some of your pushback, you know, I don't agree with you on a lot of the stuff that you push back on sometimes, but I appreciate some of your pushback has been needed for our community,'" Wheeler said, paraphrasing his interaction with Swope.

Wheeler has been a vocal progressive voice in the county. He openly identifies as a queer man, has been vocal about LGBTQ issues, and is running for office as an independent.

In his own words, he has "never personally identified as a Democrat." He hopes that residents will take a closer look at his stances and beliefs before labeling him a Democrat.

"I think that there are things that they fail at miserably," Wheeler said. "So that has been one of those things that I think it's important for us to have other options."

Both online and in person, Wheeler has made transparency and accountability the primary message for his campaign, and he said he hopes to set things on the right path and get out after one term.

In his interview with The Chronicle, he spoke of rebuilding trust and referred specifically to the Lewis County Sheriff's Office and "local media."

"This next term for the sheriff's department has a lot of trust rebuilding to do," Wheeler said. "I think that we need some strong people in other areas in the county that are able to sort of help navigate that trust rebuilding."

Throwing out a few ideas to help guide that process, Wheeler suggested that the Lewis County Board of Commissioners could require the Lewis County Sheriff's Office to inform them of any complaints filed against the office with the Washington state Criminal Justice Training Commission.

Concerning the media, Wheeler has cited concerns about the separation between The Chronicle and The Silver Agency - a local advertising agency that was already owned by Chad and Coralee and Chad Taylor prior to their purchase of The Chronicle in 2021.

He also recalls a disagreement with Lynette Hoffman, editor of the Winlock-based Lewis County News, over coverage of the Uncle Sam billboard along Interstate 5. He said it "snowballed into a lot of things."

As far as a day one priority in the office of commissioner, Wheeler said his first move would be to develop a plan to retrofit the Lewis County Animal Shelter. It's Wheeler's understanding that there are more than $2.5 million in county funds set aside for the animal shelter that have gone unused.

"I think that we have the money. We have everything that we need to just fix the animal shelter problem that has been a problem for a long time," Wheeler said. "I don't think we need to rebuild elsewhere. I think that we can retrofit the existing shelter where it's at."

According to Lewis County Public Health and Social Services Director Meja Handlen, Wheeler is correct.

In recent years Lewis County has received funds "specifically bequeathed for a new building" - making them restricted to that purpose.

Wheeler, who has experience in animal care and boarding, argues the animal shelter should be a top priority after it has long been put on the back burner. The county, at one time, planned to renovate two buildings on Kresky Avenue in Chehalis, eventually turning the smaller one, a former WSECU building, into the new animal shelter.

However, construction costs scrapped that plan, and the building that was originally intended to serve only temporarily as the county's night-by-night shelter and eventually become an animal shelter is now slated to remain the night-by-night shelter permanently.

Wheeler believes the county has the money to, at a minimum, renovate the existing shelter on Centralia Alpha Road and expand its capacity to accommodate animals.

He also believes the new East Lewis County substation for the Lewis County Sheriff's Office should include a small number of kennels for animals to make picking up a lost dog easier for East County residents.

Wheeler is originally from a small California town on the banks of Big Bear Lake called Fawn Skin. Wheeler would spend summers in Toutle with his mother throughout his childhood. In the early 2000s, he moved to Texas and began working in animal care, for the most part at the Austin Humane Society.

He and his husband moved to the Portland area for a short time before making the move up to Lewis County in 2016. Shortly after the move, Wheeler established a dog day care and boarding business in Toledo, which declined and was eventually closed in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was around the same time that Wheeler became well known in local politics. In 2020, Wheeler established the Lollipop Guild LLC - an independent and progressive business entity registered with the Washington state Secretary of State.

The Lollipop Guild, under Wheeler, was largely responsible for selling and distributing signs across the county with the message "Rural Americans Against Racism." It was also the legal entity involved in a lawsuit around Wheeler's attempt to construct a large sign board along Interstate 5 to display progressive messages, countering the Uncle Sam billboard, which has since been purchased by the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation.

The Lollipop Guild LLC was left to expire in 2024, according to state records, but Wheeler is still involved in Lewis County.

In 2025, Wheeler and his husband, Matt Wheeler, established the Toledo Cheese Depot, and more recently Wheeler has become involved in the local Toledo city government, receiving an appointment to the Toledo Planning Commission.

More information on Wheeler and his campaign is available on his official campaign website at https://tinyurl.com/3fz4edc8.

Wheeler is one of five candidates for Lewis County commissioner in District 3. The others are incumbent Republican Scott Brummer, Republican challengers Mike Hadaller and Tim Toerber, and Democrat challenger Zac Eckstein.

Information about all the candidates can be found at chronline.com.

The top two candidates in the Aug. 4 primary election will move on to the general election in November, where the winner will earn a four-year term on the Board of Lewis County Commissioners, joining incumbents Swope and Lindsey Pollock, both Republicans.

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This story was originally published July 11, 2026 at 11:21 AM.