Republican Factions

There is a divide in the Republican Party. You have the establishment, Neocon Republicans like Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Lindsey Graham, and Nikki Haley. Then you have the common-sense conservative “MAGA” Republicans such as Donald Trump, J. D. Vance, Ted Cruz, Kari Lake and Elon Musk. This divide runs all the way from the presidency to precinct committeeman.

During my time as a Committeeman there have been six Republican Party Chairman and every time I and fellow conservatives were asked we answered the call to serve the party. We volunteered time and treasure, assisted with meetings and conventions, served on committees and did our jobs to serve the voters for the betterment of Idaho and the Republican Party.

The cooperation towards the greater good began to evaporate late in Tom Luna’s term when he unilaterally declared who was fit to be a Republican and then sued Bonneville’s Republican Central Committee for recommending candidates in the primary election. These heavy handed establishment moves shocked many and so in 2022 the Idaho Republican Party turned MAGA conservative with the election of Dorothy Moon as our Republican State Party Chairman, defeating Tom Luna who had won by 2 votes in the prior election. Moon’s victory with 62% of the 604 Republican Convention delegate votes was a landslide. By comparison, Trump’s landslide victory was 58% of the Electoral College votes.

The now minority establishment faction was NOT happy. The convention delegation of the hosting county stormed out of the hall when Moon’s victory was announced. They encouraged others to leave to crash the convention by losing quorum. They failed, but the sore loser attitude was just getting started.

Their hypocrisy was stunning. Establishment leaders would invoke Ronald Reagan’s 11^th commandment of not to speak ill of fellow Republicans and in the same breath criticize and defame the Moon administration and declared that conservatives were extremists who should be purged from the party.

The establishment was in the minority and desperate. They were losing seats in the legislature, county, and municipal offices. In response they began aligning with Democrats to the point of endorsing philosophical Democrats for elected offices. Baseless criticisms, lies and false narratives became the norm.

Two years ago the establishment faction leaders initiated a plan for a hostile takeover of the party. They claimed to have raised nearly $2 million in dark money to take over at least half of the 976 precincts in Idaho. It’s “dark” money because Precinct Committeemen are not “elected officials,” they are party officers so spending on Precinct Committeeman races is not reported under sunshine laws. Nobody knows how much was spent or where the money came from.

Spearheading the hostile takeover in Kootenai County was the North Idaho Republican Political Action Committee (NIR), a shady organization with no regular meetings, no rules and no transparency. They were fined for lying to the Secretary of State, sent a Cease and Desist order from the Republican National Committee for the unauthorized use of the Republican images, and counterfeited Official Republican Party materials. NIR has members who are self-proclaimed “Never Trumpers” who pledged their support for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Should they gain control they vowed to eliminate Republican Party recruitment, vetting and recommending of candidates so that NIR candidates, who were also the Democrat endorsed candidates, would win elections. Fortunately the hostile takeover failed, but their efforts continue.

The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) is your official Republican Party. Our members are elected. We hold regular meetings where the public is invited. We operate under published rules and our recommendations are the result of a vote of the members. If you know the facts, it’s easy to know the KCRCC is the one to trust.

It’s just common sense.