When we first received this letter in our inbox, my first reaction was shock and awe, but then I remembered it was sent out before Tommy Ahlquist had made up his mind which party to run for.
The fact that Mr. Ahlquist had to decide which party to run for is in itself very disturbing since he is portraying himself as this very conservative republican candidate. It’s common knowledge that he has an uncanny relationship with Mayor Bieter and the city council, and he was also a major contributor to A.J. Balukoff’s campaign in 2014. What we didn’t realize was that he was one of only five contributors who donated the maximum to A.J.’s campaign.
We also didn’t realize that, according to this letter, Mr. Ahlquist stood on the “Side of women in Idaho” and rejected Republican Donald Trump’s “disgusting rhetoric” by saying, “My moral compass does not let me go there, so I can’t support Donald Trump. So that’s where I am, but it’s a very personal decision based on my family and who I am. It’s pretty easy for me.”
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We are very disturbed by Mr. Ahlquist’s comments about Mr. Trump, and this alone would give me a personal reason not to vote for him in the primary. We must all remember that words mean something and when they are said by a man who could become the most powerful person in our state, it should give real conservatives pause when they go to the polls. This is just one more reason for the voters of Idaho to be suspect of what new politicians have to say—as in many cases we have seen they will say most anything to obtain their elected office objective. The problem lies in the fact that we have to live with them governing us for the next 2 to 4 years.
The big question: Is Tommy the democrats’ Trojan horse and did the democrats secretly recruit Tommy boy to run as a republican only to have him turn democrat after he is elected?
We already know about Tommy’s ventures into urban renewal and that he is not averse to using public money to pick winners and losers or to enrich himself, but to what extent would he go if he were elected governor of our state? This is a powerful man with enormous influence and if he were to turn democrat, it would be a devastating blow to the republican party and conservatism in Idaho.
We have seen this tactic before used in northern Idaho and we are still paying the price and trying to get rid of the democrats cloaked as republicans that ran as ‘moderates’ many years ago. It’s bad enough that the democrats go out and register as republicans so they can vote for moderate republican representatives and senators in the primary. The real problem would be how many more of them would register to vote in 2018 for Tommy as Governor if they even thought that he might turn democrat.
Do we have a Benedict Arnold on our hands and if we do, what will the republicans do about it?
In our interview with Dan Johnstone, Mr. Ahlquist’s campaign manager (who is a staunch good old boy republican) we had no indication that Tom Ahlquist was anything but a republican, but then we have been fooled before.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” — Edgar Allan Poe
“We get the Government We Deserve”
