Primary election over, but GOP rift continues

COEUR d’ALENE — Phil Hart does not want credit for ousting three-term state Sen. Mike Jorgenson from the District 3 seat.

Jorgenson wants Hart and Rally Right, a new conservative political group in Coeur d’Alene with around 600 members, to share the blame.

Hart said Thursday that although he was happy Steve Vick supplanted Jorgenson Tuesday night during the primary election, it was the voters who were responsible for the upset.

“The American people are pretty conservative,” Hart said. “A lot of people run as a conservative and talk a conservative platform, but then they don’t perform that way in day-to-day life.”

According to sources interviewed by The Press, Rally Right takes firm stances on conservative values, including God as the country’s founder, states’ rights that prohibit government intrusion, and low taxation, among others. One of their slogans is: “It’s easier to fix the Republican Party than start a third party.”

They enjoyed success Tuesday night too, one member said, as at least 41 of the 71 precinct candidates who were unofficially supported as being conservative by the group, won.

But others in the Republican Party are concerned about the direction of the party following Tuesday’s results. They said Hart is recruiting candidates to support his ultra-conservative platform for North Idaho politics, and is unofficially supported by Rally Right.

“They are on an agenda to do away with what I call mainstream Republicans. We’re too moderate for them,” Jorgenson said of the 1-year-old group. “It’s something the people should be aware of and alarmed at what’s going on.”

Hart, of Athol, is the state representative from District 3 Position B. A former Constitution Party member, Hart has earned both criticism and hero status for refusing to pay federal taxes for years. He recruited conservatives Vick and Vito Barbieri to run for District 3 seats this year. He also served as a delegate for Ron Paul at the national convention, but doesn’t consider himself a Rally Right member — although he has attended their meetings.

Members of the group said voters are more interested in their message due to the state of the country, and that Jorgenson is complaining over losing to a better run campaign.

“He lost because he’s arrogant,” said Jeff Alltus, a former District 3 representative and Rally Right member. “Rally Right isn’t responsible, he is.”

Instead of focusing on issues important to conservatives, Jorgenson focused on illegal immigration laws for employers, which some conservatives see as another layer of federal government, Alltus said.

Vick captured 59.5 percent of the vote in his victory over Jorgenson. He credited hard work and a voter base receptive to states rights and personal freedom for the victory. Barbieri, who won the District 3A seat with Hart’s support and whom Alltus called “the most conservative candidate on the ballot,” agreed.

“It seems like sour grapes,” Barbieri said of Jorgenson, pointing to Jorgenson’s support of a gas tax as support for increasing taxes. “He is a moderate and he, like some of the others, want to be called conservatives.”

Barbieri, Hart and Alltus said conservatism isn’t anything new to North Idaho politics, and that Rally Right encouraged people to get out and vote. The group, whose goal is to return “to an unwavering faith in the Conservative values so wisely established under God by the Founding Fathers,” just paid attention to what voters felt was important.

But Jorgenson and others point to Hart’s attempt to introduce a state currency in Idaho as taking slogans of states’ rights too far.

Hart introduced HB 633 that would create an Idaho silver medallion as a “back up plan” or secondary currency in Idaho.

The bill failed last year at the Local Government and Taxation Committee in the Senate, and one of its opponents was Jorgenson, who said it would “put the state in the position of being a broker.”

“They play off the states rights issues,” said Jorgenson, adding he’s had his fill of Idaho politics. “But they go much farther than that.”

“I want that bill passed,” said Hart, who called Jorgenson’s no vote one more example of the senator being difficult to work with. Hart said its biggest asset would be putting Idahoans back to work mining silver.

“It would be confrontational,” conservative District 2 candidate James Stivers called the currency proposal toward the federal government. “There’s no need to go there.”

Hart said he expects it to pass next year, and that Vick is in favor of it. He added both he and Rally Right are getting too much credit for the winning candidates who ran good campaigns.

“People are rediscovering our roots, the roots of our Constitution,” he said of the voters’ decisions. “And people were looking for someone to vote on performance, not rhetoric.”