NIPAC: A losing record

I have read several Op/Ed articles and posts from Sandy Patano and I was wondering “Who is she?” I Googled her name and got a lot of results. Two interesting ones were that she is the stepmother of one of the candidates, Peter Riggs, and she is on the board of NIPAC. So I searched NIPAC and I see that the North Idaho Political Action Committee raised the most money in 2014, more than $30,000 and endorsed candidates for local and state offices. How did they do?

Official results from the Kootenai County Elections office show that of the 19 endorsed candidates, only ONE won in Kootenai County. That is a remarkably bad 1 for 19 record. Four of the statewide candidates lost in Kootenai County but won statewide. NIPAC seems to be the “Kiss Of Death.” Why? They raised the most money, what did they do with it?

Records from the Idaho Secretary of State show more than $16,000 went to “Range NW” for marketing and newspaper advertising; $2,500 for literature, $2,500 went to candidates and about $7,000 for food and refreshments. Apparently Ms. Patano is a lot better at spending money and throwing parties than she is at picking winners for political office.

TONY WASILEWSKI

Hayden