Amador, Malek win; Riggs loses close race

The youth movement was served during Tuesday’s legislative primary election in Kootenai County.

Three Republican men — incumbent state Rep. Luke Malek, 34; Paul Amador, 34; and Peter Riggs, 36 — all were leading their races with nearly two-thirds of the votes cast. While Malek and Amador won their primary races, Riggs lost a close contest to incumbent Don Cheatham.

All of these numbers are final, but won’t be official until the county canvass is completed.

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The incumbent Republican state representatives in District 2 dominated their opponents and cruised to clear victories in Tuesday’s primary election.

Position A incumbent Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, had more than double the votes, 3,250, of his opponent, Fritz Wiedenhoff, R-Rathdrum, who had 1,539. In Position B, incumbent Rep. Eric Redman, R-Athol, had 2,890 votes in his favor, over challenger Alan Littlejohn, R-Athol, with 1,691 votes.

“A lot of my friends are losing right now, so I’m not too confident about that,” Barbieri told The Press earlier in the evening at an election party held at Fedora Pub and Grille in Coeur d’Alene. “But it’s just absentee ballots right now, so we’ll see how things pan out.”

Barbieri, who captured 68 percent of the vote, added he was thankful for his supporters and all of the individuals who helped him distribute campaign information door-to-door.

“I appreciate the effort that the North Idaho Republicans put into trying to keep that conservative perspective in Boise,” he added.

His opponent Wiedenhoff, who captured 32 percent of the vote, told The Press Tuesday night that he appreciated all of the support he received.

“I wish the Republican candidates who won tonight in the primary the best of luck in the fall,” he added.

As initial results came in at Fedora, Redman, who captured 63 percent of the vote, told The Press that he would like to be re-elected because he felt like he still has work to do in Boise.

“But whatever God’s will is, is how I feel,” he added.

Redman said he was thankful to his supporters for coming out and working alongside him throughout the campaign. He also added that he was disappointed to see such a low voter turnout in the region.

“You would think that with six commissioner candidates and a sheriff’s race more people would be out voting,” Redman said. “How do we get people to get out and vote?”

Littlejohn told The Press Tuesday night that he didn’t feel bad about the results, because “the issues are still out there.” He added that he is close friends with Redman, and that the two are planning on going to lunch soon to discuss primary results.

“I want to thank everybody who voted for me,” Littlejohn said. “We’ll check out what’s going on in the next two years and work harder.”

Incumbent Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens, ran unopposed.

Richard Kohles beat Cooper Coyle 417 to 191 in the Democratic race for District 2, Position B. Kohles will run against Redman, the Republican nominee, in November.

Kohles was excited about the win and looking forward to continuing his campaign.

“I’m very pleased,” he said. “It’s important to get young people into the arena and Cooper is a good young man, but I’m focused on running a positive campaign.”

Coyle was unavailable for comment.

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Republican Rep. Don Cheatham beat out challenger Peter Riggs by just 64 votes after a nail-biting race that had the two running neck and neck all night.

The final vote was Cheatham with 1,865 to Riggs’ 1,801 votes, but the margin had tightened down to a one-vote lead at one point during the counting. Cheatham is likely to retain his District 3 House seat Position B because the Democrats did not field a candidate for that seat. A write-in candidate could still emerge, however.

Riggs could not be reached for comment before deadline, and Cheatham declined to comment when asked to talk about the race at an election party held at Fedora Pub & Grille Tuesday night.

Riggs losing to Cheatham wasn’t for lack of campaigning. Both candidates ran strong.

Cheatham raised about $9,400 between Jan. 1 and May 1, but spent a little more than $10,000 campaigning as of May 1. His challenger raised a total of $15,385 in the same time period, but only spent $8,800 as of May 1.

Three Political Action Committees spent a combined total of $20,800 either supporting or opposing Riggs and Cheatham. Two PACs supported Riggs with mailers supporting multiple candidates, polling and broadcast advertising.

One PAC supported Cheatham with a flyer supporting multiple candidates and one flyer supporting Cheatham individually.

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With over $35,000 spent between the two Republican candidates for the District 4 House position A seat, it was Rep. Luke Malek who won a tight race race against challenger Art Macomber.

Malek won 2,263 to Macomber’s 1,614.

Malek will now face Democrat Patrick Mitchell for the seat in November.

Republican incumbent Malek, of Coeur d’Alene, individually raised and spent the majority of cash during this contested primary race. He reported a $48,500 war chest that was raised between Jan. 1 and May 1. Malek spent over $33,000 and had 15,000 on hand as of May 1.

Malek had a 500 vote lead over Macomber at 10:45 p.m., but could not be reached for comment before deadline.

Macomber individually raised about $6,900 in the same time period and spent $2,200 of that as of May 1. Macomber reported that he had $4,600 on hand heading into the final week of the primary race.

Macomber, who was at an election party at Fedora Pub & Grille Tuesday night, said that Malek was only 5 percent ahead of him with just under half of the ballots counted. He said he did a lot of walking in his precinct, so he was hoping that would pay off.

As Malek’s lead grew to 7 percent of the vote, Macomber sent a text message to The Press, saying “Still less than half the vote in, so I am not going to call you.”

Political action committees also played a heavy hand in the Republican primary race for this seat, with at least nine PACs spending a combined $35,800 either supporting or opposing Malek and Macomber.

Malek drew the most support and opposition from all nine of the PACs. Six PACs donated $25,161 supporting Malek with advertising and polling. Three PACs spent a combined $7,416 directly opposing Malek, or pointing out what they considered to be a poor voting record.

Macomber drew the support of at least two PACs that spent a combined $3,242. He had no PAC opposition.

Two Democrats raised and spent nothing in their race for the nomination to run against the primary-winning Republican for one of the hottest contested seats in the House this year.

Patrick Mitchell beat a challenger, whose name is Turns To The East, 675 votes to East’s 178 votes. Turns to the East said he intentionally did not run an active campaign.

“I knew I would be considered a newbie,” he said of his almost two years residency in Kootenai County. “The Kootenai County Democrats encouraged me to run just to get someone on the ballot and I volunteered.”

Turns to the East said he would consider running again under the right circumstances.

Mitchell enjoyed running a low-funds campaign. He said he learned a lot going door-to-door.

“This is a huge election year and hopefully people will become more involved in politics and ask more questions,” Mitchell said. “It’s not about being a Democrat or Republican, it’s about the issues you believe in.”

The Democratic candidates drew no PAC support.

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Newcomer Paul Amador beat incumbent Rep. Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d’Alene, by a few more than 100 votes Tuesday night.

Amador took the seat from Sims with 2,020 votes to her 1,893 votes. He will now face Democratic candidate Tom Hearn, who is also running for the District 4 House seat position B in the general election in November.

“I don’t count my chickens before they hatch,” Amador said before all the votes were counted during an election party at the Fort Grounds Grille Tuesday night.

Amador took the lead when absentee ballot were posted to the Kootenai County Elections website at about 8:15 p.m. His lead was growing slowly as more and more precincts were counted. By 10:45 Amador was still beating Sims with 1,730 votes to Sims’ 1,640 votes.

Amador said he expected Sims to win the absentee ballots, but then again he worked hard to win that voting group.

Sims said it was too early to say much about the returns as she was watching them come in halfway through an election party held at Fedora Pub & Grille Tuesday night.

“In the last election I was 200 votes behind in the absentees,” she said. “This time I was only 90 behind in the absentees, so I guess we’ll see.”

Amador outraised Sims, bringing in $18,155 from Jan. 1 to May 1. He had spent $13,500 of that money campaigning as of May 1. Sims raised a total of $6,656 and spent $4,083 in the same time period.

Meanwhile, Hearn, who was unopposed in the primary, raised $6,300 and had already spent $4,600 of that by May 1. He still had $1,700 on hand.

While no Political Action Committees were active in Hearn’s campaign, one PAC supported Amador with a total of $5,063 in mailings supporting several candidates. Another PAC supported Sims with $2,229 in political mailings.