Death threat for Commissioner candidate?

COEUR d'ALENE — Kootenai County District 3 commissioner candidate Russ McLain received a message over the weekend, one he felt threatened by.

He discovered a playing card — the ace of clubs — left on his truck with the words “Get your thyroid checked” penned across it.

“I asked a friend what it meant, and she said ‘cut your throat. It’s a gang thing or a Republican thing,” McLain told The Press in an email.

He also noted his Dodge's window was broken.

McLain, an Independent running against Republican Bob Bingham in next week's election, reported the incident to the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office.

The case is still pending.

"I think it's funny. Big-city corruption in a small town. Someone is counting on Bingham getting elected," McLain said. "I wonder (if it is) the same as getting a neck-check, cut-throat Italian neck tie. They need to remember you can't kill a weed in June.”

Bingham said he has no knowledge of the incident.

"I know absolutely nothing about it and would encourage him to get with law enforcement and pursue it," Bingham said. "I don't know Russ that well. I don't have any feelings about him, one way or the other."

McLain, 51, wished whoever did this would have talked to him rather than vandalize his property.

"Why don't they just knock on the door and have a heart-to-heart talk with me, the sissies. Picking on an old truck. Shame on them."

A former bus driver in the Coeur d'Alene School District, McLain, who is now retired, was uncontested as an Independent in May's primary. This is his first run at public office.