Mutiny on the USS Republicana
COEUR d’ALENE — Gridlock in Boise would be better than the continued reign of the Idaho Republican Party’s ruling class, say some North Idaho conservatives.
And that’s not just talk. They’re willing to throw their votes to the Democrats to drive “faux” Republicans out of office and give conservatives who adhere to the Idaho Republican Party’s platform a chance to take their places later.
Political veteran Ken De Vries was the Republican nominee for state representative for District 5 in 2012. The Benewah County resident and software consultant ran on a line of economic freedom, low taxes, state sovereignty, and gun rights.
Though he lost in 2012, De Vries stayed active in Republican circles and supported Republicans such as Rep. Caroline Nilsson-Troy in 2014. By 2015, however, he had become disillusioned with the lip service he felt that Idaho Republican political leaders gave to his conservative principles. In August of that year, he wrote a scathing indictment of the Republican aristocracy for the political website, World Net Daily.
De Vries explained that then-candidate Donald J. Trump had successfully wrenched control of the party away from the factions De Vries called “the Elite” and “Club Republicana” by negotiating from strength, never apologizing for what he believed, not fearing the media, and having a willingness to “go nuclear.” In order to hand control over the wayward Idaho Republican Party back to the faction De Vries called “True Conservatives,” such conservatives would have to treat the other two factions of the GOP the same way Trump treated them.
“Club Republicana,” which De Vries estimated at 70 percent of the party membership, “cowers in fear of the media, the party leadership and at the mere mention of a Republican defeat. The trick is to make them cower in fear of conservatives. To do this, we must do just as Donald Trump has done to the national Republican Party leadership — we take them hostage,” De Vries wrote. “We then actually work to defeat liberal Republicans, even if it means a Democratic victory. We must understand that electing a liberal Republican thinking that he or she will be any better than a liberal Democrat is nothing but a delusion.”
THE PAYOFF
In 2016, De Vries put his money where his mouth was. He ran as an independent against Nilsson-Troy, garnering 2,507 votes in an attempt to torpedo her re-election bid and hand the seat over to her Democratic opponent. This year, he and fellow conservative activist Chad Inman have urged widespread adoption of this strategy to rid the Idaho Republican Party of what they deem insufficiently conservative leaders.
“The anvil is the party platform and we’re just using the opposition as the hammer,” said Inman, a Sandpoint native who has spent years in the Republican trenches statewide. “I believe none of this would be necessary if the Republican Party endorsed candidates on the basis of the platform.”
Only one of Idaho’s four electoral college voters subscribes to the state party’s platform, said Inman. And the one who does, Rep. Raul Labrador, “is retiring. So it’s an issue, it’s a real issue.”
The objective of this strategy is to get conservatives who adhere to the Idaho Republican Party’s platform on the ballot and into office, and to oust those who govern as liberals despite having an “R” after their names, Inman said. He cited Sen. Shawn Keough as a perfect example. The retiring senator for District 1 has spent decades governing as a liberal while affiliating as a Republican, thanks to the emotionally-driven voting habits of her Republican constituents who feared a Democratic victory more than a progressive policymaker, Inman said.
AT WHAT COST?
When broaching the possibility of throwing an election to the Democrats in order to eventually get conservatives elected, Inman said fellow Republican activists in Bonner County have treated him like a crazy man. Inman and De Vries both said they’ve been called liberals, socialists, subversives, and worse by Republican loyalists.
“I’m the same guy who ran as a conservative in 2012 and 2016,” said De Vries. He added, “We’re not Democrat operatives here. I have no hidden agenda. The agenda is really to save the Republican Party and get back to its platform. That’s the agenda.”
De Vries explained that the men get treated poorly by party loyalists because the prospect of Democrats winning elections “absolutely terrifies” the Club Republicana and elite factions of the Republican Party. He said a prominent pro-life leader approached him in 2016 to get him to end his bid to oust Nilsson-Troy from the state legislature. Despite De Vries taking a more strongly pro-life stance than Nilsson-Troy, the leader told De Vries to drop out because if Nilsson-Troy lost, a Democrat would take her place.
But to De Vries, the only difference between Republicans like Nilsson-Troy and Democrats is the name of their parties. Republicans in name only, or RINOs for short, are the problem for which throwing elections to the Democrats is the solution, he said.
“I do not support the Democratic platform. I am not voting for a Democrat. I am voting against the RINO,” he said. “I am just using the biggest tool for the job to drive a nail. If there was a good third party, that would work, too. Right now the best tool for the job is the Democrats.
“Unless we do something drastic, Idaho’s going to go down the toilet. The RINOs will take us down the toilet,” he added.
MUTINY’S MOTIVATION
Idaho’s unique circumstances give the mutinous strategy a built-in measure of safety, said De Vries. Thanks to the overwhelming Republican majority in the state legislature, Republicans could lose many seats and still retain a majority.
Further, because the minority party legislators don’t vote for legislative leadership, “When you trade a RINO for a Democrat, you gain because you strengthen the True Conservative caucus in the legislature,” said De Vries.
Conservatives may gain power if the strategy takes hold.
“The playing field is set up so that this will work. It may change in 10 years, but for now we have a lot of room to wiggle and we actually gain by throwing out the RINOs and replacing them with Democrats,” De Vries said.
The pair said the strategy will take multiple election cycles to catch on and yield effects, but that the main obstacle is the unthinking loyalty of Club Republicana voters. Swinging a legislative district with a slim Republican margin to the Democrats this year would be a great start, said De Vries. But the pair and their allies have another target in mind. No. 1 on their hit list this year is the Republican nominee for governor, Lt. Gov. Brad Little.
“Voting for Paulette Jordan would be a vote for gridlock,” said Inman, who predicted that a Governor Jordan would get nothing done with the Republican legislature.
“If she does get elected, there would be 12 legislators agreeing with her agenda. What are they going to get done? They’re still the minority party. And even counting RINOs, the RINOs will be exposed for voting for her agenda, which can be used against them in the same hammer and anvil situation. No one supports her; she’s a bumbling idiot, fine.”
He urged others to remember that Republican Gov. Butch Otter appointed pro-Obamacare Republicans to run state agencies.
“How could you get any worse?” asked Inman.
‘A LOSING STRATEGY’
While alleging that “there are some in the Republican Party who cooperate with Democrats to actively work against the interests of Idahoans” and understanding why some would like “to take the wind from the establishment sails,” the Idaho Republican Party’s regional chairman for North Idaho, Bjorn Handeen, called the mutiny a losing strategy.
“I can’t have my own side shooting holes in the boat we are trying to commandeer,” Handeen said. “The conservative wing of the Idaho Republican Party has more clout than ever before and achieved more than a few primary victories elsewhere in the state.”
Handeen defended Little as more conservative than Otter, citing his endorsement of Jim Brannon for Kootenai County Clerk, and of Chad Christensen for state representative in District 32. Christensen beat the incumbent Republican, Rep. Tom Loertscher, in May. Loertscher is now running a write-in campaign that Otter endorsed this month.
Idaho Republican Party chairman Jonathan Parker flat out condemned the mutiny strategy.
“The Idaho Republican Party supports Lt. Gov. Brad Little. We’re very excited for him to be Idaho’s next governor,” Parker told The Press. “He went through our primary process. We support all our nominees from the top of the ticket to the bottom of the ticket.”
DEMOCRATS RESPOND
Jordan said she won her state legislative seat in 2014 and 2016 because of crossover votes from Republicans, and she welcomes such voters this year.
“I don’t doubt that some of the voters you’re talking about and I differ on some of the issues, but here’s the thing: People are sick of career politicians who don’t tell them the truth and they are tired of big corporate money influencing what happens in Boise at the Statehouse. I hear it all the time: ‘I don’t have to agree with you 100 percent of the time,’ they tell me, ‘but I want to believe that you’re telling me what your position is and why.’ Voters want to be listened to and heard. I have always done that and they know I always will.”
Kootenai County Democratic Central Committee chairman Shem Hanks said he has heard stirrings of mutiny within the GOP, and has seen activists from his party urge a similar strategy for their own ends.
“Democrats talk to me about similar strategies suggesting that Democrats should vote for the more moderate candidate in the Republican primary,” Hanks said. “I tell them that they should vote their values and be true to themselves and not vote for some creative but unlikely partisan strategy.
“However, it would be an interesting turn of events if Little, who was helped by Democrats registering as Republicans in order to beat Labrador, was defeated by Paulette Jordan because of Republicans being unhappy with Little being a RINO.”
THIS IS WAR
De Vries and Inman are prepared to wage a long campaign of insurrection against the Idaho Republican Party, all in the name of saving it and its party platform. They have formed the Idaho GOP Platform Adherence Committee, which is online at facebook.com/IDGOPPAC.
Conservatives have to “put the fear of loss” into RINOs, Inman said.
“This is the only strategy conservatives have left. We have tried ‘reaching across the aisle.’ We have tried compromise. We have all voted for the Lesser-of-2-Evils candidate at one time or another. All this has resulted in the destruction of the Republican Party and America’s ever accelerating transformation into a third-world socialist cesspool,” wrote De Vries in 2015.
“I will point the deck gun at the ship and say, ‘You do it my way or we’re going to sink the ship,’” he said.