These Idaho conservatives reject 'liberal' moniker, stand up to far right attacks

Editor’s note:

The original version of this story contained two errors.

One was an editing error, where the word “former” was mistakenly dropped from a reference to one-time Idaho Conservatives Communication Director Holly Cook.

The other error was misattribution of the following quote. The Press story attributed the quote to Cook, but it actually came from the main source for the article, Idaho Conservatives leader Jennifer Ellis:

“The whole reason we rebooted Idaho Conservatives was because we want to attack ideals, not people. We want to defend Idaho’s values, but that means having a genuine dialogue with people we disagree with. We shouldn’t be debasing ourselves with name-calling or demonizing people, certainly not within our own party, because we don’t always agree on everything. And the ‘wamen’ thing is ridiculous.”

The Press apologizes to Cook and to Ellis for the mistakes.

- • •

From her ranch in Blackfoot, 377 miles southeast of Coeur d’Alene, Jennifer Ellis couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’ve been a conservative all my life,” she said. “I vote Republican right down the board. Always have. So to hear somebody call me a liberal is about the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Ellis has heard plenty to make her laugh since the beginning of the year. The fifth-generation Idahoan chairs Conservative Communication Solutions, which acquired the media group Idaho Conservatives in January. Idaho Conservatives promotes what it considers conservative values through five basic platforms:

- Encouraging civil and respectful dialogue

- Being inclusive of different perspectives

- Advocating for open and transparent government

- Choosing thoughtful strategy over an obstructionist mentality

- Dedicating itself to conservative principles

The fifth ideal might be debatable in North Idaho’s conservative ethos, which is exactly Ellis’s point. What once served as a fencepole of conservative politics, she said, has now crossed from stoic and stately to frenzied and mean.

“The reason we started this new Idaho Conservatives was simple,” she said. “Several of us for years had watched how campaigning had gone downhill. We watched how the ends slowly began to justify the means. We watched as Republican incumbents who actually did something in office, people we could all be proud of, voted on that one piece of legislation that rubs alt-right groups the wrong way. And those groups would go after these honest-to-God conservatives who would get hammered on the internet, get hammered in office. It’s an embarrassment.”

The groups Ellis refers to include the Charles Carroll Society, a freedom-screaming media outlet that promotes the Redoubt movement, a politically conservative migration into Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington and eastern Oregon. Alex Barron, founder of the society, secretary of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee and self-described “Bard of the American Redoubt,” recently published a blog post on the outlet’s website titled “#NeverTrump Idaho Republicans have a new site Idaho ‘Conservatives.’”

Barron, who emphasized he was speaking for himself and not any organization, said in a statement to The Press that Idaho Conservatives does not decide the definition of the word “conservative.”

“Unlike the Idaho so-called Conservative blog, I cannot say ‘who has a place’ in the Idaho political landscape,” he wrote. “The rank error of the Idaho so-called Conservative blog is that they get to define what a conservative or Republican is. The truth is that they do not.”

Barron said he wrote the original article as a warning. “to warn Republicans and conservatives in general that there was a new blog started by a secretly funded LLC that is run by a bunch of #NeverTrump liberal, big government, compromising Republicans.”

The post, which has since been picked up on other conservative sites like the Gem State Patriot News, depicts Ellis and former Idaho Conservatives Director of Communications Holly Cook as wolves in sheep’s clothing. To underscore his point, Barron deputizes Malcolm X:

“Malcolm X despised politically fake people,” Barron wrote. “He said southern bigots’ prejudice was in your face, like a dog. Liberals, or what we now call progressives, were like foxes pretending to be something they are not. These Idaho ‘Conservatives’ are below contempt — what Malcolm X called ‘smiling foxes’; cowards who raise money in the dark to tear down other Republicans.”

The blog depicts Ellis as a #NeverTrump progressive, someone who will never vote for President Trump, quoting from Ellis’s blog that “I do not like, nor do I approve of, the way the President attacks people personally.”

“It’s true,” she confirmed to The Press. “I don’t like the way the president attacks people. I hold the presidency in high regard; we all should. I think the president should hold himself to a higher standard and act accordingly. That doesn’t make me a liberal. If anything, it makes me a conservative. My conservative views don’t change just because I don’t follow the orders of the Idaho Freedom Foundation.”

The Idaho Freedom Foundation is a policy shop and government watchdog based in Boise that scores elected officials based on 12 factors, including how the legislator votes to create or eliminate government scope, reduce or increase taxes, redistribute wealth and increase or decrease public spending.

Ellis said the influence the Idaho Freedom Foundation has over North Idaho Republicans has more to do with idolatry than ideology.

“We should be empowering people to speak up with their opinions, even when those opinions are unpopular,” she said. “But these sites, like the [Gem State Patriot News], Redoubt News and the Idaho Freedom Foundation, they put crowns on these people. If you don’t swear your undying allegiance to the Idaho Freedom Foundation, you’re [deemed] a progressive.”

Wayne Hoffman, president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, disputed Ellis’ assertions. He said his organization has a long history of inclusivity.

“For more than 10 years, we have fostered great working relationships with legislators — Republican and Democrat, conservative and liberal — resulting in the adoption of myriad policy solutions that have improved the lives of Idahoans,” Hoffman said. “Many of our policy solutions have passed with overwhelming support, and that support has never been limited to any one part of the state. We welcome all groups that engage in public policy discussion. We would only ask that groups be civil and avoid attempts to deceive the public.”

Hoffman went on to claim Idaho Conservatives’ very nature was deceptive, starting with its name.

“I would ask why they’ve selected the ‘conservative’ moniker when their intent is to present a moderate viewpoint and attack conservatives,” he said.

Ellis said she’s seen — and been the victim of — personal attacks. She cited the 2018 lieutenant governor’s race, which she noted devolved into the airing of a personal financial problem involving the wife of candidate Steve Yates via private emails, demeaning depictions of Republican candidates on neoconservative websites, and being called corrupted “swamp rats.”

“There’s no swamp money in Idaho Conservatives,” Ellis said of its seven founders. “Three of us are ag, for God’s sake. It’s that kind of stuff that muddies the water, and it gives Republicans a bad name. We’re working hard to stand up for Idaho ideals: fiscal responsibility and limited government. ‘Limited’ doesn’t mean gutting the government. It means good governance as a public service. It used to be about statesmanship.”

Ellis said the road back to statesmanship is straight — but obstructed.

“Eighty percent of Idaho Republicans can all agree on the same issues,” she said. “And we could probably agree on more if groups like the John Birch Society and the Gem State Patriot [News] and the Redoubt News didn’t use such broad strokes to paint people in a certain light. It’s like when you take a shotgun to something: There’s collateral damage. That’s what we at Idaho Conservatives want to return to: A place where we can disagree without disintegrating into attacking one another. Republicans are the big majority here in Idaho for a reason, but we spend all our energy attacking one another.”

Case in point: Wamen.

‘Wamen’ is a term from Barron’s blog, which he used to describe Ellis and Cook. Neither Merriam-Webster nor the Oxford English dictionaries list ‘wamen’ as a word. The Urban Dictionary, a compendium of modern slang, defines ‘wamen’ as “a rare species of women that usually need more attention/respect than any other women,” and who “sometimes asks a stupid question.”

“‘Wamen’ is an old internet meme,” Barron explained. “Social justice warriors believe you cannot debate, criticize or in any way question any woman. Ever. You must only ‘believe all women,’ and only ‘respect women.’ All the time. As Jennifer Ellis comes across as a ‘my way or the highway’ type, I decided this meme applies to her.”

That’s a prime example of the character attacks and assassinations that people try to make to get a point across, and I just don’t think that’s conducive to any positive dialogue,” said Cook, the former communications director. “Kudos to Mr. Barron for having strong convictions, but respect is always a great thing too.”

Ellis brushed off the slur. “After I Googled what it meant, I just laughed,” she said. “He’s out there spreading this nonsense. It’s beneath me to even comment on it, but I will say it’s pretty off-putting. Their message doesn’t sell. You have to have a sellable message, not the name-calling they’re resorting to. Most people walk away from that.”

Ellis added that dismissing alt-right media tactics doesn’t always spell good news for Republicans.

“My biggest fear in Idaho right now is that these voters will be turned off by [aggressive rhetoric] and vote Democratic in the next election,” she said. “The last thing we need is a leftist agenda compromising our values. But if we’re not careful with how we treat one another, that’s where we could be headed. I’m worried about the amount of money that’s being poured into Idaho from the far left. But I have to wonder: If we didn’t have the far right, would it have come into the state into the first place?”

“First,” Barron pointed out, “I reject the label ‘far-right.’ Also, Ellis and Cook are not moderates; they are Republicans who believe the government is the answer and who are willing to compromise the liberty of Idahoans to implement their world view.”

Ellis said Idaho Conservatives and Conservative Communication Solutions are not political action committees or advocates for candidates, but rather a media arm that promotes civil rhetoric. She said the best way for voters to decide the party’s course was through education.

“The folks in North Idaho,” she said, “if they do some real research on the people running the party, they’ll see it’s just a paper tiger. It’s just about doing what the Idaho Freedom Foundation wants.”

One Republican official, Kootenai County Commissioner Chris Fillios, has seen that paper tiger up close — and sometimes felt its bite. Here’s how Fillios summarized the brand of politics he’s witnessed under the Republican Central Committee leadership that includes Barron and Chairman Brent Regan:

“I’ve been a Republican my whole life, and over the past 10 years I’ve observed the party morph into a bastion of libertarian and Redoubt ideals, contrary to those of the national Republican Party. I can only say to those who wonder if I’ve changed that it’s the leadership of the KCRCC that changed — they left me, and many others. As a county commissioner, I took an oath to obey the federal and state constitutions, and as such, I work for all the people of Kootenai County.”

Another Republican county commissioner, Bill Brooks, sided with Fillios and provided a written statement.

“Within the past few years, our local Kootenai County Republican Central Committee has worked tirelessly to ‘purify’ the Republican Party by driving any Republican off of the Kootenai County Central Committee who dares to be anything but a Libertarian and a follower of Chairman Brent Regan,” Brooks wrote.

“In addition, at the direction of the leadership, the Central Committee has undertaken a very active, clandestine campaign against anyone who has not passed Brent Regan’s ‘purity test’ — unquestioning allegiance to Regan’s erroneous, myopic and narrow view of what a ‘real’ Republican is.

“I am a conservative Republican who believes in strict adherence to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In my opinion, our founding documents are not ‘living documents’ — they are in fact the contract between the people and our federal government,” Brooks wrote.

“Even so, I am apparently not ‘pure’ enough for the leadership of the Central Committee. I believe the Central Committee is decimating the Republican Party in Kootenai County. There are far too many Libertarians masquerading as Republicans and surfing on the reputation of the Republicans of Kootenai County.

“I believe that the true RINOs are Libertarians who don’t have the courage to publicly declare their beliefs.”

Contacted by The Press, Regan issued the following response:

“There are people who would blame others for their own shortcomings,” he wrote. “The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee consists of committeemen from each of the 70 precincts. They are elected by only those voters in their precinct. Because of this the KCRCC offers the most accurate representation of the affiliated Republicans in the county. The Republican party is vibrant and growing, with over half of all registered voters in Kootenai County affiliating as a Republican. Claims of ‘extremism’ ring hollow and are not supported by reality.

“We have repeatedly witnessed people transformed by the power they are granted by elections. Invariably elected public servants see this transformation as the world changing and not themselves who have changed. As chairman I serve at the pleasure of the committee. At our May 2018 meeting I was honored to be re-elected by the committee by acclamation. The primary goal of our Republican Party is to implement public policies which have been proven to improve the lives of Idaho citizens. These policies are articulated in our party’s platform.”

On Friday, Idaho Conservatives posted a commentary detailing the organization’s stance against abusive language, shaming techniques and silencing rhetoric.

“We are not going away,” Ellis wrote. “We will continue to stand up to abusive tactics and unsafe behavior in Idaho politics until positive change occurs.”

Ellis told The Press she is cautiously optimistic Idaho Republicans can return to their roots.

“A whole lot of people want to move to Idaho,” she said, “because generations of elected officials have helped keep Idaho what it is, because we citizens helped keep Idaho what it is. And I’m dang proud of that.”