HUCKLEBERRIES: City Hall Takeover II a failure
On Tuesday, local GOP Svengali Brent Regan tried — and failed — to elect an ultraconservative Gang of Four ticket to the Coeur d’Alene City Council.
Incumbent council members held off Regan’s quartet, winning races that were too close for comfort.
If he had succeeded, the Republican kingmaker would have controlled City Hall through his minions and, therefore, Coeur d’Alene policy.
There is a precedent.
Forty years ago, the original Gang of Four swept into city office and then used their council majority and by-the-book governance to protect the shoreline and get the city out of its construction doldrums.
Attorney Jim Michaud, who went on to become a 1st District Court judge, named the group “Gang of Four.” It stuck. The group also included Mayor Jim Fromm and councilors Bob Brown and Steve McCrea.
In short order, the veto-proof quartet settled a bitter firemen’s strike, ended a building moratorium, strengthened the shoreline ordinance and brought professionalism to City Hall. They stood strong in the face of blistering criticism from pro-growth civic and business leaders.
They had captured the attention of the community by campaigning against developer Terry Phillips’ plan to build a 14-story condo building near the current site of The Coeur d’Alene Resort. There were lawsuits and countersuits against Phillips’ proposal.
City residents didn’t want high rises on the waterfront. All this happened only five years before the 18-story Coeur d’Alene Resort opened. And, of course, we have more high-rises downtown now.
Four years later, Fromm was handily beaten for re-election by Ray Stone. Brown and Michaud called it quits. And McCrea eked out a re-election win. The Gang of Four was finished.
I recall visiting Fromm in his office after the 1985 Election Day. Across McEuen Field, workers were busy finishing reconstruction on the old Templin’s site. Fromm watched the work at the emerging resort for a few moments, and then said sarcastically: “We certainly saved the shoreline, didn’t we?”
Flood gates open
Bjorn Handeen, Idaho Region 1 GOP chairman, says he knows of new arrivals who are itching to get involved in our ultraconservative politics. One transplant he knows plans to run in the spring 2022 GOP primary, office unknown at this time. The fervor of the political refugees makes Bjorn wonder if they might consider current titans of the local GOP passe. Bjorn tells Huckleberries that he and other conservative firebrands who arrived here in the mid-2000s set about to replace GOP activists, even very conservative ones, like Alice Rankin, a Buchanan delegate in 1996. But newcomers back then figured Alice, whom Bjorn admires now, and others weren’t conservative enough. Now, Bjorn said, the latest wave of immigrants may wonder if today’s local Rs are conservative enough. (Let that sink in.) "If you think we Republicans are scary now,” Bjorn said, "wait until you see what’s coming next.”
Huckleberries
• Poet’s Corner: This month turkeys/are selected:/some get stuffed and/some elected — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“November”).
• Bumpersnicker (on a black Explorer at Coeur d’Alene Walgreens): "The more I know People the more I Love my Dog!” Huckleberries approves of this message.
• And this Public service announcement comes to you from Anne Marin of Hayden: “Guys. My boob warranty came back. Good for another year! Go get you a mammogram.” In other words, Anne got a clean bill of health from her Oct. 21 exam. And urges friends to do likewise. And for you guys? I’d recommend you get an annual physical, for the sake of your loved ones.
• Bumpersnicker (spotted on a black Jeep at Ramsey and Kathleen by Karen Young of Hayden): “Black Jeep of the family.”
• Councilman Dan Gookin handed out full-size Snickers bars this Halloween again. Last week, Huckleberries dug out a newspaper article from 2016 in which Dan and others told of their Halloween rituals. Dan mentioned that his home is off the beaten path and he wanted to award tykes for making the effort to come to his door.
Parting Shot
You’d expect that a kid with a sweet tooth swiped the bowl of candy from Sara Meyer’s porch on Halloween. But you’d be wrong. Sara’s surveillance camera showed the thief to be an adult female. Sara had set the candy on her porch with a note asking trick-or-treaters to share. The kids did. But not the thirtyish woman who raced up the sidewalk, snagged the candy and ran to a waiting car. The driver revved the engine and sped off. The heist took 17 seconds. Candy Thief also hit other porches in the neighborhood. Although fuzzy, the camera showed a woman in a gray hoodie with brown hair piled on her head. She had blue jeans, with holes in each knee, and bright red-and white tennis shoes. Sure, Sara was upset by a grownup who would steal candy from babies. But something else bugged her, too. “I don’t care about the candy,” she said, “but I would like my bowl back.”
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D.F. “Dave” Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.