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Response to accusations against the KCRCC

by BRENT REGAN/Guest Opinion
| March 22, 2022 1:00 AM

Can the truth be part of a lie? Yes. In fact, the most persuasive lies have an element of truth. For example, is it true to say that people who were affiliated as Republicans changed their affiliation to Democrat so they could run as precinct committeemen in the Kootenai County Democrat Central Committee? Yes, but the full story is that many of them started as Democrats and then affiliated with the Republican Party to vote in the Republican primary but had to switch back to affiliating with the Democrats so they could run for a Democrat office. They have no problem playing ping pong with their affiliations.

For years, prominent Democrats, progressives and RINOs, like Jim Jones, have been encouraging democrats to affiliate as Republicans so as to influence the Republican Party’s selection of their nominee for the general election. It seems the Democrat Party has swung so far to the extreme left that they are unwilling or unable to select a nominee that the voters will accept, so they resort to sneaking into the Republican camp.

Voter records show that hundreds of Kootenai County Democrats have answered the call, and they have been successful in their efforts. After the last election, Commissioner Fillios was captured on a videoed Zoom call thanking Reuben Miranda and other prominent Democrats for temporally affiliating as fake Republicans to ensure his 73-vote victory over his Republican primary challenger.

Democrat efforts to misrepresent themselves as Republicans are not just limited to voting. Prominent democrat activist Cheri Zao not only affiliated as Republican, she has filed to run AS a Republican for the state Legislature. There is no indication she has embraced the Republican Party Platform.

Democrats themselves have suffered at the hands of their own duplicity. Would-be Democrat candidate for governor, Shelby Rognstad, discovered after filing his papers for candidacy that he had forgotten he had affiliated as a Republican and was ineligible to run as a Democrat. Oops …

In a display of boundless hypocrisy, the very same groups calling to have Democrats affiliate Republican are now shrieking in indignation that Republicans would consider affiliating as Democrats. Even in the face of evidence to the contrary, they assert a lie and accuse the entire Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) of engaging in a conspiracy to give Democrat Party funds to Republican candidates. That never happened, as confirmed by the conversation surreptitiously recorded by John Grimm.

Two years ago, at a KCRCC meeting there were a couple of Democrat party activists in the audience. During my opening comments, I took the opportunity to object to the Democrats' open efforts to have Democrats affiliate as Republicans and to vote in our primary. I speculated, “How would they like it if we did the same to them?” This was a rhetorical comment to help the visitors understand our objections. It was NOT a directive. Meeting minutes show this was the only time the subject was discussed by the KCRCC and was never discussed as a plan.

While I do not condone or advocate for cross-party affiliation, you would have to be a fool to think that the Democrats' persistent efforts encouraging affiliation of fake Republicans would not, in the fullness of time, inspire a reaction.

Two weeks ago I issued the following official statement:

It has always has been the position of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, and the Idaho Republican Party, that political parties should be free to select their primary nominees unfettered by activities of the other political parties. However, current and past notorious efforts of the Democrat Party have been to aggressively advocate for Democrats to temporary affiliate with the Republican Party for the sole purpose of influencing the selection of the Republican nominee for the general election. These ongoing efforts have apparently inspired the possibility of political retaliation directly against the leadership of the local Democrat central committee.

I call on the chairman of the Kootenai County Democrat Central Committee, Evan Koch, to join me in a joint statement condemning ALL efforts by ANY political party to influence the selection of another party's nominees for any general election.

Crickets.

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Regards

Brent Regan

Chairman KCRCC