KCRCC candidates sweep county races

COEUR d’ALENE — Local candidates backed by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee won their primary elections by wide margins, according to the final, unofficial results.

Bruce Mattare defeated Chris Fillios in the race for County Commissioner District 2, garnering about 70% of the vote.

He campaigned on promises to increase funding for the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office and oppose letting voters choose the county’s form of government.

Mattare will run unopposed in the general election for a four-year term.

Though incumbent Leslie Duncan ran unopposed in the Republican primary election for Commissioner District 3, she picked up more than 26,000 votes. She’ll face Democrat Ruben Miranda in November, who received a little more than 3,000 votes on Tuesday.

Jennifer Locke earned more than 78% of the vote to succeed outgoing Kootenai County Clerk Jim Brannon.

Despite public pleas from his staff not to support him, Kootenai County Assessor Béla Kovacs is expected to retain his office after getting 57% of the vote.

Dr. Duke Johnson received 63% of the vote in the race to be the county’s next coroner.

All three will run unopposed in November.

KCRCC Chair Brent Regan said in an email to The Press that the local GOP is “delighted” with the outcome of Tuesday’s election.

“100 percent of our recommended candidates won a majority of the votes in Kootenai County,” he said. “You can’t get better than that.”

Regan said Tuesday’s victories are the result of many months of work.

“This level of accomplishment can only be achieved by a dedicated team of talented volunteers,” he said.

The KCRCC’s preferred candidates also won in state legislative races. In the 4th district, challengers unseated two incumbents.

Elaine Price defeated Paul Amador and will face Democrat Larry Bieber in the general election.

In one of the closer local races, Joe Alfieri beat Jim Addis with 52.2% of the vote. Alfieri will face Democrat Megan Dardis-Kunz in November.

Carl Bjerke bested Peter Riggs in the race for State Senate District 3.

At the state level, however, just one of the KCRCC’s recommended candidates came out on top: former U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador, who defeated five-term Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden.

The other candidates backed by the KCRCC — Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin for governor; Priscilla Giddings for lieutenant governor; Dorothy Moon for secretary of state; and Branden Durst for superintendent of public instruction — were defeated in statewide races.

But they won in Kootenai County.

Former Idaho Lt. Gov. Jack Riggs said the results of statewide races illustrate a disconnect between Kootenai County voters and other Idahoans.

“Whatever’s going on in Kootenai County is not in line with what’s going on in the rest of the state,” he said. “There’s a different dynamic in this county.”

That, Riggs said, is why he helped found North Idaho Republicans, a new group for Republicans who don’t feel represented by the Kootenai County GOP.

“There are still good, conservative Republicans voting statewide,” Riggs said.

Candidates endorsed by the group were defeated in county elections but won state-level races.

Because North Idaho Republicans launched less than a month ago, Riggs said he didn’t expect the group to influence the primary election in a county where the KCRCC wields considerable power.

“You have a central committee that has had years to organize and raise a lot of money,” he said.

The KCRCC received around $506,000 in donations between January 2021 and May 17. The party spent about $419,000 during the same period.

“It won’t be easy to achieve that kind of influence,” Riggs said. “We’re just getting started.”

This story has been updated.