MY TURN: Why I’m not attending the 2024 KCRCC Lincoln Day Dinner Fundraiser

I used to like the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee’s Lincoln Day Dinner fundraiser. Brent Regan is hawking tickets so I wanted to share why I won’t be paying for tickets or attending the 2024 event.

Sponsors, table buyers and ticket purchasers fill up KCRCC donation coffers, ostensibly meant to campaign for eventual Republican nominees in the general election, but I believe these funds are not being spent in a responsible way.

I don’t want to participate as long as Chairman Brent is directing your donations to:

• Campaign against Republican candidates in the primaries
• Pay sketchy shell companies for campaign ads hiding the true people behind them
• Attack conservative Republican candidates in nonpartisan races
• Target our public schools, college, libraries, roads and businesses
• Sue elected officials for First Amendment protected free speech

At the last Lincoln Day Dinner I attended, I was seated with three people whose backgrounds I will detail here.

As you read about them, remember that according to Idaho Sunshine filings, it appears they have received Republican donation dollars from the KCRCC and “rated and vetted” candidates.

I first met Matthew Colligan, whose catchphrase, according to a 2017 report by MassLive journalist Kristen LaFratta and other reporters, is “Hitler did nothing wrong” and who is photographed in the front of the line carrying a Tiki-Torch in the Charlottesville march chanting “Jews will not replace us.” He introduced himself as Matt Young, using his mother’s maiden name.

Across the table was Vincent James Foxx, who recently said on video “the solution is simple, you just need like, straight up fascism.” He has also described a plan to take over Idaho by running for ignored offices. He has been a speaker at the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC). America First is frequently characterized as a white nationalist “Groyper” movement. Foxx recently spoke at the Pachyderm Club, a KCRCC-aligned group, and reportedly attempted to hijack the Idaho Young Republicans with a slate of “groypers.” He has also spoken at North Idaho College board meetings to support the KCRCC aligned Trustees. 

Finally, I was seated with Dave Reilly, who is on video wearing a pin for “Identity Evropa,” an American neo-Nazi organization pushing for the "Nazification of America.” According to leaked chat logs and court records, he met with Charlottesville organizer Jason Kessler during the planning of the Tiki-Torch march. According to court records, Reilly was one of a handful of people in a secret meeting with notorious neo-Nazi Richard Spencer following Heather Heyer’s murder. Reilly was a KCRCC “rated and vetted” candidate for Post Falls school board trustee, and has been at NIC meetings filming people.

Is money donated by Republicans through fundraisers like the Lincoln Day Dinner and candidates endorsed by KCRCC finding its way to people like this?

Using a shifting array of shell companies, Wyoming corporations, and mail boxes to hide their true identity, these people appear to be collecting Republican donor money from the KCRCC and their “rated and vetted” candidates.

These are some of the business names these people have operated under in one way or another:

• Red Shield Media - Registered to Colligan (Idaho Secretary of State) and reported doing work for the Branden Durst campaign ($900 in-kind)
• Idaho Dynamics - Linked to Dave Reilly through Wyoming business filings using the same PO Box as his campaign and personal website, and paid by KCRCC ($11K) and Carl Bjerke ($2K)
• Revere Media - Paid by KCRCC endorsed candidate Diana Sheridan ($1,500). When asked by a reporter if it was Dave Reilly, she said she “doesn’t want to make connections for you," despite admitting Reilly produced campaign material for her that she did not use. She said she dealt with Matt Young.
  
  

You can see these payments for yourself at: bit.ly/payments-IdahoDynamics-Revere-RedShield

Additionally, after dinner, I witnessed Foxx and Colligan distributing “The People's Pen," on which KCRCC spends heavily, and which arrives in every mailbox in Kootenai County around each election.

These facts lead me to believe the KCRCC no longer represents the Idaho values I grew up with.

Until the KCRCC leadership changes, and stops these actions that tear down our community, I won’t be supporting their fundraisers, like the Lincoln Day Dinner.

I do plan to attend any North Idaho Republicans fundraiser, and donate to NIR’s efforts to restore sensible conservative leadership to North Idaho.

Will you join me?

P.S. Did you know that if you donate to the KCRCC, including buying tickets to the Lincoln Day Dinner, your name will be reported to the Secretary of State? Here’s a list of current donors: bit.ly/kcrcc-donors

Russell Mann is a resident of Post Falls.