EDITORIAL: Rating system deserves a solid 'F'

“NIR, the local paper, Democrats and the candidates that only ‘identify’ as Republican who don’t get recommended HATE the KCRCC Rating System because it exposes the truth.”

Those words from the chairman of the KCRCC — the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee — were published in this newspaper April 19.

The “truth” isn’t why so many residents loathe the KCRCC rating system. Supporting certain Republicans over others in primary elections using a deeply flawed process, leading to so many irrational and unjustifiable endorsements, is why the “rated and vetted” system is vilified to the point that a broad scale campaign is under way to overthrow it.

Start with some of the currently serving elected officials who received strong support from KCRCC after candidates were “rated and vetted.”

• North Idaho College trustees Todd Banducci, Greg McKenzie and Mike Waggoner, who are pushing the college to the cliff’s edge with possible loss of accreditation and fiscally reprehensible spending.

• Community Library Network trustees Rachelle Ottosen, Tim Plass and Tom Hanley, whose collective belligerence cannot conceal the deep-rooted ignorance with which they're misperforming their duties.

• County Assessor Bela Kovacs, who has managed to alienate not only his departmental employees, but taxpayers, managers of those tax dollars, and fellow Republican officials who have essentially given up on the hope that Kovacs is capable of or willing to do his job.

These are all folks who have made themselves centerpieces in the local gallery of incompetent leadership. They have nobody but themselves to blame for their failures — not even KCRCC.

So let’s look elsewhere for KCRCC rating rationale and weigh its trustworthiness and contributions to county and state benefit.

For last November’s Coeur d’Alene City Council election, KCRCC precinct committeemen voted a collective 151-0 against Christie Wood, Dan Gookin and Dan English — who all won their races easily against KCRCC-endorsed opponents.

English is a Democrat so nay votes from Republicans are expected. But Wood and Gookin? They're longtime, highly respected conservatives with proven track records of community service and fiscal sanity. How could they not receive at least one vote between them from the central committee? 

Had KCRCC held sway in 2022, Janice McGeachin would be your governor, Priscilla Giddings your lieutenant governor, Dorothy Moon your secretary of state and Branden Durst your superintendent of public instruction. Talk about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

These reasons and many more are why you should examine all endorsements — including those bearing KCRCC’s near-unanimous fingerprints — with a great deal of scrutiny.

Republicans, to help ensure the best local leaders emerge from political quagmires, go to northidahorepublicans.org, click on the names of precinct committee candidates and decide for yourself if it's not time for change.