MY TURN: An alternative to GOP infighting

As the 2024 election begins, two factions of local Republicans are at odds over the “soul of their party.” 

Under these circumstances, it might be best to say nothing while our adversaries remain more divided than ever and try to work out their differences.

But I believe Kootenai County voters deserve to be reminded that they have an alternative to Republican culture wars and division. Voters this year don't have to vote “R” for their votes to count.

In March 2022, the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee actively tried to take over the County Democratic Central Committee and make this a true one-party county.

It seemed at first like a harmless high school prank.

Dan Bell and Greg McKenzie (the same Greg McKenzie who, as chair of the North Idaho College board of trustees, brought our beloved community college to the brink of losing its accreditation) recruited fellow Republicans to run as fake Democratic precinct committee chairs.

With enough fake Democratic precinct committee chairs, they could form a majority on the Democratic Central Committee. They planned to elect their own county chair, divert Democratic Party funds to their own causes, silence all communications and cancel any further meetings. Democrats would be essentially out of business.

But one of their potential recruits, John Grimm, knew this scheme was immoral. He felt it should be exposed. Grimm recorded a phone call with Bell.

In their conversation, Grimm elicited every detail of the plan from Bell. Bell revealed that the high school prank was in fact a well-developed plot. The white supremacist David Reilly was a part of the plot. He told the Press "We don’t want the Democrat (sic) Party operating in Kootenai County.”

Reilly also said that Chair Brent Regan was well aware of the plot.

It may have been this sort of tainted amateurism that prompted other conservatives to form the North Idaho Republicans.

NIR tries to distinguish itself from the KCRCC. 

They point to the KCRCC’s extremism and say they want to restore “shared conservative principles.” But they also say they “obviously support the Republican nominee,” (meaning the extremist-in-chief Donald Trump). 

I don’t know what to believe about NIR, whereas with the extremist faction, I know they want to end two-party democracy all together.

Voters could do better. Choose a candidate with a “D” following their name. While the R’s have been fighting, Democrats are running in every legislative district for the first time in decades.

In 2024, Kootenai County voters will have real choices on their ballots.

This giant step toward restoring true democracy got some national media attention recently (https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/17/idaho-democrats-comeback-00152346).

That’s better for Kootenai County than making national news for racist harassment. Wouldn’t you agree?

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Tom Sanner is a Coeur d'Alene resident and proud registered Democrat.