Longtime Post Falls businessman Patrick Whalen announced today that he’ll challenge Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, in the May GOP primary. “The Senate seat is an important leadership position that should be at the forefront of North Idaho’s economic development effort,” Whalen said in a statement. “To make that happen requires teamwork and consensus building. That is the different approach I want to bring to the table.”

He said District 3 residents “need results and not just words.”

Whalen, owner of Resource Computing Inc., moved to Post Falls in 1991 and he and wife Lora raised two children there. He is a past president of the local Rotary Club, of which he’s been a member for more than 20 years, and is the current board president for the Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County, which last year built a club next to the Post Falls library. He’s also a four-time finisher in the Coeur d’Alene Ironman marathon.

Nonini is a first-term senator who previously served four terms in the House and chaired the House Education Committee. He aroused controversy in the 2012 election when he unsuccessfully targeted several Senate GOP incumbents for defeat in the primary. Health problems kept Nonini out for the first two weeks of this year’s legislative session; his wife, Cathyanne, filled in for him.