An oddity in the filings…
Among the candidacy and statement of campaign treasurer filings at the Idaho Secretary of State’s office is an oddity: Three fairly obscure candidates who have filed to run for governor, all as Republicans, all listing the same campaign treasurer, Britne Tingey.
Deputy Secretary of State Tim Hurst said it’s permissible for someone to serve as campaign treasurer for more than one campaign – he’s just never seen anyone do it for multiple competing campaigns for the same position.
So I checked in with Tingey, who’s a math major at Boise State University. “So what it actually is,” she explained, “is we’ve got a friend, her name is Lisa Marie, and she just wanted to get a whole bunch of people on there because she suspects there might be some deceit going on with the polling and with the vote.”
Tingey is the campaign treasurer for Marie, a perennial candidate whose previous runs for office include running against longtime 2nd District Rep. Mike Simpson in the GOP primary in 2016; and running against 1st District Rep. Raul Labrador in the GOP primary in 2014. Marie, who is running for governor this year, said in a May interview that she’s concerned that when she ran in the past there were “a number of different odd situations that were happening, things weren’t adding up.”
She expressed support for former Idaho Republican Party Chairman Barry Peterson, who lost a bid in court in 2014 to keep his party post as two warring wings of the party fought for control. “I am the only one that has stood by his side to listen to what he has to say,” Marie said. She also said she plans to run for president in “2020 or 2024, depending if I win for governor.”
Tingey said the two other GOP candidates for governor for whom she’s serving as campaign treasurer are her husband, Steve Tingey; and a friend, Sidney Taylor of Kuna. “He said put my name, see what the percentages look like,” Tingey said. “I think more of it is kind of research on our end – we want to see what happens. … I like to think the best of people, so I’m just curious what the numbers will show.”
Tingey said there was no fee to file the preliminary statement of campaign treasurer, which is the first step toward becoming a candidate in the 2018 election, allowing a candidate to raise funds and submit campaign finance disclosure reports. “We didn’t have to pay anything. And you don’t even have to live in Idaho,” she said.
However, to get on the ballot as a candidate for governor, there’s a filing fee of $500, according to the Secretary of State’s office. The only way to avoid paying that fee is to collect 1,000 signatures from supporters.
