Ruthie Johnson, longtime GOP activist from Kootenai County, earned a rare late-afternoon laugh from the crowd at the state GOP convention today as she spoke to second the nomination of Jennifer Locke for second vice-chair of the Idaho GOP. “When I started working in politics, the whole state was totally Democrat,” Johnson said. “I grew up in a Democrat state and a Democrat family, and became a Republican when I learned to read.”

Johnson said she was “delighted to second the nomination of a good, solid, hard-working Republican.”

Locke, whose nomination was proposed by Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens, is up against Tyler Hurst for the position; his nomination was proposed by Damond Watkins, the state party’s national committeeman.