Accused Supremacist Joins Mayor’S Race Officials Say Vincent Bertollini Could Put Election Focus On Human Rights

A Sandpoint man who promotes Christian Identity views has entered the mayor’s race here as a write-in candidate.

Vincent Bertollini, who helped orchestrate the mailing of anti-Semitic literature to thousands of area residents last fall, filled out a form declaring his candidacy on Monday.

Bertollini took out a petition for candidacy last month, but he missed the deadline to return the required number of signatures to get his name on the ballot.

Bertollini told City Clerk Helen Newton that he was out of town and missed the Sept. 23 petition deadline.

On Tuesday, Bertollini was in Coeur d’Alene fishing and unavailable for comment, his wife said.

Bertollini and Carl Story formed an organization called The 11th Hour Remnant Messenger in 1990. The two businessmen moved from California to Sandpoint in 1995 after making their fortunes in the computer chip industry.

The 11th Hour Remnant Messenger preaches a form of Christian Identity that says white people are God’s chosen race. Bertollini and Story mailed thousands of 6-foot posters to North Idahoans last fall to promote that view.

They also helped create a videotaped interview with Aryan leader Richard Butler that was sent to about 3,000 addresses.

Human rights activists were disappointed when they learned of Bertollini’s candidacy.

Bertollini joins four other mayoral candidates on the ballot, including Paul Graves, a City Council member and member of the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force.

“We’re obviously going to have to rethink some of our strategy,” Graves said about his campaign. “It would focus energy toward human rights. … “If he rises and falls on human rights issues, he’s going to fall, because we have tremendous support for human rights in this community.”

Gretchen Albrecht-Hellar, president of the task force, was philosophical about the news of Bertollini running for office.

“I’m just hoping that the election won’t revolve around him,” she said.

The danger of having someone like Bertollini run, she said, is that if he were to win “it would be blasted all over the national media that Sandpoint has a Christian Identity mayor. It would reinforce the misperception that we are a haven for white supremacists.”

But Albrecht-Hellar and others said Bertollini has little chance of winning.

“Sandpoint is a community that does more than tolerate differences. In many cases we celebrate them,” she said. “I can’t imagine Sandpoint would elect someone with a divisive philosophy.”

The City Council last month adopted an ordinance requiring a majority vote to win the mayor’s seat. If no one wins 51 percent of the vote, the city will hold a run-off election for the top two candidates.

Sandpoint Mayor David Sawyer said he hopes Bertollini’s candidacy won’t lead to a negative election campaign.

“It’s an interesting opportunity for any community,” Sawyer said. “How do we work with a person we strongly disagree with in a public forum?”

Sawyer said the most important role of the mayor “is to ensure that there’s an atmosphere in the community where we can have open discussion about anything that’s going on, and that includes human rights issues.”

Aside from Bertollini and Graves, other candidates for mayor are Jesse Warburton, Moneca Jardey and Thomas Boone. The deadline for write-in candidates to file is Oct. 19.