Interest Grows In Gop Precinct Elections Some Fear Attempt To Wrest Party From Mainstream

Suddenly, doing the grunt work for the Republican Party in North Idaho is wildly popular.

An unprecedented number of candidates have filed to fill Republican precinct committee seats in Bonner County - 34 to be exact. That’s three times the number of candidates to fill the same precincts on the Democratic side.

In Kootenai County, 49 are vying for 41 precinct positions. The eight contested races, even Democrats agree, are good to test ideas, yet it could result in more conservative politics.

The reasons given for the high turnout differ, depending on whom you ask.

Some Republicans in Bonner County see the influx of newcomers as an attempt to wrest control of the party from mainstream Republicans.

“I’m a little concerned,” said Ed Bangle, chairman of the Bonner County Republican Central Committee. “We’re getting some people who have far-right ideas. I’m not sure they’re compatible with what the mainstream Republican party believes.”

Other political leaders worry privately that if the “far-right” takeover is successful, it will hurt the county’s reputation and cause moderate Republicans to flee the party.

“You’ll see people really think twice about stepping up and running for office,” said one local Republican, who asked not to be identified.

Precinct committee members are the worker bees of the party. They help determine the party platform, go door-to-door to get the vote out, and find candidates. In the event of a lawmaker’s death, they nominate successors to the Legislature.

The sudden interest in precinct elections has not spread across party lines. In Kootenai County, only six Democrats will appear on the ballot for 50 precincts, all uncontested.

“I’m disappointed,” Kootenai County Democratic Chairman Jerry Shriner said. “(Republicans) are just better at getting people out there.”

Shriner does not see eight contested Republican races as a possible rift in the force.

“I’m happy to see they have contested races because at least you get to have some debate and maybe you define the moderate from the far right,” he said.

Don Morgan, who is vying for a Kootenai County precinct seat against incumbent Edith Wagnitz, agrees with Shriner that contested races are healthy for the county GOP.

“That’s where the vibrancy is,” Morgan said. “Politics are the marketplace of ideas. That’s where the ideas are getting tested.”

Shriner said it appears to him that conservative Republicans are trying to gain a majority in the Kootenai Central Committee.

Both Morgan and Kootenai County Commissioner Ron Rankin said that’s not the case.

“This is the party for conservatives,” Morgan said. “I frankly think on policy issues and the hard work of getting conservatives elected, our precinct needs more work done.”

Rankin, whose wife, Alice, has been a precinct committeewoman since 1966, doesn’t think the contested races show any “big conservative conspiracy.

“I think it’s people who just want to get involved,” Rankin said. “Everybody is kind of scurrying to try.”

One of the precinct candidates to raise eyebrows in Bonner County is running as William Arthur, House of Smyth. He’s known more commonly as Bill Smyth, a member of the Idaho Citizens Awareness Network, a patriot group that’s no longer active.

Patriots typically believe that the government has strayed from the intentions of the founding fathers, and that Christianity is the basis of American government. Smyth could not be reached for comment.

Cornel Rasor said he was asked to run by Bud Mueller, a Bonner County commissioner, but wasn’t aware of any orchestrated effort to take over the party.

“If it was a power struggle, I was unaware of it,” said Rasor, owner of the Army Navy Store in Sandpoint. Rasor describes himself as “a very conservative Republican from the old school.”

Rasor’s in a three-way contested race for the Cocolalla precinct seat with incumbent Chris Story and Grace Aman.

“I don’t belong to any militia. I pay my taxes. I voted for (Democrat Jim) Stoicheff,” Rasor said. “I wouldn’t consider myself radical right, but I do think government intervenes in our life too much.”

Rasor occasionally carries Patriot publications in his store, but only literature he considers credible, he said.

Patty Douglas is running against incumbent Robert Bristol for the Algoma precinct position. She encouraged Aman to run for the Cocolalla seat.

“My intent is to solidify the party in this particular district,” Douglas said. “We need to be more cohesive.”

She referred to disagreements within the party in the last election, when conservative candidates failed to get the full support of the central committee.

Douglas is suing the county over her forced exile from the Bonner County Planning and Zoning Commission. Her attorney is Edgar Steele, a critic of local government who published a controversial tabloid in the last local election attacking county officials.

Steele also has taken Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler as a client, and is suing The Spokesman-Review and Bonner Daily Bee over reports regarding his relationship with the Aryan Nations.

Douglas was berated by the Republican leadership during the last election for supporting Steele’s tabloid, The Bonner Examiner. One committeeman told her she wasn’t welcome in the party.

Now she’s back, and she’s bringing friends.

Douglas and some other party members were disappointed when the Republican leadership didn’t actively support 1998 Republican candidates such as Tom Clark, who narrowly lost to Dale Van Stone in the commissioner’s race.

“Are the Republicans satisfying the Democrats’ interests?” Douglas asked.

Clark is running for commissioner again this year, and his wife, Colleen Clark, is running for the Grouse Creek precinct committee position against incumbent Jim Peasha.

“There’s quite a few of us, last time, who voted for Democrats because we were so displeased with some of the things that were happening,” said Sonny Poirier, an incumbent precinct committeeman from Spirit Valley.

The lack of loyalty to Republican candidates was the source of some tense discussions.

“It would be improper for them to assume that they automatically have Republican support and say whatever they want to say, and still expect us to support them,” Bangle said.

This election season, the central committee decided to hold Republican candidate forums before the primary, so they can get better acquainted with the candidates, Bangle said.

Douglas accused the central committee of violating open meetings requirements. Bangle said the committee’s been lax in the past, out of familiarity with one another. That will change, he said.

The new committee will have some practiced watchdogs, such as Jim Blake, who claims to have attended more county commissioner meetings than the commissioners.

Blake is fed up with wasted tax dollars. He once ran for commissioner but lost. “I thought I’d try this thing and see if somebody would listen to me this time.”

Richard Kiser, who is running unopposed, wants closer attention paid to taxpayer money. He recently submitted a plan to the county for privatizing the road department.

“Trying to elect a more conservative commission would probably help the taxpayer and the road conditions in the county,” he said.

Kiser and Blake might not be unopposed for long. A couple of central committee members recently picked up several write-in candidate forms at the county clerk’s office.