… And the saga continues

The campaign finance report mess involving CDA car dealer Kathy Sims and Post Falls sidekick Tom Macy gets curiouser. Now, Sims is telling City Attorney Mike Gridley that Macy had nothing to do with that flier circulated late in the 2007 CDA city elections, attacking incumbents Ron Edinger, Al Hassell and Dixie Reid for supporting urban renewal efforts. Even though Macy’s name is on some incomplete paperwork filed last fall for the Concerned Taxpayers of Kootenai County. Also, Sims and her attorney, Glen Walker, told Gridley that Sims had a bag of cash (more than $3,000) at her Honda dealership to pay for the color flier, reportedly from dozens of anonymous donors who chipped in 50 bucks apiece. Seems they gave Sims the cash over several years in appreciation for the work she and Macy did in a successful court fight in which the local-option tax was ruled unconstitutional for a time. Sims finally submitted the required 2007 seven-day pre-election report March 6, after being hounded by the city for months to do so. Her original report was filed with the wrong entity and had several other problems. Sims could be facing $18,200 in penalties, Gridley said. He told Huckleberries he will continue to pursue this case.

Cliff’s note

And the best primary election prognosticator in Post Falls is (drum roll, please) – Rick Noordam. After the May 27 primaries, PFPD Blue Chief Cliff Hayes released the results of his recent election poll. In the nonbetting poll, participants are asked to guess the winning percentage of certain candidates in a variety of races. Noordam won by five lengths with state Rep. Frank Henderson placing second, and Tom Taggart showing in third. Fourteen participated, including Sheriff Rocky Watson, who guessed two points high on his winning percentage (68 percent) in his race with Joe Bodman. Significantly, nine of the 14 forecasters, including Rocky, picked Tom Cronin to unseat incumbent Rick Currie in their three-way commissioner race. Henderson nailed Currie’s winning percentage on the nose 36 percent. But he had Cronin with 44 percent. Also of note, Todd Tondee had Currie winning with 37 percent, but Todd guessed he’d get 78 percent rather than 55 percent in his commish race with Tim Herzog. Seems Todd is 23 percent less popular than he thinks. But you can still call him commissioner. For now.

Huckleberries

Dunno what it says about Tondee’s Web savvy, but his campaign Web site remains “temporarily under construction” almost 10 days after the GOPrimary … So, how was ex-legislator Ron Vieselmeyer rewarded for his many years of meritorious service to the local Repub party? While conservative Vieselmeyer was doing his trustee duty at North Idaho College, the Far Right clique in the Central Committee dumped him as state committeeman in a secret ballot in favor of kindred spirit Matt Roetter. Vieselmeyer’s “sin”? He dared to vote in favor of education corridor funding. Seriously … BTW, support for the corridor is running way ahead of opposition – 58 percent to 33 percent – in an unscientific CDA Press online poll (with more than 1,400 responses through mid-Tuesday). Seems Vieselmeyer is more in step with his community than some of his fellow Pachyderms.

Parting shot

A funny thing happened to the news release for Demo Tamara Poelstra en route to its outlets. An exchange between consultant Don Rosebrock, formerly of the Larry Grant congressional campaign, and her inadvertently was sent – to me. Along with a rough draft of a news release to announce that Poelstra was replacing Bev Moss as the Demo wannabe for the House District 4A race, Rosebrock e-mailed Poelstra that he tries to limit news releases to a single page “and then the press vultures can call you up to get more info, more quotes, etc.” Poelstra responded by asking Rosebrock to remove this line: “Her duties there ended in April when Larry Grant withdrew from the race in favor of fellow Democrat Walt Minnick,” adding “… it opens up the question: Why didn’t I step up then? The less I have to explain the better. The real reason I did not step up was my work with the school levy which failed. I was still contracted to Larry (Grant) through the primary.” Press vultures? Moi?