Senate candidate Nonini backs primary challenger to 11-term GOP Sen. Cameron

Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, who’s running for the Idaho Senate, has made a last-minute $1,000 campaign donation through his PAC to the primary election challenger of the sitting chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert. That’s a form of  political heresy in the Senate that Nonini hopes to join, where past attempts to back challengers to fellow GOP incumbents have brought major sanctions from the Republican caucus. “It’s not particularly good form,” Cameron said.

Nonini’s Idaho Association for Good Government PAC made the contribution Wednesday to the campaign of Douglas Pickett of Oakley, who is running against Cameron, an 11th-term senator and co-chairman of the Legislature’s most powerful committee, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. Nonini, a fourth-term House member who’s making a bid to jump over to the Senate this year, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment; his contribution surfaced in the campaign finance reports that are now required to be filed within 48 hours of any last-minute contribution of $1,000 or more. That filing requirement took effect on Monday. You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.