Everyone’s been saying that Trumpism has gone local and here’s a perfect example:
The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee has reportedly planned and recruited volunteers to infiltrate the Kootenai Democrats, install an “antisemitic troll” as party chair and funnel money donated to Democrats to local Republicans instead.
A recorded phone call between Kootenai County resident John Grimm and a person he identified as KCRCC Youth Chair Dan Bell appeared to reveal the plan.“Long story short, we want to take over the Democrat Party,” Bell reportedly said during the Tuesday call…
Grimm, who ran unsuccessfully for Kootenai County Sheriff in 2020, said he recorded the call to remove any uncertainty about what was said. “I know from personal observation that certain members of the KCRCC are masters of deception with an ability to twist the meaning of even their own statements,” he said. Grimm also made it clear that he’s a staunch, conservative Republican but that the KCRCC has “gone too far.”
Listen to the full 30-minute recording here.
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Bell said KCRCC Chair Brent Regan — who also is chair of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes conservative causes and candidates — is “totally on board” with the plan.“If we pull this off, this will be national news,” Bell said…
In the recording, Bell said at least 25 Republican volunteers had committed to running as Democrats as of Tuesday, while the KCRCC aims to recruit at least 40. “We’re going to do a bum rush on Thursday and Friday so that our people are on the ballot and theirs aren’t,” he said. The deadline to file for May’s primary election is 5 p.m. Friday.
After that, Bell said, Democrats will have to scramble to find write-in candidates, then spend time and money promoting them. Meanwhile, Bell said he’ll use the Idaho Republican Party’s software to access the contact information of Constitution Party members, as well as unaffiliated conservative voters, and recruit them to make campaign calls for the KCRCC. “We’re going to call these voters and say, ‘Hey, if you want to vote in the primary and take out the liberals, request a Democrat ballot and vote for our people for precinct committee,” Bell said.
Local Republicans reportedly carried out a similar, largely unsuccessful takeover plan in 2014. “We have a much stronger effort than they did in 2014,” Bell said. “I think we can actually pull it off this time.”
Paula Neils, former chair of the Kootenai Democrats, described the previous effort. She said local Democrats discovered that 11 precinct captain candidates were Republicans who had changed their affiliations and filed to run in order to disrupt the Democratic Party’s operations. “We recruited some write-in candidates in those districts to counter their efforts,” Neils said.
The party poured considerable time and money into promoting their write-in candidates, Neils said, five of whom were elected. She said she asked the six “fake Democrats” to step down. “If they could honestly and legitimately say they were aligned with our values and could follow our bylaws, they were most welcome to stay,” she said. “But if they were there for other reasons, they should resign.” A few did just that, Neils said, while the others attended one or two meetings and no more. “They weren’t really serious about what they were doing,” she said.
This time, however, she said local Republicans appear to be making a concerted effort to dismantle the Democratic Party in Kootenai County.“I think it’s kind of an underhanded, dirty trick,” Neils said. “It’s dishonest and unethical.”
“Why are they worried about Democrats?” she said. “We don’t have enough power in the county or even the state to disrupt their agenda.”
She said she hopes local Republicans push back against the effort to infiltrate the Kootenai County Democrats. “I would like to think the Republicans who hold their real values dear will say, ‘This is awful and I’m not going to put up with this anymore,’” she said.
Upon election, Bell said, the KCRCC’s plants would vote David J. Reilly in as party chair.“A guy that they call racist, antisemitic, Holocaust denier,” Bell said. “That same guy would be the chair of the Kootenai Democrat Party.” A recent Pennsylvania transplant, Reilly was condemned by the nation’s largest pro-Israel organization for his antisemitic writings and called an “antisemitic troll” by The Daily Beast. Reilly, whose social media posts in 2020 included comments that “all Jews are dangerous” and that more Americans should believe antisemitic stereotypes, ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Post Falls School Board in 2021.
The KCRCC endorsed his candidacy.
The party chair calls meetings. With Reilly in that position, Bell said, there simply won’t be another meeting of the Kootenai Democrats for at least two years, when the next primary election occurs. Bell said Brent Regan came up with the idea to install Reilly as party chair.
In addition to using the local Democratic Party’s website and social media channels to promote conservative causes, Bell said Reilly would use his position to take money donated to Democrats and give it to Republicans. “He’s going to revamp their website,” Bell said. “He’s going to take donations and spend that on conservative causes.”
Under Idaho law, theft by false promise occurs when a person obtains the property of another by representing that he or a third person will engage in particular conduct with no intention to actually engage in that conduct.
Grimm is not the only local Republican who came forward about being courted by the KCRCC as part of this alleged plan. A woman who did not want to be named told The Press that Greg McKenzie approached her at a recent KCRCC meeting and tried to recruit her for what she called a “scheme” to infiltrate the Democratic Party. McKenzie was elected to the North Idaho College board of trustees in 2020, after the KCRCC endorsed him.
“He asked if I was willing to register as a Democrat,” she said. The woman said she was confused by the question, until McKenzie explained the KCRCC’s plan to fill the local Democratic Party’s ranks with their own members. “He said it’s a thing where you register and then you can get into their organization and sway votes,” she told The Press on Wednesday. When the woman refused to participate, McKenzie allegedly asked if she would be willing to recruit other volunteers instead. She said she declined.
But remember folks, it’s the Democrats who are rigging elections:
In an email to The Press, McKenzie said he did not recall the conversation. He also said he believes The Press is working with local Democrats to have Democrats change their party affiliation in order to vote in the Republican primary.
Similarly, Regan said in a Facebook post on Thursday that “Democrats, socialists and hacks in the media” are calling for Democrats to “infiltrate the Republican Party” and vote in the Republican primary.
He also asserted that “prominent Democrats” are running for office as Republicans.
“Now, just like all bullies, they are upset when Republicans fight back,” Regan wrote.
Democrats are powerless in Idaho. But, of course, these Republican assholes are wallowing in grievance and victimhood anyway blaming the small minority of Democrats for making them act like a bunch of adolescent barbarians.
Dallas Heard, chair of the Oregon Republican Party, has resigned, citing “evil” inside the party he leads. Heard, who is also a state senator from Myrtle Creek, wrote a blistering letter to inform the party of his decision.
“My physical and spiritual health can no longer survive exposure to the toxicity that can be found in this community,” wrote Heard. “We truly have an equal if not greater evil than the Democrats walking among us.”
The letter was initially posted to social media by the account of David Medina, a conservative activist from the Portland area who frequently attends and posts videos from rallies protesting COVID-19 mandates, and has been linked to violent protests at the Oregon Capitol as well as the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“The endless slander, gossip, conspiracies, sabotage, lies, hatred, pointless criticism, blocking of ideas, and mutiny brought against my administration has done what I once never thought possible, They have broken my spirit. I can face the Democrats with courage and conviction, but I can’t fight my own people too,” Heard wrote.
Lest you think this guy is some paragon of common sense:
Heard will continue to serve in the Oregon Senate, where he has been vocal in the past two sessions about his opposition to the state’s mask mandate. Last month, majority Democrats in the Senate voted to eject Heard from the Capitol unless he agreed to follow the mask requirement. Heard would not agree and was removed. He was allowed to participate in committee meetings, which were held virtually.
The Republican Party has gone stark raving nuts.