Ada County and District 20 Re-Org Meetings
Conservative Republicans Rock the House!
I’m going to keep this post relatively short and put all the details for curious minds in the footnotes. I am going to define some terms now, so when I use them here and in the future you will understand what I mean. I’m going to follow President Reagan’s statement: “The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally - not a 20 percent traitor.”
Support - When a person by their speech, writing, actions and/or voting demonstrates commitment to specific ideals, positions, concepts or legislation.
Conservative Republican - A person who supports the Republican Platform 80% to 100% of the time. This definition is also used by The Institute for Legislative Analysis.
Nominal Republican - A person who supports the Republican Platform 60% to 79% of the time.
Not a Republican - A person who supports the Republican Platform 0% to 59% of the time.
Re-Org Meeting - These meetings take place at County and Legislative District (LD) levels across the state. The Precinct Committeemen/women (PCs),1 who were elected in the May Primary, vote for new officers and delegates at the County and LD meetings. The County and LD delegates get to vote at the summer Republican Convention.
Please feel free to disagree with my dividing points, but the concept of support is very important to understanding our deeply held values. Our expressions of Faith are probably the most common example of these values. For instance, can someone claim to be a Christian or a Jew or a Mormon or a Muslim if they only believe and practice 80% or less of the guidance found in the Bible, Old Testament/Torah, The Book of Mormon or the Quran? I am pretty sure the majority of these faith leaders would say you are either all in or you are not.
Is being a Republican on the same par as a person’s faith? Absolutely NOT! Republicanism is a philosophy on politics and government. So why bother with the analogy? Because we all have the potential to deceive ourselves into believing we are something when we aren’t. At some point, saying you are a Conservative Republican when you really aren’t is either lying to others or lying to yourself.
This schism is the primary source of division in the Idaho Republican Party. In general, there are Nominal Republicans and Not Republicans in the party who want to ignore, undermine or dismantle the power of the the “Republican Platform”. That platform is the guideline for Conservative Republicans to follow and practice.
This conflict in philosophy was on full display at the May 29th Ada County Re-Org Meeting at the Boise Centre on the Grove. It was Conservative Republicans vs. Nominal/Not Republicans. Each group nominated candidates for all 9 officer positions from Chairman to State Committee Youth Chair. In every vote, the Conservative Republican candidates were elected! 2
We did have some really great nomination and candidate speeches and quotes. Two quotes that I really liked were:
”Warriors are inconvenient but they make history.” Ryan Spoon
”Do not mistake my passion for extremism… it’s passion.” Phil Reynolds
The meeting started and 7pm and we finished voting for officers around 11:20pm. By this time, 4 Conservative Republicans and 20 Nominal/Not Republicans had left the meeting. I guess losing is intimidating for some people.
Our final vote was to approve the Ada County Delegates and Alternates list for the State Convention. Dan McKnight and his committee3 had to sort through several hundred applications and score them based on their contributions as Precinct Committeemen, Volunteers for the County or State GOP, Attendance at County meetings, Caucus participation, Elected office and lastly donations to the county and/or state GOP. This was a huge job for them, especially after receiving a LOT of last minute applications! After a few corrections were made on the list, the 105 delegates and 105 alternates were unanimously approved by the Ada County Republican Central Committee (ACRCC). The delegates selected Greg Ferch from District 22 to be their Chairman for the Convention.
It was now midnight and we all packed up to home. Some of us as passionate and happy warriors and others not so happy. Tomorrow we would do all over again in every Legislative District in Ada County.
District 20 met at 5:30pm at the Orchard Park Library in Meridian. By the end of the evening we would say good bye and thank you to our LD Chairman Cheryl Hurd. Cheryl was re-elected as State Committee Chairwoman the previous evening. We had a much scaled down version of the previous evening with Conservatives vs. Nominal/Not Republicans. We did have a good time and did introductions between voting for officers and delegates. It was somewhat unique, as 13 of our 20 PC positions were brand new. Then we had one open PC slot and 6 re-elected PCs.4 We had several former PCs, the 1st Vice Chairman, the State Committeeman and other guests in attendance.
In close races, we elected a new Chairwoman, Laurel Morgan and a new Vice Chairman, Mark Smith. Everyone was very pleased to retain our existing Secretary Shelley Silver. Our new Chairwoman made it a point to let all the PCs know that as Chairwoman she was there to serve us. I think she got us off to a good start!
Unlike the County delegates, there was no committee to screen the LD delegates. We ended up nominating 8 people that had submitted application forms. Then we voted for 3 delegates and 3 alternate delegates.5 We were sort of chased out of the library at 8pm. Once we were outside the delegates chose Tim O’Donnell as their Chairman and Kirstin Campbell as their Committee person for the Convention.
Things were not as cheery in some Legislative Districts in Ada County. Some of those LDs are being run by the Nominal/Not Republican Precinct Committeemen (PCs). There will be 700 plus PCs of various flavors at the State Convention in Coeur d’Alene from June 13th-15th. I will be sure to get you an “After Action Report” when we return.
I am personally hoping that we retain Dorothy Moon as Chairwoman. She is one of the best examples of a real conservative leader in Idaho. We are blessed to have her and her team organizing the Convention.
The Precinct Committeeman position is the grass roots of the any political party. They exist to represent the party to members in their precinct and be the voice for their members to the party. They are the hands and feet of the party going door to door and using media to keep their precinct informed on practice and changes in the party.
Ada County Re-Org: Votes For / Against
Chairman - Thad Butterworth - 106 / 73; 1st Vice Chairman - Ryan Spoon - 97 / 82; 2nd Vice Chairman - Phil Reynolds - 104 / 73; 3rd Vice Chairman - Vicki McIntyre - 103 / 72; Secretary - Colette Costello - 105 / 66; Treasurer - Sam Boyd - 98 / 69; State Committeeman - Michael Hon - 94 / 68; State Committeewoman - Cheryl Hurd - 105 / 55; State Committee Youth Chairman - Ashley Mujagic - 102 / 53
Delegation Committee: Name - Precinct #
Dan McKnight - 1404 - Chairman; Miguel De Luna - 1402 ; Kristina Clever - 1514; Benjamin Chafetz - 1703; Stephen Chrysler - 1906; Lynn Bradescu - 1917; Mark Smith - 2004
District 20 Precinct Committeemen/women: Precinct - PC Name (* New PC)
2001 – Cyndi Ulenhoff *; 2002 – Bryan Nyhof *; 2003 – Dave Mckinney *; 2004 – Mark Smith; 2005 – Sally Reynolds *; 2006 – Jacob Ball; 2007 – Shelley Silver; 2008 – Laurel Morgan; 2009 – Craig Campbell *; 2010 – Lynn Laird *; 2011 – Brad Hoaglun *; 2012 – OPEN; 2013 – Rob Brown *; 2014 – Laura Moore *'; 2015 – Mark Johnson; 2016 – Mike Luna *; 2017 – Joe Palmer *; 2018 – Andrew Johnson *; 2019 – Jen Gaurino; 2020 – Rene Ozuna *
District 20 Delegates and Alternates
Delegates: Tim O’Donnell, Don Hubble, Kirstin Campbell
Alternates: Dree Eno, Josh Keyser, Tanya Koyle
Thank you sir!
Thanks for taking the time to write this! Very informative.