GOP conservatives, moderates lock horns

SANDPOINT — The power struggle between ultra-conservative elements of the Bonner County Republican Central Committee and its more moderate counterparts heated up en route to today’s primary election.

Allen Hacker, a conservative and former Sandpoint mayoral candidate, filed formal complaints Saturday with Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall, Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa and Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden. Hacker alleged that moderate precinct committeeman candidates are running afoul of electioneering laws by claiming to be incumbents and endorsing certain candidates on the GOP ballot.

However, there is ample evidence the committee’s conservative faction is employing similar tactics to get their people elected to committee posts and other elected offices.

Chief Deputy Secretary of State Tim Hurst said he is aware of the Hacker complaint, but said it’s unclear whether the contents of the moderates’ entreaties amount to a violation of the law.

“Sometimes it’s referred to as the ‘dark side of the First Amendment,’” said Hurst.

Hurst said his office lacks the resources to actively investigate the claims, but said the matter is being reviewed by the sheriff and prosecutor’s offices.

“They’re going to have to make the call as to whether there’s a law that’s been broken and if they want to prosecute it,” Hurst said.

Marshall said his office and Wasden’s office have concurrent jurisdiction over such matters and have taken them under advisement.

“For practical purposes, there will be no decision on whether or not there was a violation of Idaho electioneering laws by tomorrow,” Marshall said on Monday.

Bonner County Clerk Marie Scott, the county’s election’s chief, said that the matter is a party issue.

“There’s nothing that affects the election administration as far as it pertains to my office,” said Scott, a Democrat who’s not up for election this year.

Some political observers say the struggle is also playing out in Boundary and Kootenai counties, where moderates are trying to wrest committee control from party members with particularly strong conservative bents.

Although Republicans say there is nothing in party bylaws which forbid incumbent committeemen and committeewomen from using their positions to endorse candidates, the practice is frowned upon because it breeds infighting and creates an appearance of dysfunction within the GOP.