The Truth About The Upcoming IDGOP Rule Changes
This weekend, the Idaho Republican Party will be gathering for their semi-annual State Central Committee meeting, to discuss and vote on Party rules and resolutions.
Over the past several weeks, there has been an ongoing, bitter battle over two of these proposed rule changes, and because of the lies being spread by bad-faith actors both in the Press and in the Republican Party, we want to correct the record and dispel misinformation that has been spread about these contentious issues.
Crossover Voting
Firstly, we will address the proposed rule change written by Branden Durst that has been designed to prevent “crossover voting.” This is a topic that we have covered extensively here on the Tribune during the May 2022 Republican Primaries.
Since the Republican Party in Idaho has a closed primary, in order to vote for a Republican, you must actually be a registered Republican. It’s a pretty simple concept; Republicans choose their own nominees, and Democrats choose theirs.
Democrats, obviously, should not be choosing which Republican candidates they want to oppose in the General Election. But, because politics is war, Democrats in Idaho have tactically changed their party affiliation to Republican so they can vote for weak/RINO Republicans in the primary. After voting for a more liberal candidate, they switch their affiliation back to Democrat for the General Election.
In the 2022 primary, over 32,000 Democrats (including Antifa) switched their party affiliation, becoming “Republicans” to vote for Brad Little.
The proposed rule change that was already passed by a majority of over 700 delegates at the Summer convention, is designed to prevent Democrats from using this subversive tactic.
According to the new rule, if at some point within the last 25 months someone has “disaffiliated with the Republican Party;” if they have “financially supported more than one candidate” that belong to a party “other than Republican Party;” if they have “financially supported any political party, other than Republican Party;” if they have “affiliated with any political party other than the Republican Party;” or if they have “voted in a primary or caucus process for any political party, other than the Republican Party,” they will lose their right to participate in the primary.
This rule makes sense. Just think about it:
Do you want someone who donates to Democrats voting in the Republican primary?
Do you want someone who has switched back and forth from Democrat to Republican to vote in the Republican primary?
If the answer is “NO,” then you want this rule change to be adopted this weekend.
Liberals and RINO Republicans have objected to this rule on the basis that it will discourage people who have had a genuine change of heart, who have “walked away” from the Democrat party, from becoming Republicans. What they don’t tell you is that this rule was written by someone who used to be a Democrat.
Branden Durst, the author of this new rule had exactly this change of heart following the election of Donald Trump, when he saw that the Democrat Party had become an extremist movement. He, along with others who have undergone this conversion, are happy to wait a year or two before participating in Republican primaries, because as former Democrats, they know that this is a tactic frequently used to subvert Republican elections, and they want it to stop.
Revision of the Republican Executive Committee
To understand this rule change, we need to understand a little bit more about the Republican Party.
The Republican Party is built from the ground up. The State is divided into seven regions.
These regions are each comprised of several counties, which are further divided into precincts.
Every two years during the primary elections, every registered Republican in Idaho votes on who they want to represent themselves and their interests in their counties Republican Central Committee. They do this by voting for a Precinct Committeman; a neighbor who is interested in politics and who wants to donate their time and efforts to the Republican Party.
These Precinct Committeemen (PC’s) form the county-level Central Committees, and every county in Idaho has one. These elected representatives go on to choose their own elected representatives to vote on the State Central Committee and at the State Republican Convention.
This is how a Republic functions. Groups of people voting to choose someone to represent them at the county, state, and national levels, and ultimately all that power comes from the ballot box.
Below is a diagram of the current Idaho Republican State Executive Central Committee:
You will notice, at the bottom of the chart that there are three members of the Executive Committee that are not elected representatives, voted in by a Precinct Committeeman that you choose.
Instead, three organizations which are technically independent from the Republican Party, are given a special privilege to sit on the state Executive Committee.
These three groups: the Idaho Young Republicans, Idaho Republican Women, and Idaho College Republicans are merely Republican clubs that can appoint someone to sit on the executive committee.
As the Tribune has already noted, there are several problems with these organizations, and the way they have abused this special privilege.
For example, the Idaho Republican Women were caught inviting a Democrat to join their club in Bonneville County.
The “College” Republicans are being led by a 51 year old mother of 6 named Farhana Hibbert.
And most notably, there is the Idaho Young Republicans, which not only had a Democrat as a registered member in good standing in 2022, but their former chair, Daniel Silver, glibly referred to Abortion as a form of “healthcare” in an email sent to constituents in late July last year.
The Idaho Young Republicans also do not charge dues, and and they haven’t for the past several years. So, none of their members really have any skin in the game. They’re not putting their money where their mouth is.
The truth is that these Republican clubs can contribute a lot to the Republican party, if they are fostered, and built up by good conservative leaders. But recently, this has sadly not been the case. Instead, these clubs have been used as a bargaining chip, so that political insiders and RINOs can get a seat at the table, and tip the scales in their own favor, robbing voters of their political will.
The rule change is co-sponsored by State Senator Phil Hart (a staunch Conservative), and presented by Kootenai County Youth Committeeman Dan Bell, in an effort to restore the power of the Republican Executive Committee, giving voters recourse to their elected Party representatives, instead of unelected appointees.
Contrary to what these groups have said in their emails and in the press, members of these groups can still be on the State Executive Committee, so long as they participate in the processes of the Republican Party, just like every other elected Precinct Committeeman.
