Free Republic

The Dorr Brothers and their impact on Idaho.

Abusive behavior pushes good people away from participating in public policy and getting involved at a local level. We’ve heard from many who have either given up or are considering quitting politics because it’s become so toxic in our state. People involved in Idaho politics on a volunteer basis are forced to choose between standing up and taking the abuse or leaving in silence to avoid further nastiness.

The AP recently ran a story on how racism was gaining traction again in North Idaho after a local GOP group hosted Brittany Pettinbone and issued a resolution supporting her request for help in getting her fiancee's travel ban lifted. (He was a donor to the Christchurch shooter.) The media had a field day with this and used this to link Republicans to racism. Idaho Conservatives has a very different take on the situation, one that better explains what is really going on with Idaho Republicans. https://idahoconservatives.com/editorial/martyrs-north-idaho/

A statewide mailer was delivered to residents of Idaho urging voters to look at Lt. Governor candidate Steve Yate’s record. They accused him of having a failing business and included a copy of a private email sent from Steve Yate’s wife to her friend Sheila Olsen, a beloved active member of the Republican Party.

Idaho Falls Rep. Bryan Zollinger took to Facebook on Friday, re-posting a conspiracy theory suggesting that last weekend’s events in Charlottesville, Va., could have been an inside job orchestrated to smear President Donald Trump. The post, written on a site called The American Thinker, is replete with wild, unevidenced claims couched in what-ifs. “The conflagration in Charlottesville is beginning to feel like a set-up, perhaps weeks or months in the planning,” the author wrote. In a comment, Zollinger called the blog post “completely plausible.” The post suggests, at various points, that the white supremacist demonstration in Charlottesville, which resulted in...

Via the Daily Caller. “I am from Idaho,” she says late in the clip below. “We are so white!” I think that mostly explains this ostentatious journey into wokeness at last week’s DNC candidate forum. When you’re from a famously white state that routinely votes Republican and you’re auditioning to lead the Democratic Party, you’d better go the extra mile in reassuring the party’s minority voters that they can trust you. Remember, this is a woman who’s competing with a former Nation of Islam member for the job. There had better be some serious self-flagellation to impress the audience. Black...

Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho says he’ll be voting for Donald Trump after all. This, after Crapo earlier this month rescinded his endorsement of the presidential candidate. In a statement released Monday, Crapo says he will vote for Trump to keep Hillary Clinton from becoming president. “The choice we have is between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Given that choice, I will vote for the Republican ticket, Trump and Pence. We must elect a President who will appoint strong Supreme Court justices who will interpret the Constitution as it was written and who will help lead us to...

Idaho 1st District Congressman Raul Labrador, who will be going to the national GOP convention in Cleveland as a Ted Cruz delegate, called today for Donald Trump to choose Cruz as his running mate. Labrador said that would take “the two guys who got about 70 percent of the votes in just about every primary, every caucus … and bring the team together. That would be historic, it would be something akin to what Abraham Lincoln did when he brought a team of rivals together.” Labrador, who spoke during a monthly “Conversations with Conservatives” Q-and-A session with Washington, D.C. reporters...

The Idaho Republican Party held its annual Winter Meeting over the weekend and held a presidential candidate reception and straw poll as part of the festivities. It was great news for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who received 40 percent of the vote, followed by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) at 18 percent. Donald Trump came in third at 13 percent, while Ben Carson and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) received 11 and 8 percent, respectively. No other candidate received more than 3 percent in the Friday evening straw poll vote. The next morning, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Idaho...

SALT LAKE CITY — Donald Trump continues to be the front-runner in the GOP presidential nomination race, but he's languishing in fourth place in a new poll of Utah voters. The new UtahPolicy.com poll by Dan Jones & Associates comes as former Utah governor and 2012 presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. is suggesting Trump has a shot at winning the White House. "People really are hungry for change. They were last time, but it hadn't reached the 212-degree boiling point. This time it has," Huntsman told USA Today's weekly "Capital Download" video series. Huntsman said that's why he thinks Trump,...

IDAHO FALLS — Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot announced Wednesday, Nov. 18 he will support Marco Rubio’s campaign for president. “Marco Rubio is the brightest and most capable candidate,” VanderSloot said in a letter explaining his endorsement. “He has the uncanny ability to state his positions clearly in a way that resonates with the average voter.” VanderSloot said he plans to raise money for Rubio, but has not decided how much he will personally give. The Melaleuca CEO said he believes this presidential election may be the most important election in American history. “Because of that, I have paid a great...

People are gathering in the BSU Student Union for Rand Paul’s rally this morning, which has been moved to the Hatch Ballroom from the smaller Barnwell Room. The 258 chairs are mostly full, and a few are starting to gather in standing room in the back for the “Stand With Rand” rally. The audience appears to be mostly students, along with a mix of other Boiseans. Linda Pfister, a Boise retiree, said, “I’ve been a Rand Paul supporter for quite some time now. I think if anybody can get rid of the trash in Washington, D.C., I think he can.”...

An Idaho Republican made waves on Twitter this week, tweeting that forcing insurance companies to participate in healthcare exchanges is like marching Jews off to death camps during the Holocaust. In a series of messages that began Jan. 22 and continued until Wednesday, state Sen. Sheryl Nuxol said that the Affordable Care Act amounts to "tombs" for insurance companies. "Much like the Jews boarding the trains to concentration camps, private insurers are used by the feds to put the system in place because the federal government has no way to set up the exchange. Several years from now, the federal...

It could have been a scene from one of his films, but fortunately for Mitt Romney, it was no act when Clint Eastwood endorsed him Friday night. At a fundraiser in the Idaho resort town of Sun Valley, where Eastwood owns a home, Romney said the legendary actor and director "just made my day." But Eastwood showed up at the Sun Valley resort as a citizen concerned about the direction of the country, telling reporters beforehand he was backing the Republican presidential candidate "because I think the country needs a boost somewhere." He later told hundreds at the outdoor reception...

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, mocked Rick Santorum and Sarah Palin today for drawing smaller crowds than his campaign as he sprints to the Super Tuesday finish. Paul's campaign announced that 1,300 people attended his town hall in Sandpoint, Idaho, which has a population of 7,400 people. "This contrasts with less-inspiring candidates struggling with diminished interest, including small crowd sizes for Rick Santorum in [the] much larger Coeur d'Alene, which neighbors Spokane," his campaign observed. "The 'leading' competing candidate drew a paltry 600 there on February 15th, and turnout for the Pual town hall event also contrasts with turnout for a...

Ari Fleischer says there's no "way, shape or form" Sarah Palin can lock the Republican nomination. "I cannot see any way, shape or form that she can win the Republican primary," Fleischer, the former press secretary to President George W. Bush, said as reported by the Idaho Mountain Express. Fleischer, who was in Ketchum, Idaho to speak as part of the Sun Valley Center for the Arts' Lecture Series, said he'd never seen such a wide open Republican field, but that the former Alaska governor was not among the serious contenders....

The wife of freshman Democratic Congressman Walt Minnick, A.K. Lienhart Minnick, handed out the first-ever “Not Sarah” award Saturday morning at the Idaho State Democratic Convention at the Coeur d’Alene Casino in Worley. The award was given to the party’s vice-chair Jeanne Buell, also of Worley, for her work within the party. Minnick, giving a speech to the Women’s Caucus at the convention, said that Buell is someone who inspires other women “without saying ‘you betcha,’” a phrase for which Republican superstar Sarah Palin is known. Minnick praised Buell for being someone who is well-read, inspiring, and actively working to...

To see the posted results from today's Idaho primary, see the attached link.

BOISE, Idaho — Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had to quickly buy a new outfit before a rally in Idaho on Friday because her luggage got lost. Republican congressional hopeful Vaughn Ward introduced Palin before about 1,500 people and said she and her family arrived on time in Boise but their bags did not. Palin appeared in a shimmery light-blue jacket worn over a black, knee-length dress and joked: "I'm in borrowed clothes, again," referring to the designer clothes controversy during the 2008 presidential campaign. A spokesman says the Ward campaign bought the outfit from a Boise shop and Palin...

Bickering between Republican 1st Congressional District hopeful Rep. Raul Labrador and GOP Sen. Mike Jorgenson continued Wednesday after Jorgenson accused Labrador of using personal attacks to avoid a discussion of the issues. Jorgenson, a Hayden Republican, called for Labrador, of Eagle, to drop out of the race shortly after he launched his campaign. The Associated Press reported the two have clashed numerous times in the past. In a Wednesday e-mail, Jorgenson cited instances he claimed show conflict between Labrador's stated position on immigration issues and his actions. Labrador dismissed Jorgenson's criticism, calling him ill-informed on immigration issues and said his...