Election Season is always an exciting time in Bonneville County and around the state. This year has been even more interesting. There has been a widespread effort of disenfranchised Republicans attempting to take over our local Republican Party. At first, we thought there were just wild rumors floating around, just like there are during many election seasons. Before long we started seeing actual letters and texts that had been sent out on a large scale about a takeover attempt. Some even bragged about the millions being spent to sabotage the local party. This was all done under the pretense of it being a righteous cause to save the party from corruption and extremists.
While the personalities of the local party are as diverse as Idaho is itself, the bulk of the Bonneville GOP Central Committee are hard-working, dedicated volunteers that care about serving their community while selflessly sacrificing their time and talents to help promote the Republican Platform and conservative ideals for which Idaho is known.
One of the communications from this rogue group even stated that they only had to get a small amount of people to vote for them because of the voter apathy in Idaho, and particularly in Bonneville County. They promised that our voters were naive and would only read headlines and do what they are told. They lied to recruits about why they were asking them to run for PCO seats in the Primary Election. Some recruits were wise enough to come to the local party and express their concerns about this. They were also surprised to find out that our PCOs actually work and put in a great deal of time and effort. They saw the work and engagement of the current PCOs and felt they had likely been deceived by their recruiters.
They also learned that there is not a small handful of people directing the affairs and making the decisions of the Central Committee. They learned that the BCRCC operates under strict rules and bylaws that require a majority, and sometimes super majority vote by all the elected precinct representatives. No one person has the power to rule over the local party. The decisions are voted on by the grassroots that represent each neighborhood.
The rogue group, trying to run out true conservatives, believes that Bonneville voters can be bought, that the Republican Platform means nothing, that candidates should not be asked to affiliate with the Republican Party to run as a Republican, and they count on you, the voter, to be uniformed and swayed by the millions poured into this false narrative and deceitful effort.
The truth is that your local Republican Party welcomes all honest volunteers, and true Republicans, who truly want to work for the voters and promote Republican ideals. We do not pressure candidates to drop out, but help them understand that there are bylaw requirements and actual work to do. We do not require purity tests, but we do require (and have for many, many years) candidates to sign an affiliation form that states they are an actual Republican and gives them an opportunity to list any exceptions they have to the current Platform. Voters have a right to know if a Republican candidate supports the Republican Platform.
Many of our most conservative members list exceptions to the Platform and are not afraid to let the voters know where they stand on issues. We believe in transparency. This nefarious group is literally telling their recruits to not engage with their own Party, and that they have their own agenda and will feed them their talking points. This does not sound like a grassroots effort but a push from a well-funded group (some don’t even live in Bonneville County) to manipulate a private organization that they have no interest in supporting.
We hope all candidates have integrity and a desire to be transparent with their voters. We hope that voters are wise enough to learn for themselves what the party is doing, how it operates, and not base their decisions on rumors that have no base in fact. We trust voters to make informed decisions and not be fooled by those who think Idaho can be bought. Honest volunteers that support Republican ideals are always welcome.
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