IDAHO FALLS — Following a landslide victory by the “Empower Bonneville Voters” coalition on May 21, the recently elected Bonneville County GOP’s precinct committee officers met at the Shilo Inn to vote for new leadership in a marathon, nine-hour reorganization meeting Thursday.

Forty-six of the 50 precinct committee officers were present at the meeting.

“We are very much in favor of having the voters decide who’s Republican enough.”

Seventy-six percent, or 38 out of 50 of the precinct committee officers on the Bonneville County Republican Central Committee are from the coalition, the majority of whom are serving for the first time. The campaign signs and flyers of those candidates were largely funded by Gem States Conservatives, a statewide PAC started by former Idaho GOP officials Tom Luna and Trent Clark.

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“The voters put us in here to better represent them, and we’re going to take that to the (Idaho GOP State) convention. We’ll see what happens when we get there,” said Michael Colson, the newly elected BCRCC chairman. “I think it’s obvious we are very much in favor of having the voters decide who’s Republican enough. I think we all ran on that, and that’s going to be our message.”

Colson will be succeeding Nick Contos as chairman of the Bonneville GOP Central Committee.

“To be able to rub shoulders with so many good patriots has been a very great privilege in my life,” Contos said. “Serving as a precinct officer to form a political party, there is no pay. There’s no prestige or fame. There’s no government power to speak of. There was an incredible amount of criticism, in my eyes, often unduly and unfair. But the people who serve as precinct officers serve because they believe in the values of the Republican Party … low taxes, traditional family values, smaller government, safe and secure communities — all the principles that define Republicans that are outlined in our platform.”

Contos started the meeting by swearing in the newly elected PCOs.

Bonneville County Commissioner and Precinct 55 Precinct Committeeman Jon Walker said 12 of the sitting PCOs had served in the previous central committee.

Throughout Thursday night, the “Empower Bonneville Voters” coalition largely voted as a bloc in support of the new leadership, who have promised to: “1. Welcome new and young Republicans. 2. Respect the voter’s candidate choices 3. Support new party leaders who work for Idaho Republican voters 4. End the kangaroo courts and purity tests,” according to their website.

However, former BCRCC First Vice Chairwoman Diane Jensen objected to the new coalition’s methodology for selecting their leadership.

“Each of the new PCOs was given a list of who exactly to vote for the executive committee, and exactly who to vote for all of the delegate positions,” Jensen said. “They had an actual paper list, and they’re just going down the list. They have no intention of having a big tent or working together with anybody from the previous administration — the previous committee. It’s not ever been a complete turnover like this. We have some new, some old, and we work together, we learn together, and we vote. I’ve never seen it happen like this before.”

Walker disagreed the coalition had acted improperly by voting together.

“When we know that we have a list of properly vetted candidates as delegates, we’re going to work from that properly vetted list, and avoid all the wasted time that we saw from nominations that didn’t come from that list for people that didn’t have the forms turned in and people who didn’t want to be nominated,” he said.

The discussion during the meeting was at times heated, exposing clear divides between the PCOs who served with the former Bonneville County GOP leadership and the direction of the new majority. Any precinct committee officer could nominate someone to a position, and all candidates were given two minutes to address the body.

The new precinct committee officers selected the following:

• Kevin Casper as first vice chairman
• Kathryn Hitch as second vice chairwoman
• William Athay as third vice chairman
• Bryon Reed as fourth vice chairman
• Erin Bingham as the state committeewoman
• Bruce Loertscher as state committeeman
• Heather Rich as secretary
• Alisa Prudent as treasurer
• Carter Harrison as youth committeeperson
• Tom West as veteran’s affairs representative

The committee also selected 35 total delegates plus alternates to represent the county at the Idaho GOP party convention scheduled for June 13 to 15 in Coeur d’Alene.

After about eight hours of deliberations, the PCOs separated into legislative districts to select new leadership for each legislative district committee. Maria Hatch was chosen as the Legislative District 32 chairwoman, replacing the previous Chairman Doyle Beck. Janalee Nelson was elected as Legislative District 32 vice chairwoman with Cindy Walker as secretary.

In Legislative District 33, Idaho Falls City Councilman Kirk Larsen was elected as chairman, replacing Jilene Burger, who ran unsuccessfully against Marco Erickson for Seat 33B. Skyler Johns was chosen as Legislative District 33 vice chairman and Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper will serve as secretary.

The prior Legislative District 32 and District 33 committees had garnered public attention for the special investigative committee and Article XX, which were Idaho GOP platform enforcement hearings that resulted in the censure of Sens. Kevin Cook, Dave Lent and Reps. Stephanie Mickelsen and Marco Erickson. Despite the hearings, each of the legislators were re-elected in the Republican primary election by Bonneville County voters on May 21.

The new central committee also passed a resolution to address the May 25 transfer of funds that emptied their bank account of all but $100. In their final official act, the previous BCRCC voted 29-22 to donate $55,786 to the Idaho GOP to fight ranked choice voting/the open primaries initiative and pay for a $20,000 state convention luncheon.

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The new committee’s resolution states, “WHEREAS the financial decisions of May 28 were out of order with the bylaws of the body (no agenda, no copy of resolution provided in advance to the body) and with Roberts Rules of Order (2/3 voting requirement was not exercised to waive notice on an agenda); and WHEREAS the financial decisions were made by secret ballot; and WHEREAS the financial decisions do not represent the desires or intents of this body: … The current BCRCC requests the Idaho State Republican Party refund the money sent to them as it does not reflect the current will of the duly elected BCRCC.”

Overall, Jensen took exception to how the meeting was conducted.

“The first order of business that these new PCOs conducted was to disregard and violate their bylaws by allowing PCOs who did not fulfill the obligations lined out in the bylaws to be able to vote,” Jensen said. “They disregarded those and voted to allow those PCOs to vote.”

She said the BCRCC has been sued previously by the state party for “disregarding” its bylaws.

But Colson responded that three PCOs prohibited from voting by current party bylaws – Brian Saunders and Sid Hamberlin, who had not turned in Integrity in Affiliation forms to the party before the election; and Sean Coletti, who had only registered as a Republican in March — voluntarily recused themselves from voting to ensure the integrity of the process.

“We were able to get through the business and work towards … where the Bonneville County Central Committee is going to move to the future,” Kevin Casper said. “(We) conducted a lot of business to get the delegate slate and the candidates to get the executive committee and the legislative districts organized. Although there were some emotional moments in the meeting, we were able to navigate the challenges and ultimately move forward in a meaningful way.”

Colson said the meeting’s format allowed all to be heard who wished to speak.

“This is probably one of the longest sessions probably in the entire state,” Colson said. “But I think we did it consistently. We did it fairly. We gave people an opportunity to express what was important to them. I learned a lot tonight, just by listening to some of the speeches. I look forward to having more of that, and picking up all kinds of good things that people have to share and offer.”