Category: Politics

Image a world where Rand Paul is running against Mitt Romney. Paul defeated Romney in the last election and Romney is out for blood in the rematch. Sorry, but for folks that live out of Idaho, that’s about the closest comparison that I can come up with to describe the State Senate race here.

The Rand Paul-like character in the race is Scott Herndon. Herndon is a real conservative. He is everything Tom McClintock is not. Herndon’s deeds match his words, and he is a leader; two things McClintock has never been. Herndon will vote against any bill if there is pork or hidden spending increases in it. Unlike Congress, he will only vote to approve money when he agrees where all of it will be spent. If a bill has extra stuff in it, Herndon will not support it. Oh, and unlike other folks in office, Herndon reads every bill and can tell you what he likes or doesn’t in each one.

In Idaho, the Legislature is a part-time one, and the legislative session is about 90-days. Things move at a very fast pace. A bill might be introduced on Monday and be heard in committee on Wednesday. It’s a furious pace in a short time. Anything being fast tracked is probably in need of additional scrutiny. I liken it to juggling chainsaws.

The Mitt Romney type character up here is Jim Woodward. Jim is a RINO. He thinks Idaho’s abortion restrictions are a problem and seems to want abortion as a form of birth control like it was under Roe v Wade. He voted to support DEI (Diversity, Inclusion, Equity) in academia and business. He pretends to want limited government and lower taxes, but the thrust of his campaign is hitting Herndon both for not spending enough money and Herndon’s reluctance to expand the scope and reach of government.

Were he in California, Woodward would be a proud moderate but in Idaho, he is a chameleon masquerading as a conservative. In a meeting of conservatives, you can sense that Woodward is choking on his own bile just being in the same room as them. But it’s what he must endure to win.

Woodward is supported by a coalition of Democrats, liberal Republicans, and others. One thing they have in common is that they really hate Christians. They have a website that attacks Herndon mercilessly for his faith and values. Started in 2022, this site is North Idaho Republicans.

A week ago, their poorly maintained website had several pages with text that was gibberish (plug text intended to be replaced by actual content). Thankfully, they at least finally took them down. Their Facebook page is their real portal and has more current content.

Here’s some gems from their website.

Conservatives want Dystopian Future

A March 5^th post begins with praise for California’s Child Protective Services. Yes, really! Remember, this is a website claiming to be a group of conservative Republicans and they start out praising California (mistake number one) for a government system that is broken (mistake number two).

On the whole, the post seems to lack continuity and substance. In fact, the author has to invent facts out of thin air. Her (I can tell whoever wrote this is female and liberal by the content) entire article is speculation and thus wholly untrue. It is an attack on Herndon and Christians and what harm she thinks they might do in the future. It’s really a classic strawman argument used as a vehicle to trash conservatives. Here are a few parts:

… their Christian Nationalist agenda and make good on their promises to abolish anything they view as an affront to domininist ideologies.

Herndon and his Abolish Abortion arsonist allies …

…  a combination of fear porn and forcing some bizarre pseudo-christian version of Sharia Law down people’s throats.

… the laws of the new Christian state …

The full rant can be found here.

Only Republicans can vote in Republican Primaries

Another thing the North Idaho group dislikes is the Republican effort in the state to say that you must be registered as a Republican for one year before voting in a Republican election. This allegedly conservative group wants Democrats to be able to change registration to select who wins on the Republican ticket. If you oppose any version of “Operation Chaos” or any other means of non-republican involvement in Republican Primary elections, then in their eyes, you are evil.

Yep, just like other groups I can think of, Woodward and his ilk invoke Ronald Reagan as their role model but somehow not Reagan’s beliefs. They only invoke Reagan to claim that others in the GOP must work for what they want. Bipartisanship is always a one-way street. Funny how that happens.

These guys have open hostility to Christianity. Christians started the Republican Party to oppose slavery.

If the North Idaho Republican group wants people in elected office, that claim to be Christian but don’t let it affect their politics, then they should be voting for Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi. Heck, they’re in the wrong political party. No wonder they’re so uncomfortable as Republicans.

Fake Racism Incident

Note: below I have underlined a few places in quotations for emphasis.

A few weeks ago, the North Idaho Republicans also opened their pie-holes about racism in Coeur d’Alene, but the truth is that the incident—in which they blamed people that they lump in with Scott Herndon—never happened. Zero evidence.

Now, almost two weeks since the incident occurred, there remains no evidence to support these claims.

Anatomy Of A Hate Hoax: One Week And Still NO EVIDENCE of Alleged “Racist Incident” in Coeur d’Alene With Utah Basketball Team

However, this didn’t stop the false narrative from making national news.

According to Stewart’s Task-Force [Tony Stewart of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations], the University of Utah Women’s Basketball team “encountered a truck displaying a Confederate flag as the driver began spewing appalling racial slurs at them, including the “N” word.”

According to the Kootenai Co human rights task force, the players were going to dinner when they were followed by a driver yelling the N word at them.

The truck that allegedly accosted the players while they were on their way to a restaurant supposedly waited around for TWO HOURS for the team to eat dinner, and then harassed the team again on their way back to the Coeur d’Alene resort. The team was only staying in Coeur d’Alene because the NCAA “dropped the ball” and forgot to reserve the team a hotel 45 minutes away in Spokane.

The allegations of this “Racist Incident” were first made public by Utah Women’s Basketball Coach Lynn Roberts, shortly after her team lost a game against Gonzaga at the NCAA March Madness Tournament.

Please note this steaming pile disguised as a press release.

Recent events in downtown Coeur d’Alene, involving the totally unacceptable verbal harassment of female athletes from the University of Utah and the University of California-Irvine, underscore the importance of the need to commit to uphold moral values and true freedom.

NIR firmly disavows these flashbacks of 1920’s Klan-like and 1990’s Aryan Nations-like activities, underscoring that genuine freedom cannot coexist with bigotry, harassment, and intimidation. Unfortunately, once again the destructive influence of some within the local Republican community is having truly negative effects on our community. 

Press Release: North Idaho Republicans Denounces Racism and Bigotry

Please note in the above that this republican group is saying that they know for a fact that a fellow Republican, who simply must be from the camp they oppose, is responsible for this incident—although, it never happened. Also, if you don’t agree with them then you must be a Nazi.

Not done making asses of themselves, the author of the release then inserts a quote from himself.

Former Idaho Lt. Governor Jack Riggs voiced his concern, stating, “The empowerment of racism within our ranks threatens the very essence of our community and the integrity of the Republican Party.

Again, the guy with the rebel flag must be a Republican, but not one of ours.

Seems like this might be the classic strawman argument in action.

Oh, the gift that keeps give, this Riggs guy is a real nutjob:

“As Republicans, we must do more than merely point to ‘platform statements’ on racism; we must act decisively to root it out where it exists within our organization,” Riggs added. “This means holding our party leaders accountable and ensuring that their actions reflect the values we profess to hold.  There is simply no place for racism anywhere.”

In this paragraph, he now blames the Republican leadership of Idaho Republicans for the incident. This tells you that he’s not part of said leadership, but he deserves to be our master.

I will have more on the website of the North Idaho Republicans shortly.

Woodward and Abortion

These North Idaho whiners aren’t really Republicans. They don’t like abortion restrictions and think we need more DEI, transgender books for elementary school kids, and rainbow stuff.

Their boy, Jim Woodward got a plug of sorts from the UK Guardian newspaper. Apparently, he regrets his previous stand as a prolife Republican and wishes to moderate his positions. The following was written by a freelance writer in Montana, about the uphill struggle to undo the prolife laws in Idaho and once again make abortion lethal through all nine months of pregnancy. Towards the end of this advocacy piece, you will find these paragraphs:

 Then another guest arrives: Jim Woodward, a Sandpoint Republican who served in the Idaho state senate from 2019-2022. He voted yes on all anti-abortion bills, but lost his seat in the 2022 election to Scott Herndon, a far-right abortion abolitionist who believes abortion should be treated as homicide and punished with jail time or even the death penalty. In the 2023 session, Herndon tried to remove Idaho’s rape and incest exception and called rape “an opportunity to have the child … if the rape actually occurred”. (Herndon declined to be interviewed for this story.)

Woodward is running to retake the seat this year. He says he and many other anti-abortion legislators didn’t foresee the ramifications of the bills they voted for. Part of his platform, which promises to reclaim his community from extremism, is to somewhat ease legislative language that doesn’t take the mother’s future health into account and calls for felony convictions for physicians. He didn’t hesitate to accept [Jen Jackson] Quintano’s invitation to the viewing party. “We should be able to talk about all of these things, and do it in a nice way,” he says. Two days later, he shares stories from the Nightline episode with attendees at a campaign meet and greet.

‘Idaho’s seen as a war zone’: the lone abortion activist defying militias and the far right

For those of you that don’t pay attention to legal issues, taking the mother’s health into consideration, as Woodward states above, is how we got almost 50 years of abortion being legal for all nine months of the pregnancy and the main form of birth control in the United States. Clearly Woodward wants to go back to Roe v Wade (and Doe v Bolton) as the law of the land.

Please note that Woodward was willing to vote prolife as long as he knew that only the Supreme Court had the power to overturn Roe. He was defeated by Herndon just a month before Roe was struck down. Now that voting prolife has real world implications, he wants to relax the restrictions that he once voted for. Conclusion, he only voted that way because he was expected to do so to get elected. It was never how he truly felt about the evil of abortion.

Black Lists and Black-balling

As I was poking around the North Idaho Republican website, I clicked on a curious button (Visit NIRPAC.ORG) and was transported to the alt world of their banned and blacklisted enemies list.

On one part of their main website, they quote Ronald Reagan saying he could work with someone that agrees with him 80 percent of the time. I guess if you really believe and agree with Reagan on abortion then the offer to work with you doesn’t apply. Oh, for those that don’t know, while in office, Reagan wrote a book condemning abortion. He is the only US President to write a book on the subject and did so while in office.

On the web page that you jump to for NIR PAC, you will see a button with the curious name of Non-Republican Sites.

There is this curious sentence followed by a list of blacklisted groups and websites.

But North Idaho Republicans ALSO chooses to NOT be associated with the following Non-Republican Network sites.

The list is composed of conservative groups composed mostly of Republicans. Some of the URLs in their list are broken.

Here are the names:

Idaho Common Ground which has no active URL

Kootenai County Spectator

About: I am a Christian, conservative woman who was ‘forced’ to be a stay at home mom when my job required masks, and when my kids’ school ‘forced’ masks on their students to be able to step on campus. My kids are now homeschooled, btw. As the wife of a small business owner, I saw exactly how our liberties could be taken away when we weren’t paying attention, and 2020 helped me understand my red line, my morals, my history, and it made me become even more Conservative than I’ve ever been before. The craziness of 2020 is why I decided to stand up and let my voice be heard. I am the Vice President of the Northwest Property Owners Alliance, a proud member of the Kootenai County Republican Women Federation, Republican party, the Society for Professional Journalism, Candlelight Christian Fellowship in Coeur d’Alene…

The Peoples Pen

No new content since November 2023.

North Idaho Freedom Fighters

Mission: The North Idaho Freedom Fighters (NIFF) believe in our God-given right to pursue lives of fulfillment, purpose, and happiness. As sons and daughters of the United States Constitution, we will fight to defend our rights and liberties from the evils of tyranny and oppression. Dedicated to preserving America’s freedoms, we will unify and strengthen our community until our republic is once again returned to the citizens of these United States of America.

Redoubt News

About: Redoubt News is a news and opinion online publication featuring the Christian conservative culture around, and important to, the American Redoubt. The goal of Redoubt News is to inform and educate citizens on important news stories from a perspective of individual liberty.

Idaho Freedom Foundation

Mission: IFF’s mission is to defeat Marxism and socialism by building a culture of liberty around America’s founding principles so that Idahoans can prosper.

Idaho Freedom Action

 About: Idaho Freedom Action (IFA) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving freedom in the Gem State. Through direct action, IFA supports policies that strengthen free markets, individual liberty and state sovereignty and opposes those that would bring Idaho down a path of socialism.

We love our state, and while we welcome anyone who wants to make a positive contribution to our Idaho communities, we’re not interested in radically transforming what or who we are to become more like the places our new residents are leaving behind. That’s why we are mobilized to fight the big policy battles facing Idaho, from reckless tax-and-spend proposals to the hostile woke takeover of education.

Idaho Freedom Action is the state’s premier free market advocacy organization. Armed with the scholarly products of Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF), IFA is fighting every single day to hold accountable politicians who seek to change Idaho in ways that forsake our heritage and undermine our ideals.

John Birch Society

About: The John Birch Society is a non-partisan civics and education organization. We are concerned Americans from many races, religious beliefs, and national origins. Since we were founded on December 9, 1958, we have been men and women of good character, humane conscience, and religious ideals who have worked together to safeguard the Constitution.

Northwest Property Owners Alliance

About: We will continue to take up property and privacy concerns in defense of property owners in the Northwest (Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Montana.) We strive to keep property owners appraised of local and regional issues affecting them.

Health Freedom Idaho

Mission: Our mission at Health Freedom Idaho is to promote and protect the inherent right of every individual, parent, and guardian in Idaho to choose their own path towards health and wellness. We advocate for access to healing and healthcare treatments, information, and services of their choice, while defending the rights of practitioners to practice. Through the development of state statutes and rules, we honor the unalienable human right to self-determination in all aspects of health. We empower citizens by providing education and advocacy on the laws and factors impacting their right to access healthcare.

Patriot Economic Network

About: We promote and support our local patriot community. The PEN supports Veterans, active military, law enforcement, first responders and all American Patriots in business. We live and work in the Inland Northwest and we are committed to providing our Patriot community with this valuable service. The Patriot Economic Network was born out of our need to find local goods and services while at the same time supporting fellow Patriots in business.

Citizens Alliance of Idaho

About: Citizens Alliance of Idaho was started by a group of Idaho citizens who wanted to see some type of positive change in Idaho politics. In wanting to be a voice of reason in a hyperpolarized environment, the best natural starting point was to focus on the only two documents that every Idahoan has agreed to live by: The Idaho State Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. These are the only two documents that provide the rules for how legislators agree to govern along with the expectations of the citizens they represent. We couldn’t think of a more fair and civic-minded roadmap.

Summation

So, there you have it, all the people that North Idaho Republicans refuses to work with. If you believe in following the Constitution, want accountable government, property rights, religious or health freedom, following the Christian faith, or opposing Marxism, you’re not welcome. Funny but last I checked, Ronald Reagan believed and supported all these things too.

I might have more on these guys as circumstances develop.

On April 1, 2024, Travis Stolley responded to the attacks made on him via a series of Facebook posts. Stolley said in the post that if you wanna know the truth, meet me at Mugsy’s on April 18th between 6 and 8 PM. “Meet the Candidate. Ask Questions. Drink Beer.”

Here’s my take on this.

First, this post was put on Facebook on April Fool’s Day. Is it real?

Assuming that it is, this is too little, too late in my opinion. Travis will wait to respond until April 18th and then only privately. By that time, the story will have been circulating for about a month on the Internet with no rebuttal. This was done publicly, and the response should also be publicly, not privately to a bunch of folks that were not involved.

The post from Stolley reads in part:

I will not go into any more specifics of the incident being talked about on social media other than to say this.

I tried to respect the privacy of those involved when initially asked about this incident last fall and I will continue to do so now.

I am far from a perfect person or candidate, but I will always do what I believe is the right thing. I know I did the right thing in this situation given the facts and information available at the time.

Translation: I have no comment. I did the right thing.

Conclusion: what you read online is true, but I deny that I violated the law or procedure by what I did while in uniform. Oh, and if I had to do it over, I’d do the same thing.

This type of non-answer sounds suspiciously like something you might get told to say by a sympathetic lawyer wanting you to deflect without self-incrimination.

The other thing you should know is that his date at Mugsy’s (a local restaurant and watering hole) is that it directly conflicts with the candidate forum at the same date and time. This forum is for all state constitutional offices up for grabs on the May 21st Primary ballot. The most hotly contested of these races is state Senate.

Oh, my wife has been checking up on the candidates in her travels through the area. The story she gets is that Stolley is the favorite of some of the local power brokers. Stolley’s family apparently goes way back in the community. He is the choice of the good ole boys in the county. My wife was told that due to his family connections with the area that Stolley is the odds-on favorite to win with virtually no experience. The good ole boys want Stolley because they think they can control him. This belief works out like this: due to his inexperience he will need to heavily depend on their aid to be an effective sheriff.

(Note for California readers: good ole boys, and most everyone else here, have facial hair, drive four wheel drive pickups, and wear Carhartt clothing, baseball caps, and open carry pistols.)

Oh, Dave Schuman got a positive plug. My wife was told that Dave will answer the phone if you call him for help and is an asset to the community. Schuman is described as a genuinely nice guy.

My sense that both represent the status quo and “do no harm” seems to be holding up.

In gatherings where I have met the candidates, all three seem like decent folks. I would be happy to have any one of them over for a BBQ meal—if I had a barbecue. Nevertheless, I have decided to support Jon VanGesen.

Last Thursday, a local group, The Panhandle Republican Women, hosted a debate featuring all three candidates for county sheriff. The event was held at the Bonners Ferry High School gym. It was literally a standing room only event. Interest in the contest is high and this event might be the only time all three participate in such a forum. In my travels over the last several months, I have had occasions to listen to all three men give public presentations.

In Idaho, the sheriff is a partisan office. (The current sheriff is retiring.) In our county no Democrats filed to run. Thus, the winner is the Republican with the most votes. There is no fifty percent plus one vote requirement here. Whoever wins on May 21^st is the new sheriff.

For those of you outside of north Idaho, let me paint a brief description of each guy.

I will do this in the same order as the debate began, namely, alphabetically.

Dave Schuman. I can best describe Dave as reminiscent of Boss Hogg. Dave is your stereotypical career deputy (just shy of 30 years on the force) in small town America. A friend said they pictured his leadership style as sitting in his office, with his feet on the desk while scarfing down a couple of donuts. He is the favorite of many old-timers here. He stands for the status quo. His motto seems to be “do no harm.”

Travis Stolley. Travis is a young fellow that grew up in the area. He spent time in the Marines and then joined the sheriff’s department. I like him and think he might make a good sheriff, just not this time.

Jon VanGesen. Jon has the most experience of any of the candidates, but I think many view him as an outsider. He retired from a sheriff’s department in Washington state and then started working as a sheriff’ deputy for neighboring Bonner County. Jon lives in the southern part of the county near Naples. If elected, Jon wants to move the department forward and into being more proactive and professional. He wants to build a new jail and find ways to increase deputy’s pay. He represents change and modernization.

We arrived at the debate right at the 6 PM start time and parked far from the entrance of the gym. Once we entered the building, we milled around for a few minutes before deciding to look for seats on the far side of the place. Amazingly, not only did we find seats but the guy next to us turned out to be the pastor of the local church where we worship.

As the debate started, I took photos of each guy. It was then that I noticed that each podium was different in size, shape, and color. Then I noticed that Schuman had a solid base on his podium, Stolley has legs on his podium, and VanGesen had wheels on his. After noticing this, I naturally wondered which one Buffalo Guy would choose to steal.

The debate was informative, cordial, and well run. Thankfully, there were no audio mishaps. The four microphones held up fine, which is not always the case when using wireless devices. The moderators tried to rotate the questions, so each candidate had opportunities to be the first to answer questions. At the end, each guy was given two questions specifically targeted at them.

Here are my notes as to each question. (I list only what I felt was the meat of each question).

• 1 This question was about the difference in line officer vs administrator.
• 2 If something like Covid happens again, would you obey the mandate or obey the Constitution?
• 3 How have you saved money or brought it into the department?
• 4 If elected, what would be your management style?
• 5 Child safety and protection
• 6 Are drugs a problem in the county?
• 7 What is your experience in grants and grant writing?
• 8 Second Amendment topic, if ordered, would you be willing to go door-to-door and confiscate weapons?
• 9 Ruby Ridge—what would you have done?
• 10 What is your experience working with other agencies?
• 11 Do we need a new jail? If so, remodel or replace? How would you fund it?
• 12 What would you do if Biden or his minions dumped a bus of illegals in our town?
• 13 Mental health issues, what can you do?
• 14 Concerns a case known as “baby Cyrus”. It involves police removing a child from his home. This was recently part of a court case. (Note: This question was VanGesen’s worst and most mediocre answer of the night.)
• 15 Concerned a shutdown order and would they obey it?

Individual questions

Schuman

• 1 Asked about advancement. His reply was that’s why I’m running.
• 2 Citizen involvement

Stolley

1. You only have 8 years of law enforcement experience, why should we vote for you?
2. How does being raised here make you a better sheriff?

VanGesen

• 1 You’re from the big city, how does that experience help you here?
• 2 As a deputy in Washington state, why was there a suit against you for excessive force. Answer, suit was not brought until 3 years after the alleged event, and it strangely coincided with rise of BLM riots in the Seattle area. No wrongdoing found by investigators, no merit. The insurance company wanted it to go away and wrote a check—this happened after I retired.

Differences

In my mind, VanGesen won almost every question. I think he scored the best on the Ruby Ridge question. He quoted Sarah Weaver and got to the heart of the issue.

Schuman said that the previous sheriff used to take all new deputies to walk the property and talk about what happened. This was one of his most detailed answers all night.

Stolley was lost on this one, which is somewhat understandable since he wasn’t on the planet when it happened.

On the mandate vs Constitution question, Stolley and VanGesen said they would go with the Constitution, Schuman stumbled a little bit on this and finally stated he took an oath to uphold the Constitution and then dismissed the idea that Constitutional conflict could happen.

On grants, VanGesen nailed it, and the others were clearly lost trying to come up with an answer.

On the new jail, Schuman commented that when he was hired in the late 1990’s it was in disrepair and hasn’t gotten any better. He did not seem to have any detailed knowledge of the new jail proposal.

I have a few other thoughts on the debate. All questions were submitted in advance by the public with the possible exception of the individual ones at the end. I know that public speaking is not everyone’s best skill. Also, I concede that there is a bit of a beauty contest aspect to such a spectacle, but on the other hand, any election is a bit like that or a job interview if you will.

Conclusion

We entered the debate unsure of who to support and left with a VanGesen yard sign. On our way out of the gym, we saw our pastor, walking out the door with the middle podium tucked under his arm. I didn’t see that one coming.

Thoughts?  Well, we will still be counting ballots until 4/12 or so due to our ridiculous primary and general election rules that allow mail in ballots to be accepted and counted up to a week after election day!

However, most races have been essentially “called” and I want to provide some commentary on the results and where things could head in The General out here.

The Senate Race:  Beware to all who think a “top two” primary is a smart idea.  In this republic the top two vote getters regardless of party affiliation advance to the general.  This is blatantly unconstitutional in my understanding of the laws here, but the Democrats love it, and the GOP figures it must be good since they refuse to challenge the legality of it.  You in essence had 5 “major” candidates.  Republican former LA Dodger baseball player Steve Garvey, and republican perennial candidate Eric Early.  I swear to all forms of God, I have seen Early on my ballot no less than 4 election cycles now for some office.  The Democrats had 3 major candidates, all congressmen.  Adam Schiff from LA, Katie Porter from Orange, and Barbara Lee from Oakland.  I listed the 3 in order of sanity from most sane to least.  Or, if you are a Republican operative, who I would vote for in a “top two” of just Democrats.  I understand Schiff led the impeachment of Trump but compare his voting record to Porter and Lee and he looks like a watered-down Democrat, but I digress. 

Garvey and Schiff advanced to the runoff comfortably, and both played the election correctly.  Garvey has some name ID from his time as a baseball player down south, this is huge in a state like California.  Schiff had a national profile and decided he would “take Garvey with him” to the general. 

Porter had a similar strategy it involved Eric Early.  Barbara Lee is likely still ranting about her $50 an hour wage minimum wage to an auditorium of no one except friends and family; so I will not include her in my analysis.  Schiff comes from Hollywood-Burbank LA, it’s a wealthy, mostly white part of the most populous county in California, so he had a massive built in advantage in name ID.  Porter from a similar demographic in neighboring Orange, but a much smaller voter universe.  My point is, let’s say Porter and Schiff made the runoff.  Porter is far more popular with the far left than Schiff, and as a result it’s a risk Schiff couldn’t take.  Schiff knows that a top two in November with a hated Donald Trump on the ticket will drive up the far left’s numbers and likely give the race to Porter, so he helped Garvey. 

Here is 1 of 2 glossies Schiff sent me, in essence propping up Garvey.

Since Schiff helped secure a top two finish from Garvey, he is a “shoo-in” to win the general.  Garvey also played this right, he raised 2 million (a sum that is very small, not even congressional campaign worthy) and spent about 0 since Schiff was propping his up.  Why spend money when your likely opponent will do it for you?

Katie Porter went completely unhinged after losing, so much so Troll has a blog in the chamber.

Big picture this is a good thing for Republicans in November.  We are defending a lot of marginal GOP seats, Trump will be a drag on the ticket, the absence of a Republican for Senate will destroy the ticket.  Garvey will get around 38% or so in my estimation, maybe closer to 41.  My point?  The extra turnout he draws will likely be from the LA area where we are defending the vulnerable House seats.  The extra several thousand votes could very well mean we keep a congressional majority.

Another thing worth watching, we had but 1 statewide proposition on the ballot it dealt with a bond for several billion for mental health treatment.  Out here we allow the mentally insane to roam the streets, even dodge traffic and can do nothing sense they aren’t technically breaking a law.  The proposition which Gavin Newsom campaigned for, and I believe raised over 13 million is barely passing.  50.3% to 49.7%.  Yup you read that right, still a pant load of ballots to count and anything can happen, but this may be finally a sign of Californians wising up.  We have spent trillions out here on various grifts like homelessness and affordable housing, none has worked.  We know have Democrat mayors and legislators trying to change prop 47 aka the “shoplift ‘til you drop law” to jail serial shoplifters.  These things happen when you start losing the narrative.  A Garvey win in November?  No chance, but he could set the wheels in motion of a turn around.  That proposition damn near losing when all signs point to Republicans voting late like usual could mean it fails.  A big blow to Newsom and the political elite out here.

(Please don’t take my above comments on Newsom as implying that I think the seventh recall attempt against Gavin has a snowball’s chance in hell of happening.)

A word on Trump if I may.

He is now the inevitable nominee.  It has been written how the bloggers here have soured on him.  He will be getting our votes in November, but with a jaundiced eye.  He is putting a family relative in a high-ranking post at the RNC who has been open about using the cash to pay Trump’s legal bills.  The RNC has not raised much cash at all compared to prior cycles; we are late in the cycle right now.  The cash will be needed in swing states for get out the vote operations.  We also have a slim majority in congress, and a chance to pick up seats in the senate, but with Trump who the heck knows.  I foresee a Trump presidency but a Democrat-controlled congress.  Trump will get nothing, and likely be impeached another 2-5 times just because. 

Trump is also scaring me on the campaign trail.  His remarks about the judge in New York, the DA in Atlanta, and the various Democrats he doesn’t like come off as dictator-like.  Frankly he comes off as a jilted former lover and having an axe to grind, but in this case the axe could very well be the DOJ and IRS, two very scary agencies to be up against.  His threats to leave NATO are somewhat scary.  Joe Biden may come off as a senile old man, but man Trump comes off as an unhinged whacko at times.  The debates could be legendary (if they are allowed) Joe could well wonder off, or fall asleep, while Trump could spontaneously combust.

The Chief

Garvey Wins by Sheltering In Place

Wow! How ‘bout Steve Garvey? This guy is going to ride his Major League Baseball record into the General Election as a U.S. Senate candidate. Four years ago, Joe Biden hid in his basement while running for President and Garvey seems to have adopted a similar strategy by hiding in the dugout until the game was over. I guess he just hid while the three Democrats destroyed each other in the Primary. What a political rope-a-dope. Unlike the guy that “floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee”, I doubt Garvey will assert that he is the greatest. More likely he will promise to “do no harm.” In California politics that might be change enough.

Swamp Queen is Democrat’s choice for GOP

In a shocker, the Swamp Queen managed to win Vermont, home of Joe Liberman. (Anybody still remember him?) Oh, get this headline “Not even Democrats could save Nikki Haley from Trump.”

A small army of “protest” voters was on an uphill mission on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) to stop Donald Trump from trouncing Nikki Haley in the Republican primaries.

But the voters were Democrats, rather than Republicans, who were crossing party lines in a desperate and ultimately doomed attempt to halt the former president’s domination of the Super Tuesday primary contests held across the country.

Here’s yet another story.

But in Vermont, according to unofficial results released by the Secretary of State’s Office, Haley bested Trump 49.3% to 45.1%. (Her only other victory came Sunday in the District of Columbia.)

The secret to Haley’s success in the Green Mountains appears to have been people like Marley Beers — a Winooski independent who typically votes for Democrats and expects to back President Joe Biden in November. On Tuesday, she requested a Republican ballot and voted for Haley.

“I don’t really want Trump to have a very easy path in getting the Republican nomination,” Beers explained.

The role of crossover voters — in this case, independents and Democrats who chose to take part in the Republican primary — was “huge, huge, huge, huge,” according to Rep. Ashley Bartley, R-Fairfax, a co-chair and leading organizer of Haley’s Vermont campaign.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott, Haley’s most prominent supporter in the state, agrees.

“Without the independents in particular coming in and grabbing a Republican ballot, it wouldn’t have happened,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “I don’t know how many Democrats, but I’m sure there were some — more of an anti-Trump vote.”

How Nikki Haley won Vermont

Folks this is so sad. The Swamp Queen is a legend in her own mind. (She is the Swamp Queen for winning the primary in Washington D.C. on Sunday.)I guess when you’re desperate and it’s closing time, you will go with whoever says a few nice things about you even when you know it’s just a one-night stand. Don’t know about the rest of you but I lost respect for her long before closing time. Being drunk with the illusion of power is not becoming of anyone; especially someone claiming to be a lady and wanting to be treated as one.

The Orange Man is the nominee now. If the Democrats had left Trump alone once he left office, then the Florida Governor would be the Republican candidate to beat. Guess he will be “on deck” for the next four years. Trump keeps teasing his VP choice, but I hope he keeps that under wraps until summer.

My only concern is whether Trump will be as conservative as he was in his first term… at least up until Covid. Hope so. He’s the only choice I can vote for in November.

Lastly, I wonder who the Democrats will really have on the ballot in November. You can bet your sweet bippy that the focus groups are actively searching to see if they can find a competitive alternative to Sleepy Joe. Meanwhile, the word has gone out to “start the steal” for 2024.

Before

Today I will be participating in my first political caucus. At 11 AM today, registered Republicans across the state will gather at designated places to cast their ballot for President. Unlike California, voters must be registered by December 31st of 2023 and provide a government issued photo I.D. to be allowed into the building. Once admitted, we can cast a ballot. There is no same day registration or crossover nonsense like other states. Non-Republicans or folks residing in other counties are not permitted to enter.

Electioneering is allowed by voters but not caucus officials. Also, candidates can have booths in the building, but candidates are not allowed into the venue unless they happen to be in their home county. Booths can be manned only by people living within the county that are also registered Republicans. They must pay for any booth and the money is used to offset the cost of the caucus; namely, advertising.

Per the local County Party, there will be six names on the ballot since that is the number that qualified for the ballot. (As in other states, suspending your campaign, resigning, or other means of exiting the primary battlefield do not remove anyone’s name from the ballot once the filing deadline has passed.) Given the current field, I think Trump will win handily but will it be with a 41 percent margin as it was in Michigan? We will see.

The doors close at 12:30 PM (half past noon for those readers from Rio Linda). Whether we can vote and go or must wait until 12:30 to mark a ballot is a bit murky. Once you turn in a ballot, your hand will be marked to prevent a second vote from occurring. (The jury is out on whether we will be marking the righthand or forehead of diehard Trump supporters.)

Ballot watching is encouraged, and ballots will be counted on the spot once voting is complete. Each county will send their results to the Party HQ in Boise and the state’s votes will be tallied. If anyone gets over 50 percent, then my understanding is that they will be awarded all the state’s delegates.

I’m not sure if this process will be a smooth one or a cluster you-know-what. I do know that the promised caucus notifications were never mailed to all registered Republicans. Many we unsure what to do or where and as a result this may reduce participation. I don’t know if this is just a local system failure or a statewide phenomenon.

Oh, the weather today is snowy. We have had about 4 inches since sunrise and it’s still coming down.

I plan to provide an update after I return from voting.

After

Here’s a summary of what I learned/observed.

The school gym was chosen because it has the largest crowd capacity of any building in the county. It could accommodate more than ten percent of the registered Republicans in the county which apparently was a criteria for building selection.

Since we didn’t get the Party mailer about the caucus, my wife and I had to try harder to figure out which table to go to in order to check in (each table was a different precinct.) We signed the ledger and received a red stamp on our hand. This allowed us to get past the guard at the door and enter the gymnasium.

Inside the gym there were tables for various candidates and in many cases the candidate himself was at their respective booth. On the far side of the building were the voting booths. I found out when trying to vote—which happened later—that the voting booths were literally made of cardboard. It was a flimsy platform for a political spectacle but somehow appropriate. Oh, said booths were borrowed from the county elections office.

Shortly after noon, the program which culminated in voting, began. The event started with an invocation. Next was the Pledge of Allegiance. Following the Pledge, there was a pause as one guy left the podium, and another took his place. During this pause, a portion of the crowd began singing the National Anthem. After about 15 seconds, the rest of those in attendance began to sing as well. It was clear that this was not part of the official program but was graciously received by the event’s hosts.

Next were some obligatory instructions as to the process. These were followed by the ceremonial showing of a ballot box that was open for all to see—think something like a product exhibition on a tv gameshow like Let’s Make a Deal or the Price is Right—the purpose was to prove it was empty. Once this was completed, the box was shut and locked. Two people were selected to guard and count the ballots. Attendees were given an opportunity to object, but no one did. Oh, per state party instructions, the ballot box was filmed for the entire voting period to have a record that no tampering occurred. This pageantry was a not-so-subtle slam on the Democrat practice of stuffing ballot boxes. Vote ID and chain of custody for the ballots were clearly an emphasis of the event.

Two women passed out ballots and stamped the hands of each person that was given a ballot. This second stamp was black. Again, a clear effort is being made to keep folks honest.

People were told that they could remain and observe the ballot counting. Official caucus observers representing candidates were introduced. At my caucus, only Donald Trump has an official observer.

With the preliminaries out of the way, it was time to vote. Well sort of. You see, each candidate was allowed a five-minute video to plug their campaign. These were supposed to be shown first but the videos actually started as ballots were being handed out. People in line to vote had their backs to the videos which were projected on the gym wall opposite where the voting was taking place. People in line literally had to look over their shoulders to see the video. Trump’s video was first. Its conclusion was greeted with applause. Then Nikki Haley’s video started. It was greeting with a chorus of boos and catcalls.

I took a quick photo of my blank ballot, filled it out and then dropped it in the box.

Outcome

Here are the results of the caucus in my county.

Donald Trump 90.8 percent
Nikki Haley 7.7 percent

Raw data
Trump 462 votes
Haley 39 votes
Ramaswamy 3 votes
DeSantis 3 votes
Binkley 1 votes
Undervotes 0 votes

Total votes Cast 509

Turnout was about ten percent

All other offices will be voted upon in the May primary.

Note: per Politico, with 67.4 percent reporting statewide, Idaho has gone for Trump 84.6 percent to Haley at 13.5 percent.