Sabotage

Are former Idaho GOP leaders trying to sink the party's upcoming caucus?

So, so, so, so listen up 'cause you can't say nothin'
You'll shut me down with a push of your button?
But you, I'm out and I'm gone
I'll tell you now, I keep it on and on

'Cause what you see you might not get
And we can bet, so don't you get souped yet
You're scheming on a thing that's a mirage
I'm trying to tell you now, it's sabotage

As my readers are no doubt well aware, the Legislature passed a bill eliminating the March presidential primary and Governor Brad Little signed it into law. At that point, the Idaho Republican Party had a set of options:

Work with the Legislature to move the presidential primary to May, at the same time as the regular Idaho primary election. Party leadership had already dismissed this idea, and their decision was confirmed overwhelmingly at the Summer Meeting. A May primary would be too late in the campaign to matter, relegating Idaho to backwater status.

Select delegates at a state convention. This would be simple, but it would restrict the vote to only the 700-odd delegates to the convention. The state party rejected this idea as well.

That essentially left some sort of caucus as the only plausible option. Rather than a long and convoluted caucus system, where each county or district selects delegates to a state caucus or convention, and where voting continues in each location until one candidate has the majority, the party decided on a “firehouse caucus” where registered cast a single ballot and can then go on with their day.

It’s obviously not perfect. If someone has to work all day Saturday, or is on vacation, or deployed with the military, they will miss this vote. That’s a shame, but the alternative was never a full state-run election with absentee ballots. This really is the best possible outcome considering the circumstances.

However, that is not stopping self-proclaimed enemies of current state party leadership from trying to use the situation to their advantage.

Just a few days ago, former state chairman Tom Luna filed articles of incorporation for a new political nonprofit along with fellow former state chair Trent Clark and political activist Ashley Brittain. Gem State Conservatives appears to be the successor group to Clark’s former organization Gem GOP, which drew a legal injunction for using registered trademarks of the Republican Party.

As of this writing, the Gem GOP site says it will “soon” reroute to Gem State Conservatives.

Indeed, Gem GOP was initially created as a political action committee (PAC) by Clark in May of this year. He renamed the PAC to Gem State Conservatives in June, and has apparently been the sole donor to the tune of $14,000. The PAC has made two large expenditures, one to a video production studio and the other to a marketing firm, both based in Boise.

The Gem State Conservatives website features a video by Tom Luna and a series of articles about intraparty conflicts, including one by North Idaho Biden supporter and mask aficionado Christa Hazel as well as several others reposted from left wing platforms such as the Idaho Capital Sun.

Their most recent essay was written jointly by Tom Luna and Trent Clark, with Ashley Brittain listed as press contact. In it, they castigate the Idaho Republican Party for the upcoming caucus, accusing it of disenfranchising military veterans among other groups.

As I wrote above, the caucus was the best possible solution, so Luna and Clark are being more than disingenuous when they attack it. They do not propose any alternative, instead they lead the reader to believe that Chairwoman Dorothy Moon and the Idaho GOP had no other motive than a lust for power.

I sense projection from the former party chairs, clearly angry that they and their friends are no longer in power. The grassroots delegates of the 2022 state convention soundly rejected Luna and his brand of centralized authority in favor of Moon, who represented a majority of conservatives who believed they had been forgotten by party leaders and insiders.

Clark implies that the current leadership, elected by the grassroots, are “usurpers”.

How often have you seen people fired from their job who then go around badmouthing their former employer, hoping that their replacements fail? I believe that these former leaders are hoping the caucus fails so they can blame it on Dorothy Moon and those who support her. They surely imagine that a disaster in March will lead to state convention delegates begging them to return to power in June.

This kind of person is dangerous for any organization, especially a political party. It reminds me of the neoconservatives who continued to call themselves true Republicans even as they urged voters to abandon Donald Trump and support Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden instead. At some point they decided that personal power was more important than the actual goals of the party or the conservative movement. That is exactly what they accuse Moon and her supporters of doing, but as I said, it is pure projection.

Screenshot from idahorepublicancaucus.com

Speaking of Donald Trump, Trent Clark is now making the bizarre claim that the Idaho GOP has set up the caucus to sabotage the once and future president. In an editorial sent to outlets throughout the state, Clark accused Moon of scheduling the caucus in March in hopes of cheating Trump out of the nomination.

First, this is absurd on its face. Most Idahoans support Donald Trump and I would be extremely surprised if he did not win an outright majority of votes at the upcoming caucus. Trump dominated the straw polls at last summer’s county fairs and surely has the support of most members of the state central committee. Accusing Dorothy Moon of trying to rig the caucus against Trump is pure imagination on Clark’s part.

Indeed, the fact that Christa Hazel, who was outspoken in her support of Joe Biden over Donald Trump in 2020, is heavily promoting / promoted by Gem State Conservatives should demonstrate how disingenuous this line of argument really is.

Second, Clark plays some sleight of hand as he suggests that the caucus is designed to favor Trump’s challengers:

Already known is that Trump’s campaign style favors primaries over caucuses. Caucuses require major on-the-ground staff presence. Trump, a “frugal” campaigner, would be hard-pressed to deploy 70 staffers (one for each caucus site) to Idaho three days before Super Tuesday. At a time when each day counts, Idaho is not an easy place to get in and out quickly.

The firehouse caucus does not require 70 staffers, one for each caucus site, rather candidates will have the option of speaking directly to caucus-goers via recorded video. If a candidate wishes to attend in person, or send a representative, he or she is able to, but most locations will be playing video messages from each candidate. Trent Clark knows this, but is arguing in bad faith.

I was made privy to an email that Clark sent to various political figures throughout Idaho which included his column and some additional notes. One such note says:

Ballots will be printed by the GOP state office with no rotation. The candidates will be listed “in the order in which they pay their filing fee.” Trump is famously late paying filing fees

Once again, Clark surely knows that Trump was the first candidate to file and pay the fee, and will therefore be on the top of the caucus ballot.

He also insinuates that the incentive provided by the party for candidates to visit Idaho in person is designed to elevate Trump’s challengers:

The $50,000 filing fee for participation in the caucus is cut in half for anyone making a whistlestop tour into Idaho. In 2016, Cruz made such a stop on his way to Washington State to campaign for Super Tuesday. It is widely known that one Trump opponent (closely advised by a former Cruz campaigner ) hopes to reverse sagging poll numbers with a “better-than-expected” showing on Super Tuesday on the West Coast (Washington, Oregon, and California). A trip to Seattle or Spokane is virtually assured.

What is Trent Clark afraid of here? Is he afraid that Idaho voters will get to hear from candidates such as Ron DeSantis in person? Regular readers know that I support Trump all the way, but I’m not afraid of people hearing from his opponents. Good conservatives want more speech and debate, not less. Can you imagine if the party simply canceled the caucus, saying that Trump will win anyway so why bother? Tom Luna, Trent Clark, and Ashley Brittain would be the first people lined up to accuse Dorothy Moon of acting like a dictator and taking away the right of the people to choose their nominee.

Clark also complains about how the caucus will award delegates proportionally if nobody receives an outright majority of the vote:

The “firehouse caucus” rules adopted by the GOP for 2024 are the opposite of the 2012 Idaho caucus rules. The 2012 rules favored the frontrunner, whereas the 2024 rules favor “also ran” 2nd , 3rd and 4th place candidates (lower “threshold” to obtain delegates, direct proportional statewide allocation, >50% winner must be established on the first (and only) ballot to avoid proportionate allocation).

This is yet another bad faith argument. Most people hated the 2012 caucus because it required multiple rounds of voting, eliminating the lowest candidate until someone won an outright majority. In some cases that took hours. The firehouse caucus is designed to allow Republican voters to make their voices heard and then move on with their lives, without requiring them to commit to an all-day event.

You and I both know that if the state party decided to do multiple rounds of voting that Trent Clark and his ilk would have added that to their list of complaints. That is the tell of someone arguing in bad faith: he or she complains for the sake of complaining. Trent Clark, Tom Luna, and Ashley Brittain are trying to poison the well before the caucus has even taken place, hoping that it will fail and the people will blame Dorothy Moon. It has nothing to do with logistics or the candidates.

Clark’s most recent criticism is some inside baseball over how delegates are chosen and whether or not they will be bound to the caucus winner after the first ballot. Because of the timing of the caucus and the deadlines involved with selecting delegates, the Idaho GOP executive board moved the meeting to ratify the RNC delegates to before the Convention. Clark says this disenfranchises Republican voters, yet delegate selection has usually been rubber-stamped by the Convention anyway. In 2016, then National Committeeman Damond Watkins moved to suspend the rules and simply adopt the RNC delegate list, and the Convention approved.

Trent Clark is simply looking for one more thing to throw at Dorothy Moon and the current leadership, hoping that something — anything — will stick. He continually moves the goalposts rather than admitting any of his accusations are wrong or made in bad faith.

In the end I have no doubt that Donald Trump will walk away from the Idaho Republican Presidential Caucus with a majority of the vote and all 32 of our delegates to the Republican National Convention. Nevertheless, the caucus will be a valuable time for all Idaho Republicans. With the session nearly over and the May primary campaigns in full swing, voters will get to meet their neighbors and talk politics, precinct committeemen and PC candidates can share their visions and raise support, and legislative candidates will be able to talk to their own voters as well.

The caucus represents a return to an American tradition that exemplifies community and cooperation. Don’t let the sour grapes old guard sabotage it as part of their unrelenting vendetta against Dorothy Moon and the conservative patriots of the Idaho Republican Party.