What is the Rigged Red Card, and why does it matter?

Last updated: April 27, 2026

The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee is the official Republican Party organization for Kootenai County, Idaho. Its job is to run fair, neutral primary elections, facilitating a democratic process so Republican voters can choose their own candidates.

Rigging the Republican Primary

Instead, the KCRCC uses its official party machinery to campaign against Republicans it doesn't like, spending money to defeat Republicans in primaries, including distributing a red card telling voters which Republicans to vote for.

In 2016, the DNC used its institutional power to tilt its primary toward Hillary Clinton. Federal court records documented it. Republicans rightly criticized it. The KCRCC does the same thing: the official party apparatus, working against Republicans.

A voter may prefer one Republican over another. That is healthy democracy. But the party organization declaring that some Republicans are RINOs (Republicans In Name Only), and spending money to defeat them, is a party boss system dressed up as grassroots vetting.

Loyalty > Competence in Non-Partisan Races

The KCRCC also extends its endorsements into non-partisan races: school boards, library boards, water districts, fire districts. These positions exist specifically because competence should outweigh ideology. Party endorsements in these races replace qualifications with loyalty tests. The record of KCRCC-endorsed candidates in those offices speaks for itself.

This site documents the record. For the man behind the Red Card, the chairman who drove North Idaho College to the brink of losing accreditation, dissolved a 40-year library consortium, booked Matt Gaetz as Lincoln Day keynote and said he had no reason to read the Ethics Committee report, see Brent Regan: The Chairman.

How Rating & Vetting is Rigged

KCRCC's rated and vetted candidates aren't elected, they're selected.

• It's always Regan's favorites. Good Republicans who oppose Regan are campaigned against. The KCRCC has spent money to defeat sitting Republican incumbents. Candidates who score well with the Idaho Freedom Foundation, which Regan also chairs, consistently receive the endorsement. Candidates who don't are out.
• The process is opaque. R&V subcommittee members sign NDAs. Their identities, criteria, and deliberations are not public. In at least one cycle, five of the twelve subcommittee members were not elected precinct committeemen. When a newly elected PC raised concerns at a rating meeting about a candidate's endorsement logo being distributed before the vote, the room went silent and the motion to remove the materials failed.
• Very few party insiders determine the winners. The endorsement is given to the 50%+1 vote getter of PCs who show up on vetting night. Many of the candidates got less than half of the elected PC votes. This site documents how few insiders picked a candidate when known.
• County-wide members vote, not the affected voters. KCRCC Members across Kootenai County vote to endorse, not just those who live in affected jurisdictions. Example: Lakeland school district board members endorsed by a vote primarily of people who don't live in Lakeland school district. In fact, all PCs living in the Lakeland school district could vote against a candidate, and they could still be endorsed. This is about centralized control, not benign recommendation.
• It endorses non-partisan races. School boards, library boards, water districts, and fire districts are non-partisan by design. Competence over ideology. Party endorsements in these races replace qualifications with loyalty tests.
• It closes before the filing deadline. R&V interviews begin before candidates can officially file for office, meaning the committee evaluates the field before knowing who is in it. Not all candidates are contacted. A conservative Republican running for a local water district reported in May 2025 that she was never contacted by the KCRCC, never received a questionnaire, and was never interviewed, despite her contact information being publicly available.
• The Red Card dominates. The KCRCC mails its sample ballot to over 100,000 registered Republicans. In low-information races, it is often the only information a voter receives. Endorsed candidates win four out of five times. Alternative candidates, regardless of qualifications, routinely lose.

The KCRCC says it vets candidates for competence and character. The Coeur d'Alene Press editorial board gave the process a solid F. Here is what the endorsed candidates have produced.

The Endorsement's Track Record

• Three KCRCC trustees nearly destroyed NIC's accreditation — full story
• A library board's restrictive policies ended a 40-year regional consortium, revoking 8,900 minor library cards
• An all-KCRCC school board placed its superintendent on administrative leave with no stated cause, paid through his contract
• A sheriff dragged a constituent from a town hall, faces $7.5 million in tort claims
• A state rep wrote a character letter for a convicted rapist on official legislative letterhead
• A state rep said students deserved the woodshed and called teachers criminals
• An Idaho legislator doxxed a rape victim, lied under oath, and was censured 49-19 by her own colleagues
• Chaos & documented corruption at the Assessor's Office
• A KCRCC insider endorsed for a city council seat with a battery arrest and federal court abuse testimony on his record
• Two KCRCC-swept library boards hired the same unqualified attorney at $275/hour, D-minus on relevant legal experience
• The KCRCC's own Treasurer signed checks to herself, prohibited under campaign finance rules. Both the KCRCC and the Idaho Freedom Caucus were fined by the Secretary of State.
• A KCRCC-backed candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction later became a school superintendent against the community's will. The board that hired him was overwhelmingly recalled.

Not a Credibility Test — A Loyalty Test

Regan and the KCRCC say their Rating & Vetting process identifies credible, conservative candidates. The Coeur d'Alene Press editorial board gave it a solid F. The documented record includes a candidate who ran a $13 million fraud scheme, a legislator who owed $586,000 in federal taxes, a white nationalist, two battery arrests, and two school boards driven to public shame by endorsed majorities. That is not a credibility record. That is a loyalty record.

Rigged Red Card Expensive to Taxpayers

The KCRCC campaigns on fiscal conservatism. Its endorsed candidates have produced the opposite.

Sources: Idaho Ed News, Coeur d'Alene Press, Spokesman-Review. See individual candidate pages for documentation.

Rating & Vetting in the News

• Republican voters deserve all the facts - not a biased list
  Coeur d'Alene Press · March 2026
  KCRCC vetting described as gatekeeping: "a small group decides which candidates voters are allowed to see, and which are left off the page entirely." (archive)
• KCRCC: Do they really 'vet' candidates?
  Coeur d'Alene Press, May 2025
  A conservative Republican water district candidate reports the KCRCC never contacted her, sent a questionnaire, or conducted an interview, despite her contact information being publicly available.
• EDITORIAL: Rating system deserves a solid 'F'
  Coeur d'Alene Press, April 2024
  The CdA Press editorial board grades KCRCC's rating and vetting system a solid 'F' — finding it opaque, unaccountable, and designed to entrench the existing leadership's preferred candidates.
• Rating and vetting: a view from the inside
  Coeur d'Alene Press, September 2024
  At a rating meeting, a candidate's campaign literature arrived pre-printed with the official KCRCC endorsement logo and was distributed to committee members before the vote. Motion to remove it failed. Subcommittee members sign NDAs.
• KCRCC's 'vetting' scam
  Coeur d'Alene Press, September 2023
  Mary Souza's account of her vetting interview: church basement, single light; her opponent's pamphlets distributed to the committee before the vote; her 75-page packet returned unopened.

What This Site Is, and Isn't

This site documents publicly available journalism, court records, and government documents about KCRCC-endorsed candidates. Every claim is linked to an independent, verifiable source.

We do not publish: anonymous accusations; allegations without independent journalism or primary source documentation.

If you believe we have made an error, or have documented sources about a candidate, please contact us.