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

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.

Instead, the KCRCC uses its official party machinery to campaign against Republicans it doesn't like — spending money to defeat Republicans in Republican primaries, then distributing a red card telling voters which Republicans are approved.

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 its own members.

Since Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party has been a grassroots organization. What it means to be a Republican is determined by Republican voters — not by party bosses and insiders. A voter may prefer one Republican over another. That is healthy democracy. But the party organization declaring that some Republicans aren't Republican enough, and spending money to defeat them, is a party boss system dressed up as grassroots vetting. It is how you turn a grassroots party into a top-down machine — and how you eventually hand Idaho to Democrats.

The KCRCC also extends its endorsements into non-partisan races — school boards, library boards, fire districts — positions that exist specifically because competence should outweigh ideology. The record of KCRCC-endorsed candidates in those offices speaks for itself.

How Rating & Vetting Works — and Why It's Rigged

• It closes before the filing deadline. R&V applications close before candidates can officially file for office. Structural proof the process was never designed to include all candidates — only hand-picked favorites.
• 74 county-wide members vote — not local voters. Every Lakeland School District member could vote against a candidate, and that candidate still gets the endorsement if the rest of the county votes yes.
• It endorses non-partisan races. School boards, library boards, and fire districts are non-partisan by design — competence over ideology. Party endorsements in these races replace qualifications with loyalty tests.
• The process is opaque. R&V committee members are not publicly known. Their criteria are not public. Their deliberations are not public.
• The Red Card dominates the vote. Endorsed candidates win. Alternative candidates — regardless of qualifications — routinely lose.

What Has the Red Card Produced?

• Chaos & corruption at the Assessor's Office
• A county commissioner ran a predatory lending company while in office
• A state rep wrote a character letter for a convicted rapist — on official legislative letterhead
• KCRCC paid a Charlottesville rally organizer $11,000
• A state rep said students deserved the woodshed and called teachers criminals
• Three KCRCC trustees nearly destroyed NIC's accreditation
• A sheriff dragged a constituent from a town hall — it went viral nationally
• A library board's restrictive policies ended a 40-year regional consortium
• An all-KCRCC school board placed its superintendent on administrative leave
• A KCRCC insider endorsed himself for city council with a battery arrest and federal court abuse testimony on his record

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; material from interested-party sources; 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.