Brent Regan
Every candidate on this site received the KCRCC's "Rated and Vetted" endorsement. Brent Regan has chaired the KCRCC since 2016. He has never held elected office. A school board run in 2014 ended in defeat, and that loss taught him something. As reporter Anne Helen Petersen wrote: he wasn't a politician. He was a puppet master.
Petersen described Regan as "the sugar daddy of the hard right and the godfather of North Idaho politics." He chairs the KCRCC, chairs the Idaho Freedom Foundation board, and writes a weekly column in the Coeur d'Alene Press. At KCRCC meetings people don't work the room.
They come to him.
His fingerprints are on every institutional crisis documented on this site.
In His Own Words
"They can't figure out what an assault weapon is, it's just black and it looks scary. And she looks at me and says, 'Well, so is Obama.'"
At a Post Falls legislative forum attended by 8 legislators and 100+ members of the public, January 2013. He was then a Coeur d'Alene School Board Trustee. Sources: KHQ, Spokesman-Review"Voters want to know which candidates are true Republicans and which only 'identify' as Republican."
Coeur d'Alene Press column, April 2024. This is Regan declaring himself the arbiter of who is a real Republican. Source: CDA Press"When our committee arrives at a decision by voting, the will of the majority becomes the will of the entire committee. It does not matter if you agree with the decision or not, when you are operating in your official capacity as a precinct committeeman you are bound by the decision of the committee."
In an email to KCRCC precinct committeemen, posted publicly on Facebook. Written during the period when the KCRCC was endorsing Dave Reilly. Source: CDA Press"I didn't have a good reason to read the report."
To the Coeur d'Alene Press, February 2026, when asked about the House Ethics Committee report finding substantial evidence Matt Gaetz paid a 17-year-old girl for sex. Source: CDA Press"They were tabulated, they were put in an envelope and sealed, and I took those home, yes."
Under oath in his 30(b)(6) deposition, KCRCC v. Gookin, June 25, 2024 (pp. 101-102). Regan confirmed he took the KCRCC rating and vetting ballots home the night of the count. This was the basis of a Dan Gookin social media post that KCRCC sued him over. Source: Brent Regan Deposition, June 25, 2024The Documented Record
- A Coeur d'Alene city councilman documents the KCRCC's 29-8 recommendation of gubernatorial candidate Mark Fitzpatrick, whose campaign posted about "Jewish billionaires" and called for eliminating all property, sales, and income taxes.
- Argues the KCRCC consistently backs candidates defined by provocative social media activity rather than public service records.
- Describes the KCRCC rating and vetting process Regan chairs as gatekeeping: "controlled by a small group that decides which candidates voters are allowed to see, and which are left off the page entirely. That is not vetting. That is gatekeeping." (archive)
- Regan said he had no reason to read the House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz.
- A 17-year-old scholarship winner withdrew because the described victim was her age. The full committee never voted on booking Gaetz.
- When a motion to reconsider was raised, Regan's allies blocked it without discussion.
- When a precinct committeeman moved to reconsider Gaetz as keynote, every Regan-aligned PC voted to block even a discussion.
- Lincoln Day is the KCRCC's biggest fundraiser; proceeds support its rated and vetted candidates.
- First civil lawsuit KCRCC had ever filed as plaintiff under Regan's tenure.
- Regan admitted under oath he personally took the rating and vetting ballots home the night of the count.
- Donations to the KCRCC Legal Defense Fund are not reported to the Secretary of State; no cease and desist was sent before filing suit.
- Regan confirmed others who called him a "liar" and "corrupt" were not sued.
- Documents shell companies (Idaho Dynamics, Revere Media, Red Shield Media) routing KCRCC donor money to far-right figures.
- Recipients include Dave Reilly and Matthew Colligan, a Tiki torch carrier at Charlottesville whose reported catchphrase is "Hitler did nothing wrong."
- CDA Press editorial places Regan and his "IFF propaganda machine" at the center of the NIC accreditation crisis.
- Regan made the floor nomination of Dorothy Moon for IDGOP Chair, despite Moon having just lost the KCRCC-endorsed Secretary of State primary.
- KCRCC Youth Chair Dan Bell, in a recorded call, said Regan was "totally on board" with a plan to have Republicans run as Democrats and take over the Kootenai Democratic Party. (archive)
- Bell said Regan came up with the specific idea to install antisemitic white nationalist Dave Reilly as Kootenai Democratic Party chair, then use the party's website to promote conservative causes and redirect Democratic donations to Republicans.
- When KCRCC secretary Alex Barron asked a Redoubt crowd "what are you willing to kill for," Regan defended him, calling it a "rhetorical" question.
- Regan Properties LLC had donated $500 to Matt Shea's campaign. Shea was under review for chatroom discussions about "surveillance, psyops and violent attacks on perceived political enemies."
- As KCRCC chair, he posted an anti-trans "evolution" meme on Facebook and stood by it when contacted by reporters.
- He called critics "politically correct progressive fascists" in a Facebook statement.
- Brittany Pettibone appeared at the April 25 KCRCC meeting and successfully petitioned the committee to pass a unanimous resolution urging DHS to restore travel privileges for her fiance Martin Sellner, an Austrian white nationalist.
- Regan chaired the meeting. Regan defended the Shea situation the same week, disputing The Guardian's reporting.
- Under Regan's chairmanship, the KCRCC passed a unanimous resolution urging the federal government to restore travel privileges for Martin Sellner, an Austrian white nationalist whose ideas inspired the Christchurch mosque shooter.
- Anne Helen Petersen's landmark profile: "the sugar daddy of the hard right and the godfather of North Idaho politics."
- Documents his dual role as KCRCC chair and IFF board chair, and his strategy of operating as a puppet master rather than seeking office.
- At a Post Falls forum attended by 8 legislators and 100+ residents, Regan made a remark the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations condemned as racist, calling a press conference in response.
The Pattern: Ideological Self-Dealing at Institutional Scale
Pattern: Corrupt Inside Dealing
Regan chairs the KCRCC and the Idaho Freedom Foundation simultaneously. The KCRCC vetting process uses IFF scores as a primary factor in deciding which candidates receive the endorsement. The organization that scores the candidates is run by the same man who runs the organization that endorses them. Source
In 2026, a KCRCC voter guide was stamped for mass mailing under the Idaho Republican Party's PAC. Page 3 directed Republican voters to kootenaifreedomcaucus.org — the Kootenai Freedom Caucus website, Regan's own organized slate running for KCRCC seats. The Idaho GOP's PAC used to campaign for candidates loyal to Regan in an internal party race. The IDGOP Chair at the time was Dorothy Moon — whom Regan himself nominated for that position in 2022 after she lost a KCRCC-endorsed race. Official party funds paying for Regan's own internal slate candidates, through a party chair he installed. Source: IDGOP voter guide, April 2026 · kootenaigop.org
Pattern: White Nationalist Ties
Under Regan's chairmanship, the KCRCC paid Nevada-based operative Rory McShane over $222,000 alongside 14 endorsed candidates. McShane is tied to Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ). Gosar is associated with the Groyper movement, a white nationalist network around Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, unrelated to Trump's America First policy agenda despite sharing the name. McShane LLC has documented connections to the Proud Boys.
The KCRCC endorsed Dave Reilly for the Post Falls School Board in 2021. Reilly had attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, posted antisemitic content publicly, and stated that giving women the right to vote "was a mistake." Regan defended the endorsement. Dave Reilly
In 2024, Take Back Idaho published an archive of 5,000+ of Reilly's deleted tweets documenting antisemitic and white nationalist content, including a 2019 post using Holocaust denier language to mock the murder of 6 million Jews. When asked, Regan told the CDA Press the tweets were "some posts that were critical of the Israeli government." IFF, whose board Regan chairs, refused to disavow Reilly despite a bipartisan call from 30 faith leaders and elected officials. Source: Political Potatoes
In April 2019, Post Falls resident Brittany Pettibone appeared at a KCRCC meeting and successfully petitioned the committee to pass a unanimous resolution urging the Department of Homeland Security to restore travel privileges for her fiance Martin Sellner, an Austrian white nationalist whose writings inspired the Christchurch mosque shooter. Regan chaired the meeting. Spokesman-Review, May 2019
When The Guardian reported that Washington State Rep. Matt Shea had participated in chatroom discussions about "surveillance, psyops and even violent attacks on perceived political enemies," Regan publicly defended Shea and disputed the reporting. Regan Properties LLC had donated $500 to Shea's campaign. Spokesman-Review, January 2020
Pattern: Paying Insiders
In 2022, attorney D. Colton Boyles was nominated for Kootenai County Prosecutor in a selection meeting run by Regan. Within a year, the KCRCC-endorsed NIC majority hired Boyles at $275 per hour, over a competing firm that nearly doubled his score on relevant legal experience. The KCRCC-endorsed CLN board then hired him at the same rate. Two public institutions, same underqualified attorney, all under Regan's endorsed candidates.
Attorney Art Macomber donated to the campaigns of KCRCC-endorsed NIC trustees Banducci ($750), McKenzie ($250), and Waggoner ($250). Those same trustees then hired Macomber as NIC's attorney at $325 per hour, bypassing competitive bidding and violating open meeting law. Macomber admitted in a court filing that he donated to their campaigns and communicated with them about being hired. Source
Pattern: Legal Action Against a Critic
In October 2023, KCRCC filed suit against Dan Gookin, a Coeur d'Alene city councilman and vocal critic of Regan. Regan confirmed under oath in his June 2024 deposition that this was the first civil lawsuit KCRCC had ever filed as plaintiff during his tenure. When asked whether others who had called him a "liar" and "corrupt," or accused him of endorsing white nationalists, received a cease and desist or were sued, Regan said they had not. No cease and desist was sent to Gookin before filing. Source: Brent Regan Deposition, June 25, 2024
The suit is funded by the KCRCC Legal Defense Fund, a separate bank account created in response to a prior lawsuit filed against KCRCC in May 2023. Regan confirmed under oath that donations to the Legal Defense Fund are not reported to the Secretary of State. He acknowledged KCRCC donations had decreased in the prior year but had not analyzed whether the decrease was attributable to Gookin's comments. He could not identify a single person who told him they had withheld a donation because of Gookin. One of the posts KCRCC sued over described Regan taking the rating and vetting ballots home to count. Under oath, Regan confirmed he did exactly that. Source: Brent Regan Deposition, June 25, 2024
The Connections
- In October 2023, KCRCC sued Dan Gookin, a vocal critic of Regan, in the first civil lawsuit it had filed as plaintiff under Regan's tenure. One post Gookin was sued over described Regan taking the rating and vetting ballots home. Regan confirmed under oath that he did. The suit is funded by a Legal Defense Fund with no Secretary of State reporting requirement. Deposition, June 2024
- KCRCC Secretary Alex Barron, appointed under Regan, was originally charged with rape and sexual abuse of a child; he entered an Alford plea in 2022 and ran for Idaho Senate in 2020 while serving as Secretary. From the Secretary position, Barron ran an anonymous blog that personally attacked fellow Republican Christa Hazel, calling her a "little liar" 10 times with photos. The CDA Press editorial board called it a threat to KCRCC credibility; Regan defended Barron publicly. Alex Barron
- Organized and leads a 70-candidate precinct committeeman slate for the May 2026 Primary. Regan's Slate
- Chaired KCRCC during $11,000 payment to Dave Reilly's company and Reilly's "Rated and Vetted" school board candidacy. Dave Reilly
- KCRCC under Regan drove NIC to the brink of accreditation loss through three endorsed trustees. President fired without cause: ~$500K to taxpayers; show-cause sanction; three presidents in five years. Banducci, McKenzie, Waggoner — full story
- KCRCC under Regan swept all five Lakeland Joint School District board seats. The all-KCRCC board produced four superintendents in six years, a board clerk resignation, a $200K+ taxpayer buyout, and potential public records violations. Full story
- KCRCC under Regan swept all five CLN library board seats, leading to the dissolution of a 40-year regional consortium. CLN
- KCRCC endorsed Priscilla Giddings for Lieutenant Governor while she faced an active ethics investigation for doxxing a rape victim. Priscilla Giddings
- KCRCC passed a resolution supporting travel access for a white nationalist whose manifesto inspired the Christchurch shooter, on Regan's watch as chairman.
- KCRCC Treasurer Elaine Price signed checks to herself, prohibited under campaign finance rules, while serving simultaneously as treasurer of both the KCRCC and Idaho Freedom Caucus. Both organizations were fined by the Secretary of State. Regan paid the KCRCC fine personally rather than have it appear on official reports. Elaine Price
- The 2026 KCRCC voter guide was stamped for mass mailing under the Idaho Republican Party's PAC. Page 3 directed Republican voters to kootenaifreedomcaucus.org — Regan's own precinct committeeman slate website. Official Idaho GOP party funds used to campaign for Regan's own KCRCC candidates in an internal party race. IDGOP voter guide, April 2026
- KCRCC booked Matt Gaetz as Lincoln Day keynote. The House Ethics Committee found substantial evidence Gaetz paid a 17-year-old girl for sex. Regan said he had no reason to read the Ethics Committee report. His allies blocked reconsideration.
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