County
Ada Republicans Eat Their Young
May 17, 2012 
Ada County’s Republican Central Committee–fresh off the first ever closed primary election–snubbed their newly elected County Commish candidate, making him a third rate choice to fill the vacant seat created by Vern Bisterfeldt’s resignation.
Gotta admit it is entertaining to watch the dominant political party in the state eat its young and disrespect its elders.
In a field of three names to be offered to Gov. Butch Otter to appoint as an Ada Commish, David Case came in dead last–despite his victory at the polls only two days earlier. Dan Dunham was the party’s first choice, followed by Gordon Browning and Case. We hear there were 63 party members voting.
Old wounds were ripped open and generous amounts of salt were poured in when a 2010 list of those supporting former Dem Congressman Walt Minnick was circulated at the Thursday night central party gathering. The list highlighted DAVE CASE and VERN BISTERFELDT as Minnick committee members. A photo with a “WALT MINNICK” campaign sign purportedly in front of a home owned by David Case was also circulated at the meeting.
Back in 2010 the party took a swipe at Bisterfeldt–with Commish Sharon Ullman actively calling for Bisterfeldt to resign his Commish candidacy due to his lack of party loyalty. Ullman lost to Case Tuesday and Case was strongly backed by Bisterfeldt…and the feast continues.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
May 17, 2012, 9:58 pm
Republican party has become inbred and it shows
May 17, 2012, 9:59 pm
It take the committee believes Dave Case is a RINO, not too conservation. Ullman turned bad, but only time will tell if Case is any better.
May 18, 2012, 12:08 am
Citizens don’t matter in politics any more. The citizens voted for Dave Case. That isn’t clear enough? But 63 republicans voted him as their 3rd choice. What’s with that? This should tell us all that you can’t trust any of them. Why on earth wouldn’t they let him get started? Amazing! Very disappointing!!!
May 18, 2012, 2:50 am
Just shows once again that the high-level (or just “high”) R’s don’t give a hang what their constituents want.
Voters? Who needs ’em?
May 18, 2012, 5:51 am
Infighting amongst GOP not uncommon. Ron Paul supporters plan to kick up some dust at the GOP convention in St Cloud Minnesota. Former GOP Gov. Pawlenty was booed at recent Oklahoma GOP convention. And our Michelle Bachmann is a Swiss Miss (dual citizenshp). Kind of snooty, heh? Vern Bisterfeldt was quite the cowboy in his red Dodge Monaco squad car. Also a fun guy in a Santa suite.
May 18, 2012, 7:39 am
This certainly show’s IdaHO the pitalen little place it is!
May 18, 2012, 8:40 am
It makes me laugh that Sharon takes swipes at Dave and Vern for not being Republican enough, when she only joined the party after losing as both an Independent and a Democrat.
May 18, 2012, 10:36 am
I keep looking for a third eye in the foreheads of Repubs. The closed primary locked out Independents and it their support who gets people elected in the general election. All this may come back to haunt them come November.
There are plenty of really ticked off people over the closed primary where I live.
May 18, 2012, 11:50 am
It is very interesting to see how the political system really works in this country. We the people don’t have a voice anymore.
The party conventions and caucuses have taken away our national voice. The Idaho Republican Party forcing us to publicly declare party affiliation caused the lowest voter turn out in Idaho history.
Hardcore party members on BOTH sides will argue with anyone about who is right and who is wrong. All the while Political Action Committees, Corporations, and other Special Interests purchase our candidates through campaign contributions.
Both Mr. Tibbs and Mr. Case are very good examples of this process. They were able to outspend the other candidates by incredibly large margins. Whether or not this gave these gentlemen an unfair advantage over their opponents remains to be seen. I do know that they are the only two candidates who received a big chunk of cash from greyhound racing tycoon Paul W. Bryant Jr. and his faithful dogs Doug Okuniewicz, Russ Westerberg, Mary J. “Joie” Hood-McGarvin, and the special interests they all represent.
As an outsider looking in I present you with one question. What interest could an Alabama based organization possibly have in a little ol’ county commission race in Idaho?
May 18, 2012, 12:28 pm
This is exactly what is happening in Wash. D.C., don’t cross the line or else. We’ve had some great Dems serving Idaho and the country but the Reps can’t admit it. You gotta have common sense and work together. Oh my, a Rep put a Dem sign in his yard. And pix to prove it. For heaven’s sake, grow up. Work together for America. If you can’t, you need to back away. I’ve been a Rep for many years and keep hoping we can work together.
If all the docs and nurses in the E.R.s are Dems what are you going to do? Our people overseas fighting for us don’t care if their buddy is a Rep or a Dem, they have a job to do and do it. For all of us. It’s the only way we can get the job done. Stop feeding on each other!
May 18, 2012, 12:42 pm
Idaho politics has degenerated into “of the party, by the party and for the party”.
There is nothing I see that is about representing the people of this state. Welcome to the People’s Republic of Idaho.
I also resent having to declare affiliation to a polical party. That is nobodys business and violates my privacy.
May 18, 2012, 1:20 pm
which is why we need a viable 3rd party. At this point any third party is just a leech on one of the big two. Green Party steals D votes, Libertarians take some R’s.
I think the most sucsesful third party would do best to not have a cause like the Green party, just call it the party of Not an R nor a D. I think 33% of America would love to be in a third party, but vote D or R because any other vote is a wasted vote or a protest vote.
May 18, 2012, 2:14 pm
Talk about eating their young. Wait until this person, whoever it is, has to take that seat for 6 or 7 months. Not going to be easy! Good luck to whoever it is.
May 18, 2012, 2:35 pm
Welcome to the un-People’s Nazi Republic of Idaho.
May 18, 2012, 3:30 pm
It also means about $60,000 to the short-term replacement. Not bad for Dunham to draw pay and do nothing except create mischief with Ullman.
May 18, 2012, 4:22 pm
But in truth, the people who cared showed up and voted for the people they wanted. I don’t live in Ada, but I also don’t see the problem.
And those who don’t get the membership thing amaze me. If you want to choose the Republican candidate to face off against the Dems and others – join and support the Republican Party. Easy enough.
You have your privacy in the General – but in your party caucus, party precinct meetings, and party primaries – bear the party standard proudly, or join a different party and bear theirs.
May 18, 2012, 5:03 pm
Word!!
May 18, 2012, 5:04 pm
Ada Republicans Eating Their Young
Must be on a diet or maybe their like rabbits?
May 18, 2012, 5:33 pm
I guess it doesn’t matter what the voters want……
May 18, 2012, 6:35 pm
I thought I saw Dan Dunham’s name in the court system a while back. How ironic it would be for him to be an Ada County Commissioner and make decisions involving the misdemeanor probation controversy. Can you say conflict of interest?
May 18, 2012, 7:24 pm
Those who voted spoke loudly. Party affiliation aside it ends up being about remembering you SERVE the public and not the other way around. Those who forget this simple fact always lose in the end.
May 19, 2012, 5:03 pm
I joined the republican party, first time affiliating with any party, chose a Dem ballot; I live in District 19 aka LCZ, filled out the ballot.
The next day I filled out the party affiliation form found on the SOS website, marked “unafilliated” and turned it in to the election clerk on Benjamin.
It was a bit funny at my new polling place caused by redistricting. The nice lady handing my ballot had to ask the nice lady next to her if I could do what I did.
The PAC nonsense needs to be stopped. What Esposito, Nonini, Denny and Moyle did was exactly why campaign finance reform is desperately needed.
It is going to be interesting to see how Nonini is welcomed into the Senate after going after Cameron the way he did.
Roberts should leapfrog Moyle and go after Denney for Speaker, or get someone to run against Denney while he runs against Moyle.
May 20, 2012, 8:22 am
The Idaho Repository does show Dunham had a case having something to do with Planning & Zoning,among other cases reported on there. I sure hope Otter does his research before appointing this fellow. Paul M is right. How can a person be an effective commissioner, even temporarily, if they’ve had zoning enforcement issues placing them at odds with the county? Makes no sense. Anyway, check him out for yourselves: https://www.idcourts.us/repository/start.do Just type his name in for the search.
May 21, 2012, 8:30 am
I do not see a problem with Dunham having a zone violation and being commish so long as the issue is not still outstanding.
May 21, 2012, 8:44 am
If it is true Dave Case (an R) endorsed Minnick ( a D). Then Dave Case just went up in my book. We need more people who are wiling to think acros party lines. I am not sure many people votes for Minnick, versus voted against Sali.
May 21, 2012, 1:23 pm
Idaho’s Republican infighting is nothing new. About the only thing that changes is the list of actors.
Those of us as are able may think back to 1966 when the conservative party “purists” turned on Robert Smylie. This, of course, brought us Don Samuelson.
It was Samuelson’s brilliance and overabundance of competency (sarcasm) that paved the way for Cecil Andrus to become the state’s first Democrat governor in nearly 25 years.
Sort of makes me remember the words of the old Rolling Stones song: You can’t always get what you want.
May 21, 2012, 1:25 pm
Maybe Ada Republicans know what they are doing, afterall. Perhaps Dave Case had his epiphany, but I first met him at the Idaho Department of Corrections when he was trying to sell memberships in the SEIEU, a union not usually (ha!) associated with the Republican party.
May 21, 2012, 10:05 pm
@Muck: You are really going to try and argue that Andrus was a bad guv? Really?
Or is it that “D” behind his name that makes him bad no matter what his public service record for Idaho reflects?
May 22, 2012, 4:49 pm
Did Sharon put in? Was she at the meeting?