By Leslie Wolff, MVLA Contributor, Jan. 3 & 4, 2025
Greetings Liberty Lovers,
As I continue to navigate my way through the Idaho political scene, I decided to attend the IDGOP Winter Meeting to see what it’s all about. It was an interesting two days and I’m glad I went.
Who makes up the Idaho State Central Committee? Each of Idaho’s forty-four counties send four representatives. Twin Falls County’s delegation consists of the County Chair (Tom Wangeman), State Committeeman (Chris Reid, PC TF18), State Committeewoman (Cherie Vollmer), and State Committee Youth (Kiel Willmore, PC TF5). Our Legislative District and Region Chairs are also part of the IDSCC, as well as the State Executive Board (listed below).
Our two legislative district chairs are Gretchen Clelland for LD24 (she also represents Camas and Gooding Counties) and Grant Loebs for LD25. Mike Matthews is the Region 7 Chair, which contains Blaine, Camas, Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Minidoka, Lincoln and Twin Falls counties. The festivities began on Friday afternoon with Region meetings.
Regional Meetings: Twin Falls County a no-show
Each of the ten regions circled up their representatives to discuss what each county has been working on and about their recent election efforts. Mike Matthews, also a PC for TF9, started off the meeting with a Bible quote and then asked Blaine County for their report. One by one, each county reported until it got to Twin Falls County… no representative. While the other counties had at least one, most of them had several people representing them, Twin Falls County had zero! Mike went ahead and reported for the TFCRCC since he is a PC. I couldn’t believe no one else bothered to show up.
Rules & Resolutions Committees
Each of the committees had an appointed Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Parliamentarian who preceded over the meeting. Then two representatives from each Region sat on each of the committees and decided which submitted Rules or Resolutions would move forward or not. I did not go to the Rules Committee, so I don’t have much information. I do know that Twin Falls County Prosecuting Attorney Grant Loebs arrived in time and represented Region 7; the other Region 7 representative was Paul Ross and they voted on fourteen different rule changes. From there, the adopted Rules went to the entire IDSCC on Saturday for final approval.
The same would happen for the adopted Resolutions. If the adopted Rules & Resolutions made it through the IDSCC the next day, most of them will go to our Legislative Liaison, Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld, to be taken to the legislature for consideration. All the proposed Rules and Resolutions can be reviewed on the IDGOP website.
I attended the Resolutions Committee where Gretchen Clelland and Rep. Steve Miller were supposed to represent Region 7 and vote on thirty-six submitted resolutions. Gretchen did not attend either day, her Vice-Chair Mike Elliott filled in for her, but Steve was there both days. There were resolutions that ranged in topics from grizzly bears and DEI, to Raffles and Pride Events, and a whole lot in between. Each resolution on the agenda stated which Central Committee submitted it, and also listed who would be presenting it. Each presenter was allowed three minutes to speak on the resolution and two more minutes to answer any questions that the Committee may have. The Committee then was given ten minutes to consider, debate and/or amend before the vote was taken to adopt it or not. Some resolutions were rejected before the presentation and debate; some took the entire time allotted. Not all the resolutions passed out of committee, but quite a few did.
Two Important Resolutions
Out of the thirty-six resolutions, I am going to touch on two.
Resolution 2025-18 – Opposition to Legalization of Recreational Marijuana was one of the resolutions that the TFCRCC passed in November was supposed to be presented by the TFCRCC Chair, Tom Wangeman, was a no show and did not have an alternate present either. All the Committee could do was discuss and vote on it. It passed, but it was an embarrassment on Twin Falls County. How important can this potential piece of legislation be to the TFCRCC is no one even bothered to show up? Resolution 2025-18 was also passed by the IDSCC the next day.
2025-11 – Censure of Hyrum Erickson
For those of you who don’t know, Hyrum Erickson is the PC from Madison County who traveled the state promoting Proposition 1. He started each public appearance with, “I am a life-long Republican”. He held forums and town halls and even debated good Republicans. As far as the Republican Party is concerned, he lied to Republicans and tried to get Ranked Choice Voting in Idaho to destroy our party. Erickson provided support to democrats, leftists, liberals, socialists, Marxists and the United States Communist Party according to the resolution. Many sitting in the room wanted to do more than just censure and felt this was the least our party could do.
State Central Committee Meeting
The next day at the Idaho State Central Committee meeting, more of Twin Falls County delegation arrived. Tom Wangeman was joined by Chris Reid and Cherie Vollmer. Kiel Willmore did not attend but gave his proxy to Grant Loebs. There was a lot of discussion about Resolution 2025-11 (Censure of Hyrum Erickson). Some thought that it should be tabled until the summer meeting, to give Erickson the opportunity to face his accusers. Others thought this needed to be handled swiftly to send a message to any other Republicans who might decide to work against what we believe as Republicans. The vote to table the issue failed, and the Censure vote was taken. Most of the room stood up to cast an affirmative vote, but our local reps remained seated. For months, the TFCRCC worked hard to defeat Prop 1 and spent $10,000 of their “hard-earned money”, to defeat the lies and misleading propaganda that was put out in large part by Erickson; so for our reps not to want to censure this was disappointing.
Actually, throughout the day, it was every apparent that our delegation is part of a slim minority when it comes to how the Idaho State Republicans feel on many issues. A few other highlights of the day were the 2025 Hall of Fame Awards that were given out to outstanding Republicans for all their hard work. I also attended the Chairwoman’s Luncheon with Idaho GOP Chairwoman Dorothy Moon and Senator Jim Risch joined us, speaking about working with incoming President Donald J. Trump, Lava Ridge, the roles in leadership that our U.S. Senators and Representatives hold in Congress and what is going on in Washington, DC.
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Recap 2: True Conservatives in the Trenches
By Brian Almon, Gem State Chronicle, Jan. 4, 2025
Friday night saw the Executive Board meet as well as the Rules and Resolutions Committee. Last night’s big announcement was that the 2025 Summer Meeting will be held in Pocatello on June 20-21. Dorothy Moon shared a story of taking Charlie Kirk to task for his attacks on Sen. Jim Risch, who has thus far given every indication of fully supporting President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks. Attorney General Raúl Labrador was given a moment to speak, and he lauded the unity that was created by Idaho Republicans’ shared opposition to Proposition 1. Read more.
