Democrats are working to deceive conservative Republicans.
During the last two election cycles, there are several groups operating in Bonner County that are hiding who they are while they pretend to be “conservatives” so that they can deceive the Republican voters.
Let’s briefly highlight two of these organizations.
The first group is “Idaho Moms”.
Since this political action committee was formed in Sandpoint in September 2022, it has spent $18,975 against the conservatives in various elections.
“Idaho Moms” operates through social media, direct mail postcards, text messaging and other online digital ads.
Their donors include Jared Deloof, who is the executive director of the Idaho Democratic state party.
Idaho Moms first supported Steve Johnson as a write-in candidate for senate in the November 2022 election. Steve Johnson had just run in the May 2022 primary election as a Democrat for state representative. In fact, he is at this minute an elected precinct committeeman to the Bonner County Democratic central committee for the Southside precinct.
Steve Johnson has run 5 times for state senator, state representative and county commissioner, all as a Democrat, dating back to the early 2000’s.
Here is the real kicker though. The chairwoman of Idaho Moms is Leona Christensen of Sandpoint. Prior to being chair of Idaho Moms, Leona was the treasurer of the Bonner County Democratic party.
In just the last two years Leona has donated $1,264 to the Bonner County Democratic Central Committee according to Idaho’s campaign finance reports.
Idaho Moms is a political action committee being run by Bonner County Democrats. Probably because if they simply ran the same ads and sent the same mailers from the Bonner County Democratic Party, most voters wouldn’t listen to them. Using the name “Idaho Moms” is necessary to hide who they actually are.
The treasurer of the Idaho Moms political action committee is Vicki Reich. Vicki is also a member of the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force. The Task Force has over 300 members, and they have stood with Sandpoint’s mayor Rognstad and his Social Equity Initiative. The Task Force opposed 28 conservative Republican state legislators when those legislators opposed spending taxpayer money at Idaho’s public universities for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and staff positions related to homosexuality and gender identity.
Vicki Reich has donated over $700 to Democrat Steve Johnson and the Democratic front group Reclaim Idaho.
The photo below shows the campaign reports on file with the Idaho Secretary of State showing Leona’s previous tenure as the Bonner County Democrats’ treasurer, it shows her registration as chair of Idaho Moms PAC, and it shows Vicki Reich’s donations and her position of treasurer for the Idaho Moms PAC:
North Idaho Voter Services is the Diana Dawson personal political action committee.
The second group we will cover is North Idaho Voter Services (NIVS). You can find them on the web at NorthIdahoVoterServices.org. While they claim to just want to elect “qualified candidates”, they endorse the Center Left candidates every single time.
NIVS is registered with the Idaho Secretary of State as a non-profit corporation. The members of their board are president, secretary and director Diana Dawson of Sagle, director Robert Boeh of Sandpoint, director James Frank of Sagle, director Dan McLaughlin of Hope, and director Barbara Schriber of Sandpoint.
NIVS also filed as a political action committee with the Idaho Secretary of State as NIVS PLUS. With this entity they endorse center left candidates and place newspaper ads, social media ads, and send postcards by mail endorsing their preferred candidates.
DL Dawson, aka Diana Dawson and North Idaho Voter Services, Inc. account for the sole donors of $11,171 spent by the PAC since April 2022. NIVS is the Diana Dawson personal PAC.
Diana Dawson has also donated $450 to Democrat Steve Lockwood in his 2018 run for county commissioner, and she has donated to the Democratic activist group Reclaim Idaho.
NIVS director Barbara Schriber (co-owner of Selle Valley Construction) donated the $1,000 max donation to center left Republican Jim Woodward in his 2022 primary run to keep his senate seat.
Barbara then donated the max $1,000 to Democrat Steve Johnson in his write-in run against conservative Scott Herndon, and she has donated $500 each to the Idaho Moms PAC and the Good Government Bulldogs PAC (another center left PAC run by Tony McDermott of Sagle).
Barbara Schriber’s Selle Valley Construction, Inc. donated an additional $963 to Good Government Bulldogs in 2022 to support Democrat Steve Johnson and oppose conservative Republican Scott Herndon.
The below photo shows the relationship of Diana Dawson to her own center left North Idaho Voter Services PAC.
