Liberal Republican Victor Miller & Entire Executive Committee Rage-Quit Ada County GOP — Bizarre Donor Anomalies Raise Eyebrows
The Establishment Destroys Anything It Can’t Control
(Boise, Idaho) — Mere moments before the October meeting of the Ada County Republican Central Committee last Thursday evening, Chairman Victor Miller and five other officers, all of them firmly rooted in the camp of Idaho’s establishment brand of liberal Republicans, abruptly announced their resignations via an open letter sent by email.
Chairman Victor Miller, 1st Vice Chair Megan Reichle, 2nd Vice Chair Travis Clyde, 3rd Vice Chair Barrett Tetlow, Treasurer Dave Litster, and State Committeewoman Kim Wickstrum made five complaints about the Idaho GOP, saying “We can no longer support this system.”
Miller appended a second letter, accusing various Ada County PCs of “actions they knew would damage Ada County.” He called out several PCs by name, including Matthew Jensen from precinct 1707 for traveling to Kootenai County to lobby for enforcement of unpaid dues by Ada County to the Idaho GOP.
Miller also slanderously accused Laurel Morgan of precinct 2008 of leaking a letter to the press from Idaho GOP Chairwoman Dorothy Moon that was in response to a financial complaint filed by 17 ACRCC PCs.
Despite the unexpected resignations, the meeting went ahead as scheduled. Secretary Colette Costello took charge, Region IV Chairman Mark Johnson served as chairman pro tem, and the committee took care of business without a hitch.
Did Victor Miller resign to avoid accountability? His tenure as ACRCC chairman has been marred by several financial scandals.
In 2022, BoiseDev reported on a network of LLCs seemingly owned by a single person who was potentially using them to avoid campaign finance limits. One of his LLCs donated $30,000 to the ACRCC that was used to hire Barrett Tetlow as Executive Director in 2021. Tetlow went on to become 3rd Vice Chair, and was one of the people who resigned Thursday night.
In June, a letter from Idaho GOP Chairwoman Dorothy Moon regarding the financial complaint against Miller and the ACRCC was leaked to the Idaho Dispatch. The letter revealed that Miller canceled a scheduled meeting with Moon to discuss the complaint, forcing the state chair to appoint a financial review committee to look into the ACRCC’s finances.
In August, the Idaho Dispatch speculated that the FCC might be investigating Townsquare Media for hosting Red Wave Radio and Keep Idaho Red Radio without filing campaign finance reports. The two programs were hosted by former Idaho GOP Chairman Tom Luna and Victor Miller, even after Luna was defeated by Dorothy Moon at the 2022 state convention.
Finally, the past few weeks have seen several unusual transactions by the ACRCC in the Sunshine Report.
Nearly $10,000 was returned to donors in September, several of whom turned around and donated the money to a new PAC set up by a friend of Tetlow’s.
Nearly $5,000 was paid to a company belonging to former 2nd Vice Chair Travis Clyde.
Several new independent expenditure reports were filed in the last week, including one for September 2022 detailing nearly $6,000 paid to Imprint City for printed materials in the 2022 election. Imprint City is run by Brandon Pugmire, husband of Ada County PC Tara Pugmire. Did the committee go through a bid process for this job?
The ACRCC showed $52,481.65 cash on hand at the end of August but only $12,855.85 at the end of September. Where did the money go?
Relations between Miller and the PCs had become increasingly strained over the past year. Miller and Wickstrum argued vociferously in the State Central Committee against being forced to pay their dues, as well as against a rule banning proxy votes. Miller and his minions used proxies to maintain control of meetings, with officers sometimes carrying more than a dozen proxy votes from PCs who were not present, or even asked not to come.
There were rumors of angry shouting matches at executive board meetings as relations frayed even further. An executive session in September might have been the last straw.
Make no mistake, this mass resignation could be great news for liberty in Idaho. The old establishment is being dragged out of the movement kicking and screaming, and they are trying to burn it down on their way out. They would rather see the Idaho Republican Party fail than be led by patriots like Dorothy Moon and Brent Regan.
Now it’s up to the Ada County PCs to rebuild their committee, focus on electing good conservatives, and fight the rot that emanates from Boise.