Some weeks ago, many of us received a political mailer from a group calling itself CEQEC (Citizens to Elect Qualified Experienced Candidates).
Since most of us had never heard of this group before, many also probably wondered just what this group might be, and what it’s promoting.
To those who looked over the mailer, a few things were of immediate and obvious interest.
- It gave a list of recommended candidates for the upcoming Nov. 2, 2021 elections.
- It did so in the same style of election mailers that have been sent out in recent years by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.
- The recommendations were almost universally opposed to those on the mailer previously sent out by the KCRCC for this same election. Out of 24 candidates CEQEC recommends, only one had also been recommended by the KCRCC.
No brain strain was needed to figure out one thing at least: The CEQEC is a group that has been recently founded for the specific purpose of battling against the KCRCC.
Now every decent voting citizen has a desire to become sufficiently informed so as to vote intelligently. This would include learning something about CEQEC; particularly the political bent of the persons behind it. It would be especially important because, as we all know, finding detailed information about persons running for office is very difficult. Then too, candidates come and go with every election. This imposes a research burden that in practice is impossible to bear. Most of us therefore associate ourselves with some stable group that we already know as being favorable to our concerns. We let that group sweat the details of candidate research, and we generally follow their recommendations.
The CEQEC and the KCRCC are just such groups.
Most people know what the KCRCC stands for. It has not been too shy about expressing its opinions, and it has been around for a long time. But the CEQEC is a new thing, and therefore bears some careful investigation before we decide how we should view it.
The CEQEC flyer itself says a few things about CEQEC, and also gives a webpage, where more information is said to be available. It would be easy for us to go to these places first. However, streetwise people know that talk is cheap. If you want to know what someone stands for, watch what they do, not what they say. Let’s take the less easy path, then, and follow the money. He who pays the bills gives the orders. Once we find out who pays the bills, we can learn something about what those bill-payers do, and thus truly believe. We will then know what CEQEC does and believes, for CEQEC, like every organization, is its funding source.
WHAT CEQEC DOES
At the website of the Idaho Secretary of State we can easily learn two things:
- Who founded CEQEC.
- Who funded CEQEC.
Let’s check out the relevant pages. The answer to the first question is here: This first report, dated May 3, 2021, shows Tom Cronin founded CEQEC, with Tom Malzahn as treasurer. (Brad Corkill is current president, while Malzahn remains treasurer).
In answer to the second question, the above page also shows funding by a number of persons, but the full list of contributors is available by accessing individual reports, all of which are available here:
What do we find?
Let’s focus on the biggest contributors. They are listed in order of time, with the most recent being first:
Riverbend Commerce Park – contributed 1k
Two “higher education” institutes operate in this park, which are run by North Idaho College and three Kootenai school districts. Riverbend is a premier – that is, a highest ranking – member of something called CDAEDC (CDA Economic Development Corporation). CDAEDC is essentially a mutual support network of big business interests in the Kootenai County area. Tag Jacklin of Riverbend is on its board as secretary.
Young Construction Group – contributed 1.5k
This is a purely commercial, industrial, and government construction company. It supports the Rotary Club, North Idaho College, and CDA, Lakeland and Lake City High Schools. It is a Silver member of CDAEDC.
Steven Widmyer – 1k
Current CDA mayor. Member of the board of CDAEDC.
Ron McIntire – 1k
Owner of Super 1 foods and ex Hayden mayor. Contributed $1 million to Kootenai Health. Super 1 is a Silver member of CDAEDC.
Jonathan King – 1k
Orthopedic surgeon connected with Kootenai Health.
Eve Knudtsen – 1k
Owner of Knudtsen Chevrolet. This person clearly believes that a woman’s place is outside the home; that women should generally be taken up with careers, just like men. This is an attitude that is highly destructive of the family. See Her company is in with CDAEDC as a platinum member, and she is on the board.
Joseph Morris – 1k
No information found.
Todd Brinkmeyer – 3.5k
Son of the owner of Idaho Forest Products. CEO of Plummer Forest Products. A big business cronyist. See
CDA20 LLC – 5k
See The agent for this “company” is Paul W Daugharty. The governors are William T. and Danelle A. Reagan. CDA20 LLC is just one of many companies with Paul W Daugharty listed as agent. See CDA20 is in fact a Masonic Lodge (free and accepted Masons). See It is connected with the Rathdrum 41 lodge of which Neil Uhrig, candidate for Post Falls School Board, is secretary. The website clearly indicates that many of the free and accepted Masonic Lodges in the Northwest area have social contact with each other.
Glacier Partners LLC – 2k
The agent is Stephen F Meyer. There are few people in the area that are more deeply connected to big business than Mr. Meyer. Charles Nipp is a member of this LLC. This company deals in Real Estate Investment Trusts.
CDA Tribe (one of the first contributors) – 1k
CDA Casino is a bronze member of CDAEDC.
It is obvious that the main funders of CEQEC have one overriding common interest: promoting big business in North Idaho. The great majority of them are members of CDAEDC.
What say we take a closer look at that corporation?
Besides the above-mentioned connections of businesses and persons with CDAEDC, there are some interesting names on the roster of members of the board:
Ron Jacobson, mayor of Post Falls.
Steve Griffitts, mayor of Hayden.
Vic Holmes, mayor of Rathdrum.
Troy Tymesen, Brett Boyer, Leon Duce, and Paul Amador, state representatives
Linda Wilhelm, member of Post Falls city council.
Chris Fillios, KC County Commissioner.
More interesting are the following names:
Dr. Lita Burns, North Idaho College
Dr. Larry Stauffer, University of Idaho, CDA campus
Dr. Dena Naccarato, superintendent, Post Falls School District
Why are these public education leaders on the board of a corporation that promotes big business?
Now, this writer is not suggesting that every one of these persons consciously subscribes to the underlying goal of the CDAEDC. But what is that goal? Plainly, it is the maximizing of big-business profits, through collusion with county government and city governments. This in turn means big dollar real estate and land development deals, and a conversion of our home into just another overcrowded, super-urbanized, metropolitan wasteland.
Consciously or not, these people are working for that goal.
There is more. A careful review of the information here, and available at the websites I’ve linked to, as well as that which gives a full list of the members of CEQEC (found here: shows that CEQEC represents, broadly speaking, three special-interest groups. These are:
Not only the Big Business Establishment mentioned, but also
The Big Medical Establishment, and
The Public Education Establishment
Regarding Big Med in particular, there are 73 doctors listed as “endorsing” CEQEC! That is a huge overrepresentation. A few of the other names seem to be spouses of those doctors. What is even more curious is that all but two of these doctors are affiliated with Kootenai Health. Even these two could be affiliated with KH, only that wasn’t discoverable by a very quick web search of their names.
You have to ask yourself if some big gun(s) at Kootenai Health put out a general call to their staff to ask them to sign up for this. But does CEQEC really think that these doctors represent the Joe Average which CEQEC pretends to identify with? Is CEQEC aware that Kootenai Health – and in particular Richard McLandress, one of its doctors on the Panhandle Board of Health and a CEQEC endorser – was the instigator for the utterly retarded mask “mandates”, and all the other hysterical COVID nonsense that we’re still suffering with? Does CEQEC think that Joe Average is anything other than completely disgusted with Big Med?
Do you support the continued conversion of Kootenai County into a metropolitan wasteland?
Do you support a medical “care” system that puts profits above people, and blindly carries out the dictates of Big Pharma and the government flunkies which it owns? Do you like the imposition of senseless mask mandates and the lockdown of small businesses? Do you want to be forced to get “vaccines” that are untested, don’t work, and on the contrary could permanently destroy your health, or even kill you?
Do you support the perversion of young minds and souls with Critical Race Theory, homosexualism and transgenderism, socialism and communism, and other insane ideas?
If so, you can trust the CEQEC to tell you how to vote!
As for the rest of us, on the world scene, we’ve had George Soros, Bill Gates, Facebook, Google, Apple, Big Med, and Public Ed, doing exactly that. How has that worked out for us?
Fortunately, CEQEC can still provide a very useful service. It can tell us who NOT to vote for.
WHAT CEQEC SAYS
Let’s now see if CEQEC’s words align with its actions.
We already know what it truly stands for. It could be an interesting exercise to compare its public statements about itself with its true agenda. If we do, we will find that they don’t match at all. In short, CEQEC is lying to the world about what it’s up to. We’ll have to correct that, so I will quote verbatim below some informational texts that are published on its website (www.electqualifiedcandidates.com), with some editorial corrections and explanations, using line-outs and comments in brackets.
“CEQEC is a concerned citizen-based organization, made up of long-time residents and community leaders. CEQEC was created with the sole purpose of shedding light on specific candidates, races, initiatives, and important election issues. We are your neighbors, friends, and coworkers [Big Business, Big Med, and Big Ed elites].
We are a grassroots organization of citizens concerned about the future of our community [special interests], dedicated to protecting and activating the voices of everyday residents of North Idaho in the political process [so far as it will protect those special interests of ours].
[When it serves our agenda,] CEQEC members care about free, fair, and honest elections that are open and accessible to all. We believe we can protect freedom of [our own] expression by helping the public better understand their [our] choice of candidates. We think economic and community stewardship work together and do not need to be divisive. [After all, why can’t people just shut up and carry on our business-as-usual agenda? They’ve always done it before!] As we work to ensure a nonpartisan election process, we can also empower grassroots leaders to speak out on more issues [that we want to forward].
THE SHARED [OUR] VISION
A better North Idaho [for us]. The power of the ballot resides with the people—we seek integrity and freedom in every election [so long as the elections go our way]. Most importantly, trust that once elected, officials will focus on the good of their constituents. [Unlike those rowdy parents at recent school board meetings! Can you imagine the gall? How dare they not trust that the teaching of racism and sexual perversion was a good thing for themselves and their children!]
OUR SUPPORTERS
Long-time residents, and community leaders of North Idaho know this [ed. — uh, know what?] is not how it used to be. We have always been proud of our strong voice and conservative values. [We have always had strength, and we want to conserve it.] We would have never have [sic] voluntarily ceded our decision-making ability to a vocal minority [majority] that operates in the shadows and centralizes power [has finally found its voice].
We all agree it is time to take back our voice.
You can be a part of protecting and preserving our home [agenda]. Your support, whether openly, or quietly, makes a difference, and gets us one step closer to restoring nonpartisan elections and giving us back our freedom [power].
Like you [maybe], we long for a time when nonpartisan elections were nonpartisan [in our favor, ‘cause after all, any fool knows there’s no such thing as a nonpartisan election!]. We believe in sharing resources and information with the public regarding candidates and solutions that safeguard our home [interests] and defend against those who would consolidate power in the hands of a few [the plebes that we’ve always ruled over].
We are conservative in our approach; but we are a non-partisan organization that advocates ensuring power and influence reside with the voters [us] instead of special interest groups [that are not us]. We use a grassroots approach for messaging that resonates with every ideological spectrum, especially those tired of the far-right agenda. [We still resonate with the far-right agenda though! Far right is an “ideological spectrum, right?] We seek to preserve our [hedonistic] way of life, and protect North Idaho from unwelcomed extremism [, which is to say, Americanism].
As we perpetuate our goal, we find that thousands of people in our community identify with the cause. Together, we can bring reason and [the business-as-usual] perspective back to local elections. We value thoughtful, open discussion, and we strive to eliminate the fear of intimidation from those who do not have our community’s best interest at heart.
Please help us to elect candidates and support initiatives that represent our community values.”
End of the edited quotes. Could anything be more transparently dishonest than this self-promotional spiel?
However, all sarcastic humor aside, no doubt many of the people endorsing CEQEC have good intentions. Still, I submit that they hardly represent the rank and file of North Idaho, as they pretend to. Unlike CEQEC, the rank and file has woken up to a couple of harsh realities.
First among these is that EVERYONE is a partisan. If you have any opinion at all, you are by that very fact a partisan. If you don’t have an opinion, then you are on the side of the status quo, and thus still a partisan. This whole “non-partisan” schtick has for a long time been a sure tipoff that you are dealing with a Liberal. We all know by now that exhortations to “non-partisanship” are only politically correct code for “just shut the hell up and do it our way”.
Secondly, it is far past time for business-as-usual. Business-as-usual has gotten us where we are today. And where are we? Right in the middle of a dictatorial socialist theft of the country, and a total destruction of America as it was founded to be. We either get off our butts and beat down the insurrection, or we resign ourselves to living in a gulag not too long hence…where the “non-partisans” will be our jailers.
N.B.: As this is a guest post, the Bard does not necessarily agree with or endorse every view it presents.
This site has been attacked by tyrannical foreign governments, Obama-era federal agencies, candidates for governor, and multiple progressive outlets. Progressives seem to hate any black conservative who walks off the liberal “woke” plantation. Social Media Internet ghettos have greatly diminished distribution of our content. This is called “Shadow-banning.” Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family. Also please support our ability to continue to bring you a different perspective. Donate here. Another way to support us and show your spirit is to purchase CCS Partisan merchandise. Thank you.
Related
Source link