Bingham County Republican Party steps back from March 2 presidential caucus
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BLACKFOOT — The majority of the Bingham County Republican Central Committee’s members will not be planning or organizing the county’s presidential caucus on March 2.
Though its leadership registered as precinct and caucus coordinators in November — which was reportedly confirmed by Idaho Freedom Foundation board chairman Brent Regan — a news release from the committee says that on Jan. 6, the Idaho GOP Executive Committee voted to remove the BCRCC from planning and executing the caucus.
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“They have usurped our rights as the executive committee to manage the various caucus locations and have been working behind the scenes with an unelected group, the Bingham Conservatives, to organize the caucus,” committeeman Ben Fuhriman told EastIdahoNews.com.
This and other disputes between the county party and the State GOP Leadership are still in litigation, so the members of the BCRCC have agreed to stand down.
“The BCRCC’s elected precinct committeemen aren’t stepping down from our positions as precinct committeeman or from the executive committee,” Fuhriman clarified. “But the State GOP leadership — Dorothy Moon, Brent Regan, Mark Fuller and Bryan Smith — have made it clear they do not want the BCRCC running the caucus in Bingham County.”
Seventeen of the 22 BCRCC members won’t participate or work with their respective precincts during the Presidential Caucus. According to the news release, they want to prevent further confusion for Bingham County constituents.
But the Bingham County Committee encourages voters to attend the caucus and vote. They plan to do the same.
“We have full intentions of voting in the caucus just like every other Republican can and hopefully will,” Fuhriman said.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the maximum distance a polling location can be from a community. The article has been updated based the most recent Idaho GOP Caucus Handbook. EastIdahoNews.com apologizes for the error.