Corruption and hypocrisy plague Blaine County elections: Insider deals and double standards

At the Idaho Mountain Express’s “Pizza and Politics” forum for Ketchum mayoral and city council candidates on October 15, the topic of PACs came up. Both Pete Prekeges, candidate for mayor, and Spencer Cordovano, a sitting council member seeking reelection, made a point of warning voters about so-called “outside influence” in local races.

Prekeges cautioned, “There is a political action committee that was formed this year trying to persuade our nonpartisan local elections. We need to know that. We need to look into that.”

Cordovano added, “There are a lot of bad actors in the crowd… there are certain PACs in town throwing big money around, and you can remember me as the guy who is going to stand up against it.”

Their warnings would carry more weight if not for what came next. Days later, on October 22, both men appeared in a full-page Idaho Mountain Express ad paid for by an unregistered PAC called Concerned Citizens for Ketchum. The $2,328 ad featured roughly 100 signers—many of whom don’t even live in Ketchum—opposing the Council-Manager question on the city ballot. That amount easily triggers Idaho’s “Sunshine” reporting requirements, yet the group didn’t register with the Secretary of State or disclose its donors when the ad ran.

In a campaign season where “transparency” is a recurring talking point, that’s a curious omission.

On October 24, Concerned Citizens of Ketchum finally registered as a PAC. Their treasurer is Bronwyn Patterson Nickel, and the sole donor and funder of the ad was Tom Nickel, owner of the Sawtooth Club. Neither Bronwyn nor Tom can vote in Ketchum because they don’t live there—a fact that shouldn’t matter under the First Amendment, but since residency has been a favorite attack line against conservative PACs, it’s relevant here. But one has to wonder why they waited to file until the Secretary of State demanded it. What were they trying to hide?

And let’s not ignore the political connections. Pete Prekeges is the preferred mayoral candidate of signatories behind the Concerned Citizens of Ketchum ad, and he’s also been publicly endorsed by a representative of the Blaine County Democrats. That endorsement came on the same day that Blaine County Democratic Central Committee Chair Deborah Silver published an op-ed in the Idaho Mountain Express accusing other PACs of injecting partisan politics into nonpartisan elections. The Facebook page for Blaine County Democrats has also posted endorsements of Keith Saks and Mike Burchmore for Sun Valley City Council.

The hypocrisy doesn’t end there. Tripp Hutchinson, a sitting Ketchum City Council member, has been charged with a criminal misdemeanor for vandalism. He was accused of tearing down a sign at Friedman Memorial Airport because he disagreed with the message of the sign. Disappointingly, the current Ketchum City Council and Mayor have not publicly condemned his actions. Hutchinson’s case might seem isolated, but it’s part of the same pattern—the belief among certain insiders that the rules simply don’t apply to them. From unregistered PAC activity to property destruction, too many people in Blaine County politics behave as if accountability is optional. That mindset—the idea that you can get away with anything if you’re on the “right” team—is the very definition of corruption.

Down the road in Bellevue, Democrat Mayor Christina Giordani has also had ethical lapses. On October 24, she used an official city newsletter—published under the City of Bellevue banner through a taxpayer-funded Mailchimp account—to urge residents to vote for her. In the newsletter, she encourages city leaders and residents to lead with “integrity,” a word that she fails to understand. This alleged abuse of taxpayer-funded resources for electioneering purposes appears to be a violation of Idaho law. Adding insult to injury, Giordani’s campaign signs have brazenly been placed in the public right-of-way throughout the city, even after Bellevue’s own staff publicly reminded all candidates that doing so is prohibited.

Back to Blaine County Democrat Chair Deborah Silver. In her October 22 guest opinion, Silver criticized two local PACs—the Blaine County Common Sense PAC and the Blaine County Accountability PAC, which I chair—accusing those groups of injecting partisanship into local races.

“The Blaine County Democrats have long held that our nonpartisan city races should remain free of party influence,” she wrote, adding that “increasingly, partisan politics are seeping into spaces once defined by collaboration and civic trust.”

That lofty statement didn’t last 24 hours. Later that same day, the Blaine County Democrats started posting the previously mentioned candidate endorsements on their official Facebook page. So much for staying “nonpartisan” in local elections.

What is also ironic about Silver’s attack on both the Blaine County Common Sense and Blaine County Accountability PACs is that these groups were established specifically to conduct voter education in a nonpartisan manner that encourages focus on the issues and candidates, not labels. I’m also the chair of the Blaine County Republican Central Committee, and unlike the Democrats, we intentionally chose not to endorse candidates in nonpartisan races this year so they would remain free of partisan influence. Furthermore, the Blaine County Accountability PAC is exactly what its name implies: to hold local leaders and institutions accountable. The past few weeks have shown just how badly that’s needed in Blaine County.

When the Idaho Mountain Express contacted me and others for comment about Blaine County Common Sense and Blaine County Accountability PACs, their reporter pressed for confidential information about our operations and asked whether we were a “right-wing, partisan PAC.” We are not. Our supporters include Republicans and Unaffiliated voters, and we’ve endorsed candidates of both identities. We were also asked to respond to the suggestion that PACs are “classless” politics. If that’s true, then surely the same label applies to Concerned Citizens for Ketchum, whose ad prominently featured candidates who are critical of PACs and supported by Democrat officials.

But let’s be honest about what’s happening here: groups of citizens came together to exercise their First Amendment rights—the right to speak, to assemble, and to participate in elections. Two of those groups did it transparently and within the law without needing to be asked. One did not until pressured to do so.

Maybe we can stop pretending that civic participation itself is the problem. Local elections consistently suffer from low turnout. If PACs are informing voters, encouraging engagement, and motivating citizens to vote, how exactly is that a bad thing?

If Blaine County truly wants transparency and accountability, this should be the line in the sand. We can continue the old way—where rules are ignored, ethical lapses are brushed aside, and transparency is optional—or we can welcome open participation from all citizens, regardless of party or perspective.

I choose the latter. Blaine County is better when more voices are heard, more voters are informed, and more residents feel empowered to speak up for what they believe in.

That’s not partisanship. That’s America.

Heather Lauer chairs the Blaine County Republican Central Committee and the Blaine County Accountability PAC. She lists both here in the spirit of transparency—something Blaine County could use more of.