On Feb. 22 — the 293rd anniversary of George Washington’s birthday — the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee went from zero to fascist in 3.2 seconds.
The setting was the KCRCC’s town hall meeting with local legislators.
But it was a town hall meeting for the GOP loyalists only. If you didn’t care for what the Idaho Legislature is up to these days — and there is a volume of that from raiding public schools to subsidize the private education of wealthier kids to robbing Idaho’s working poor of their Medicaid benefits to subjecting ordinary children to mandated Bible lessons in their classrooms or even waging an ongoing war against Idaho’s depleted ranks of health care providers — then you were consigned to silence.
Teresa Borrenpohl, of Post Falls, a former Democratic candidate for legislative office in 2020, 2022 and 2024, didn’t want to play by those rules.
“Nobody was telling people cheering to stop cheering but any time there was a negative reaction, we were scolded,” Borrenpohl told the Coeur d’Alene Press. “I felt comfortable expressing displeasure because people were very openly expressing their appreciation for the legislators there.”
And so she did — pointing out one-time tax scofflaw and current state Sen. Phil Hart, R-Coeur d’Alene, “stole timber from public land” to build his home. Hart later settled up, paying the state $2,450 for the logs.
The next thing Borrenpohl knew, Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris — dressed in plain clothes and a baseball cap — tried to grab her and evict her from the meeting. When that didn’t work, the sheriff delegated the task to a crew of private security guards working for LEAR Asset Management. Both video and eyewitness accounts conveyed the confrontation:
“They came and took her by the arms and pulled her and then took her by her feet and pulled her into the aisle,” said Mary Rosdahl, a nurse. “They laid her face-down on the floor. Two of them were on top of her, holding her down, and then eventually they boosted her up on her feet and dragged her out the door. I was worried about their handling.”
Charges of battery for allegedly biting one of the security guards were dropped against Borrenpohl for what the Coeur d’Alene city prosecuting attorney called “the interest of justice,” while LEAR Asset Management’s license to do business in the city was revoked because the company did not follow city ordinances requiring private guards to clearly display their role as security agents.
A GoFundMe account has raised more than $316,000 for Borrenpohl, presumably to cover her legal expenses.
Meanwhile, there’s no small amount of dodging and weaving taking place.
Start with Exhibit A: What was this? A town hall meeting, where constituents tell elected officials what they like and don’t like? Or was it a private GOP rally?
GOP comments to the Coeur d’Alene Press — and the fact that the venue was held at Coeur d’Alene High School — would suggest it was a town hall meeting.
To the New York Times and the Spokesman-Review, KCRCC Chairperson Brent Regan referred to it as a “private event.”
Exhibit B: Who arranged for private security?
Regan went back and forth with the Spokesman-Review. First he said he hired the security company. Then he said LEAR Asset Management volunteered its services with no contract.
To the Times, Regan said the security firm “volunteered their services” and was not hired by his central committee.
And to the Coeur d’Alene Press, the GOP claimed to know very little about who provided what security and threw Norris under the bus.
“Nothing was done without him being aware,” Regan said.
Norris countered he didn’t know about the security arrangements or who was involved.
Left unanswered: Why not secure the services of off-duty police, who, unlike private security guards, are commissioned law enforcement officers?
And when public meetings become unruly, the obvious solution is to cancel them and arrange the forums for another time.
Exhibit C — Why didn’t Norris or the GOP call in the Coeur d’Alene police, who were outside the high school in response to a threat made against Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene.
“They don’t have jurisdiction,” Norris told the Coeur d’Alene Press. “They would not have come into a private event held at the high school and the person who secures the location gets to set the protocols of what occurs.”
Not so, contends Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White. Not only was the event within the city limits, but it was held in a public school.
“We would’ve stood by to make sure no one was in danger, while at the same time protecting people’s First Amendment rights,” White told the Coeur d’Alene Press.
If nothing else, this has offered a good look under the hood of Brent Regan’s Republican Party.
It tells you that anyone who can’t keep his story straight from one newspaper to another is not infallible.
It tells you that the party of grievance, which is constantly complaining about how the cancel culture has been employed against them, doesn’t mind canceling a heckler — even to the point of applying physical force — one little bit.
And for good measure, the GOP talks, acts and walks like a bully.
Prove us wrong. Hold another town hall meeting in a public building where anyone is free to compliment or raise hell with Republican lawmakers who have been elected to serve in Boise.
But if Regan and his acolytes revert to the protective cocoon of an ideological rally held in a private location, they will make it abundantly clear that they have no respect for anyone’s opinions other than their own.
Trillhaase is the Opinion page editor of the Lewiston Tribune.
