BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho Republican State Central Committee (IRSCC) removed Idaho GOP Executive Committee voting rights from three private organizations who still sit on the board.
The Idaho Young Republicans, Idaho College Republicans, and Idaho Federation of Republican Woman (IFRW) all lost their voice on committee behind a tilted 137-79 IRSCC vote - representing only a fraction of the several hundred more delegates representing the IRSCC. The party hosted these changes in Challis, Idaho at the 2023 Idaho GOP Summer Meeting.
"It's not an easy place to get to. And so, it was made like that by design. Less people, more powerful votes on one side. Less votes, more power," IFRW President Tracey Wasden said. "There are many people that are coming in from out of state and trying to tell us that we're not Republican enough."
IFRW has been a voting member of the executive committee for 50 years - since before Idaho was considered a 'red state,' according to Wasden. Women are the 'workers of the party,' according to former Idaho GOP Chairman Tom Luna.
"I really believe that Republican women had a lot to do with [Idaho becoming a republican-controlled state,]" Wasden said. "They're the ones who make phone calls, go door to door, run campaign offices, find people to run, raise families, have jobs. They are the workers who make it happen in this party."
In the past two-year span, IFRW donated 43,000 hours of labor to the Idaho GOP and its candidates. IFRW values that labor at $30 resulting in roughly $1.3 million in donated labor.
Before the voting, the IRSCC passed out informational pamphlets - comprised of eight pages - to the delegates in attendance to aid in casting their votes, according to Wasden.
"Half-truths," Wasden said. "And things that were downright lies that they handed out to everyone. You couldn't even say anything about it in that forum."
IFRW, and the other two organization now barred from an executive committee vote, are private organizations. Their leadership is not elected at the ballot box, or by IRSCC delegation. Wasden, for example, is elected to leadership by IFRW membership.
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