IdahoCabal — Follow the evidence

Connection research · 2026-09-17

Blue Moon Strategies is the operating bridge between Western Futures Fund and Way Back PAC

Recorded status: Verified common upstream operator and formal grantee-monitoring structure; Idaho candidate selection and expenditure control unproven

Connection research · 2026-09-17

Sixteen Thirty Fund and New Venture Fund financed Western Futures before Way Back’s Idaho spending

Recorded status: Verified multi-stage funding chain; dollar-level tracing, earmarking, and coordination unproven

Connection research · 2026-09-17

Way Back PAC directly financed three PACs in the Hometown network

Recorded status: Verified common upstream funding and direct funder-recipient contact; expenditure coordination unproven

Connection research · 2026-09-16

Contours, WFF and Way Back appear in overlapping 2026 multistate PAC funding and political-research channels

Recorded status: Primary subsets + current reporting verified. Later Contours→WFF increment, full Way Back Montana allocation and common-control questions remain unresolved; no same-dollar tracing or centralized command established.

Connection research · 2026-09-16

Retrospective audit: Way Back funded both 2024 party-primary replacement and 2026 Republican-primary candidate intervention

Recorded status: PRIMARY/OFFICIAL + CAMPAIGN-FINANCE REPORTING VERIFIED cross-cycle candidate-selection pattern. Directional motive (e.g. shifting GOP policy left/right) remains unproved and must be tested using candidate records and donor/recipient strategy evidence.

Connection research · 2026-09-16

Federal Government That Works PAC is a Contours/Sixteen Thirty/WFF/Blue Moon hub; Way Back’s same-name $75K payee remains identity-unresolved

Recorded status: CORRECTED: Federal C00915595 has verified Contours/1630/WFF funding and Blue Moon payments. Way Back's $75K same-name payee is NOT yet linked to C00915595 because a separate South Dakota GTW PAC exists and previously received Way Back money.

Research finding · 2026-09-16

Way Back’s $75K WFF payment is strongly reconstructed as the filing’s sole non-federal in-kind research-services transaction

Recorded status: HIGH-CONFIDENCE FILING RECONSTRUCTION: exact transaction counts/totals identify WFF as the sole plausible $75K in-kind research-services row. Raw Schedule B row still needed for direct-row verification and substantive context.

Connection research · 2026-09-16

Hometown Heroes routes Way Back and Idaho PAC money; a $30K Way Back receipt discrepancy remains unresolved

Recorded status: RECONCILIATION UPGRADE: Primary FEC reproduces $175K Way Back→Hometown Heroes through 6/30/26, while previously captured Idaho Sunshine shows $205K. Preserve the unresolved $30K delta; do not silently choose one total. Officer identity still unresolved.

Research finding · 2026-09-16

Way Back’s 2026 Government That Works payments resolve to the non-federal/state PAC, not the separate federal GTW committee

Recorded status: HIGH-CONFIDENCE FILING RECONSTRUCTION: Q2 exact counts/totals prove Way Back’s $160K GTW payee is non-federal, excluding federal C00915595. Earlier $75K likewise reconciles as non-federal. Treat these as South Dakota/state GTW pending raw address/state-row confirmation.

Connection research · 2026-09-15

Western Futures Fund is formally listed as Way Back PAC’s connected organization as Way Back routes money into Idaho PACs

Recorded status: Connected-organization relationship and $125K 2025 WFF receipt are primary verified; current reporting puts cumulative WFF→Way Back at $1.125M, with the $1M raw receipt row still pending reproduction.

Connection research · 2026-09-15

Way Back’s current funding scale shows about $1.2M in Western Futures receipts and $650K from Toolbox before major Idaho PAC disbursements

Recorded status: Current FEC summary and FEC-bulk aggregation verified; one $125K WFF row is primary reproduced and WFF connected-organization status is primary verified. Remaining large WFF/Toolbox receipt rows still require raw-row reproduction before transaction-level finality.

Research finding · 2026-09-15

Way Back’s $75K payment to Western Futures is an 'other disbursement'; official FEC summary reports zero refunds

Recorded status: OFFICIAL FEC + FEC-DERIVED VERIFIED: $75K is an 'Other Disbursement'; committee summary reports zero contribution refunds. Exact purpose/economic substance unresolved; do not call it refund, reimbursement, circular funding or wrongdoing without the raw memo/transaction context.

Connection research · 2026-09-15

2026 Idaho PAC network extends Way Back funding into Defend/Protect, Hometown Heroes and Idaho First

Recorded status: Verified reported/FEC-derived 2026 financial network. No direct Reclaim-to-2026-PAC connection established.

Connection research · 2026-09-15

Way Back money reaches Defend and Protect Idaho, where Gary Raney and Judith Ellis oversee candidate support/opposition spending

Recorded status: Current Idaho governance and 2026 spending use verified; Way Back→DPI funding verified. Upstream WFF/1630 same-dollar attribution remains unproved.

Connection research · 2026-09-15

Current 2026 Idaho First is steered by Richard Johnson and used Targeted Platform Media for Boise political advertising

Recorded status: PRIMARY FCC governance/media-buyer evidence plus Way Back/Hometown Heroes funding and candidate-specific spending verified. Do NOT merge with terminated 2018 Idaho First PAC absent legal continuity proof.

Research finding · 2026-09-15

Gary Raney and Judith Ellis steer Defend and Protect Idaho as Way Back money is deployed into Idaho legislative primaries

Recorded status: PRIMARY local governance and current external-funding/use pattern verified from official site/FEC-linked reporting. Candidate support/opposition totals are contemporaneous reporting from Idaho filings; donor direction beyond documented outreach is NOT established.

Research finding · 2026-09-15

Current FEC-bulk data indicate about $1.2M from Western Futures to Way Back in the 2025–26 period, above the May cutoff figure

Recorded status: FEC-BULK/PRIMARY PARTIAL: current grouped WFF→Way Back total about $1.2M; $125K 2025 receipt primary verified. Reciprocal $75K observation remains unresolved and must not be labeled a refund/reimbursement/circular transfer.

Connection research · 2026-09-15

Way Back money reaches Idaho under Gary Raney/Judith Ellis and is deployed into candidate-specific primary spending

Recorded status: PRIMARY/strongly verified Idaho steering and use: Way Back→Defend and Protect receipts, Idaho leadership, and candidate-specific independent expenditures documented. WFF/upstream donor selection of individual Idaho candidates is NOT established.

Connection research · 2026-09-15

Way Back money enters multiple Idaho PAC layers before candidate-support/opposition spending

Recorded status: FEC-derived Way Back→Hometown Heroes/Idaho First payments and Idaho PAC-to-PAC transfers are verified/reported from campaign-finance records. Coordination and same-dollar retransfers are NOT established.

Capitol Hill Access — Way Back PAC Apr. 1–Jun. 3, 2026 payees

Research citing this source

Blue Moon Strategies is the operating bridge between Western Futures Fund and Way Back PAC

Sixteen Thirty Fund and New Venture Fund financed Western Futures before Way Back’s Idaho spending

Way Back PAC directly financed three PACs in the Hometown network

Contours, WFF and Way Back appear in overlapping 2026 multistate PAC funding and political-research channels

Retrospective audit: Way Back funded both 2024 party-primary replacement and 2026 Republican-primary candidate intervention

Federal Government That Works PAC is a Contours/Sixteen Thirty/WFF/Blue Moon hub; Way Back’s same-name $75K payee remains identity-unresolved

Way Back’s $75K WFF payment is strongly reconstructed as the filing’s sole non-federal in-kind research-services transaction

Hometown Heroes routes Way Back and Idaho PAC money; a $30K Way Back receipt discrepancy remains unresolved

Way Back’s 2026 Government That Works payments resolve to the non-federal/state PAC, not the separate federal GTW committee

Western Futures Fund is formally listed as Way Back PAC’s connected organization as Way Back routes money into Idaho PACs

Way Back’s current funding scale shows about $1.2M in Western Futures receipts and $650K from Toolbox before major Idaho PAC disbursements

Way Back’s $75K payment to Western Futures is an 'other disbursement'; official FEC summary reports zero refunds

2026 Idaho PAC network extends Way Back funding into Defend/Protect, Hometown Heroes and Idaho First

Way Back money reaches Defend and Protect Idaho, where Gary Raney and Judith Ellis oversee candidate support/opposition spending

Current 2026 Idaho First is steered by Richard Johnson and used Targeted Platform Media for Boise political advertising

Gary Raney and Judith Ellis steer Defend and Protect Idaho as Way Back money is deployed into Idaho legislative primaries

Current FEC-bulk data indicate about $1.2M from Western Futures to Way Back in the 2025–26 period, above the May cutoff figure

Way Back money reaches Idaho under Gary Raney/Judith Ellis and is deployed into candidate-specific primary spending

Way Back money enters multiple Idaho PAC layers before candidate-support/opposition spending