Browse sourced findings, connection research, and open questions. Each entry retains the status and qualifications recorded with the research. A connection research note is not automatically a verified network-map relationship.
Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: SOURCE-RESTORED RECOVERY ITEM. URLs and source-specific support statements restored from corrected v2 snapshot. Evidentiary firewall preserved; dynamic aggregates and secondary reports still require ordinary publication-stage verification.
SCR 118's recorded 2026 roll calls show Kohl and Zuiderveld among three Senate no votes and Leavitt/Hostetler among House no votes. HB 445 provided ongoing water-project funding and passed in 2025; roll-call records document the relevant no votes. IDA's advocacy framing should be separated from legislators' stated fiscal/oversight rationales.
Evidence firewall: Vote alignment is factual; advocacy claims about motive or being 'against water infrastructure'…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: SOURCE-RESTORED RECOVERY ITEM. URLs and source-specific support statements restored from corrected v2 snapshot. Evidentiary firewall preserved; dynamic aggregates and secondary reports still require ordinary publication-stage verification.
IMC reports $42,931 to Arena Mail and Digital on the captured current-cycle finance page. Arena's Idaho payee record shows multiple large Idaho Liberty PAC payments, including $201,279 on May 18, 2026, plus other 2025–26 payments. Arena publicly markets services to Republican campaigns and independent expenditures.
Evidence firewall: Shared vendor is an operational crossline; it does not prove PAC-to-PAC coordination.
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: verified institutional and personnel connection; personal-direction and LLC-ownership questions unresolved
The Idaho Esto Perpetua political committee is administered through Risch Pisca personnel and the firm's office address. Idaho Sunshine identifies Maggie Mallea as both treasurer and chairperson of Esto Perpetua, Filing Entity ID 199, registered 2023-12-27, mailing address 407 West Jefferson St., Boise, ID 83702. Risch Pisca's own staff biography identifies Mallea as its Legal Services Director and Office Manager and says she manages firm operations includ…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified primary-record pattern; interpretation bounded
Two separate Idaho PACs reported same-day payments to Esto Perpetua Group for the same service category. On August 2, 2024, Defend and Protect Idaho paid Esto $25,000 for preparation and production of advertising, and Hometown Heroes paid Esto $22,396.57 for preparation and production of advertising. The Hometown Heroes entry was filed as an original transaction on September 5, 2024. This same-day/same-purpose pattern is consistent with centralized invoici…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified from supplied FCC PDFs; transaction-role interpretation unresolved
Verification: the user-provided KIVI Political File Disclosure Form is dated May 8, 2026 and identifies Commercial Space Experts, 2400 Laramie Trail, Austin, TX 78745, phone 512-297-7349, contact Kristin Black, as the agency. The sponsor is Defend and Protect Idaho, PO Box 162, Boise; Gary Raney is listed as chair and Judith Ellis as treasurer. The form does not name Redbird Strategies. This date matches the $110,000 Defend-and-Protect payment to Redbird r…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified from federal post-trial filing and DOJ sentencing release; later pardon/vacatur does not change what evidence was presented, but current legal disposition must be stated separately.
A post-trial federal filing, expressly citing government exhibits admitted at trial and witness testimony, reconstructs the Tennessee scheme. Cade Cothren created Phoenix Solutions and operated through the fabricated identity “Matthew Phoenix,” including a fraudulent W-9. His girlfriend posed in email as another invented employee. Glen Casada and Robin Smith used their positions and access to recruit legislators and pressure legislative fiscal officials wh…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified paid vendor relationship; scope of work, shared data, and any cross-committee coordination unresolved
FEC-derived 2025–2026 operating-expenditure data identifies Right Insight LLC as a paid vendor of the authorized Jim Risch for U.S. Senate Committee (FEC committee C00440362). The amendment-normalized dataset reports 11 non-memo payments totaling $38,173.22 through June 4, 2026. A filing-period reconstruction for April 1–29, 2026 independently shows three Right Insight payments totaling $18,173. This resolves the prior ambiguity surrounding Right Insight’s…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: SOURCE-RESTORED RECOVERY ITEM. URLs and source-specific support statements restored from corrected v2 snapshot. Evidentiary firewall preserved; dynamic aggregates and secondary reports still require ordinary publication-stage verification.
Idaho Dairymen's Association's Spring 2026 publication ties its political concerns to workforce/E-Verify and water funding and criticizes specific Magic Valley legislators over water votes. Public reporting also identifies Brent Reinke as the dairy industry's preferred challenger and records his stated concerns about state-level E-Verify burdens.
Evidence firewall: Industry policy interest and candidate preference are documented; direction of other PACs i…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: SOURCE-PRESERVED RECOVERY ADDENDUM. Exact URLs and evidentiary firewall retained; saving is not publication or proof of coordination.
Wyoming's corporate list shows Make Highways Great Again LLC filed 03/06/2025 at 1908 Thomas Ave, Cheyenne. Transparency USA shows $85,000 from the LLC to IMC. BoiseDev reported IMC spending more than $18,000 supporting Matt Newton and Justin Bollinger in Canyon County Highway District 4 races, with the LLC's beneficial owner not publicly identified from Wyoming disclosure. IMC lists Newton and Bollinger as endorsed candidates.
Evidence firewall: Opaque b…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Partly verified identity clue; same-entity match UNRESOLVED. Do not attribute Idaho Redbird to Cothren.
A September 17, 2024 DOJ Rule 404(b) notice states that Cade Cothren created Redbird Strategies and describes it as based in West Palm Beach, Florida. The same notice alleges a broader pattern of concealing his identity in political entities. However, this was an evidentiary notice describing evidence the government might introduce—not by itself a verdict finding. In April 2025, reporting states Cothren’s personal bank records were excluded from trial. The…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: verified from transaction-level state records
Idaho Sunshine's transaction-level expenditure ledger shows the Idaho Esto Perpetua political committee made 23 contributions totaling $37,000 on 2024-04-23. The batch consisted of $15,000 to North Idaho Republicans PAC plus $1,000 each to 22 candidates: Sean Coletti, Todd Lakey, Lance Clow, Jim Guthrie, Josh Wheeler, Mark Harris, Benjamin Adams, Marco Erickson, Gregory Lanting, Ilana Rubel, Janie Ward-Engelking, Chris Mathias, James Ruchti/Just (listed se…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified officer and transaction map; custody inference only
Payer-side custody map for three Esto Perpetua Group transactions: (1) Hometown Heroes paid Esto $22,396.57 on August 2, 2024 for preparation/production of advertising; the original entry was filed September 5, 2024. Idaho Sunshine identifies Lara Herway as both treasurer and chairperson, making her the primary custody lead for that payment packet. (2) Right 2 Learn paid Esto $15,000 on May 20, 2024; the committee’s own website identifies Teresa Fabricius …
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: SOURCE-RESTORED RECOVERY ITEM. URLs and source-specific support statements restored from corrected v2 snapshot. Evidentiary firewall preserved; dynamic aggregates and secondary reports still require ordinary publication-stage verification.
IMC publicly describes a vetting/endorsement process and says endorsed candidates may receive campaign strategy/planning, fundraising coordination, grassroots organization, media/communications support, and post-election governance guidance. Its candidate form says submissions are shared with an 'endorsement committee.' Membership applications require sponsorship by two current members and ask about elected office, campaign roles, and party affiliation. Th…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified Idaho institutional/advocacy hub and national funding; connection to Republican-primary expenditures or Open Primaries control unproven
Votes Idaho Company (EIN 46-5415188) is an Idaho 501(c)(4) whose FY2024 records report $295,353 in revenue, $458,433 in expenses, three employees, and Colin Nash as executive director. Its filed program description says it facilitated coordination among issue-advocacy groups, provided a platform for sharing resources, best practices and strategic insights, and organized regular meetings, conferences and webinars. Its reported FY2024 funders include Sixteen…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified vendor relationship; operational inference only; no earmarking or ownership finding
TransparencyUSA's Hometown Heroes committee page lists Redbird Strategies as the committee's top payee at $17,700. This adds a direct vendor relationship between Redbird Strategies and Hometown Heroes, separate from Defend and Protect Idaho's $208,725 in May 2026 Redbird independent expenditures. Because Hometown Heroes also transferred $65,000 to Defend and Protect Idaho on the same two dates as Defend's May 13 and May 15 Redbird spending, Redbird appears…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Routing structure verified at source-index level; direct primary-row reconciliation and legal significance unresolved.
A sourced Wyoming campaign-finance registry built from FEC Schedule A/B, Wyoming reports, and IRS Forms 990 identifies an upstream routing structure relevant to the Idaho Redbird inquiry. Way Back PAC’s amended 2026 Wyoming report lists organizational receipts including Western Futures Fund ($2.075M reported to Wyoming), Civitech ($1M), Toolbox ($850k), North Fund ($300k), Global Impact Social Welfare Fund ($25k), and Durst Organization ($10k). The same re…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: PRIMARY VERIFIED payments and archive aggregate from Idaho Sunshine; founder/governance roles verified by first-party biography and current Sunshine profile. No campaign-to-PAC coordination established.
Idaho Sunshine’s archived free-text vendor search for “Sunnybrook Strategies” reports that 17 candidates and three PACs spent $150,653 across three Sunnybrook name variants. The disclosed clients include Brad Little, Chenele Dixon, Jim Woodward, Julie Yamamoto, Jeff Agenbroad, Jack Nelsen, Stephanie Mickelsen, Gregory Lanting, Mark Sauter, Treg Bernt, Lori Bishop, Rodney Furniss, Joshua Wheeler, Jerald Raymond, Van Burtenshaw, Michael Pohanka and others, p…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Friedopfer testimony verified through contemporaneous reporting; January 2026 administrative finding and $80,000 penalty verified through multiple reports. Legal challenge/appeal status unresolved. No Idaho identity bridge.
The clearest documented example of Cothren’s concealment method involves Faith Family Freedom Fund, not Redbird Strategies. Sydney Friedopfer testified to Tennessee election-finance regulators that Cothren asked her to create the PAC because his name could not appear on the filings or be associated with it; she would sign the registration and he would run it. She said she did not operate the PAC, did not know it had an email address, and was told not to re…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified reconciliation of official total against stale third-party aggregate
TransparencyUSA's Idaho payee aggregate of $597,302 for Redbird Strategies is $30,000 below the current Idaho Sunshine total of $627,302. The exact difference is Defend and Protect Idaho's July 8, 2026 $30,000 Redbird payment for management services. Therefore the TransparencyUSA figure appears to omit that later transaction and should not be used as the current statewide total.
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified former Idaho GOP leadership role; no evidence yet of party-directed client work or cross-client data sharing
Daniel Silver, the publicly identified CEO/founder of Right Insight LLC, was elected first vice chair of the Idaho Republican Party in July 2022 and was still publicly identified in that office in May 2024. Contemporary reporting also identifies him as a former chair of the Idaho Young Republicans and Western U.S. regional director for the Young Republican National Federation. The Idaho GOP’s current executive-committee page lists different officers, so Si…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: MULTIPLE REPORTING SOURCES BASED ON IDAHO FILINGS VERIFIED: common chair, internal $56.5K transfer, PP Idaho contribution and 2024 candidate-direction spending. Direct amended C-1 and transaction PDFs remain a worthwhile primary-record follow-up.
Arlethea “A.K.” Lienhart-Minnick is not merely a compliance name. Contemporary and historical reporting identifies her as a former chair of the Idaho Democratic Party, a longtime campaign operative, and the wife of former Democratic U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick. Idaho Education News reported that she chaired Stronger Idaho, Accountable Idaho and Idaho Liberty Defense in the 2024 election. The three groups collectively spent more than $55,500 supporting Democrats…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified as to what prosecutors asserted in filed motion and DOJ’s conviction summary; reported trial-exclusion limitation preserved. Not proof that Idaho Redbird is connected or that every Tennessee entity was independently illegal.
In a March 28, 2025 pretrial response, federal prosecutors said bank records for Cade Cothren’s other entities—including Faith Family Freedom Fund PAC, Redbird Strategies, Dixieland Strategies, and Bulletproof Research—were relevant to show intentional concealment of his identity in political business. The filing said records revealed transfers among those entities, Phoenix Solutions, and Cothren’s personal accounts, and separately described state-payment …
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: SOURCE-RESTORED RECOVERY ITEM. URLs and source-specific support statements restored from corrected v2 snapshot. Evidentiary firewall preserved; dynamic aggregates and secondary reports still require ordinary publication-stage verification.
IMC lists $5,250 to Right Insight LLC. Right Insight describes itself as an all-in-one political campaign platform for voter data, targeting, CRM, communications, fundraising, analytics, and AI tools. Leading Idaho PAC also lists a payment to Right Insight and direct payments to Brent Reinke and Cherie Vollmer.
Evidence firewall: Shared campaign-tech vendor does not establish common strategy or coordination.
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: PRIMARY VERIFIED contribution and governance. July 27 timing establishes post-primary support only; no direct Anthon↔Hometown Heroes control or primary-spending role established.
Idaho Sunshine’s official Brent Reinke contribution ledger records a $1,000 contribution from Gem State Legacy Political Action Committee on July 27, 2026, designated for the general election. Idaho Sunshine separately identifies Senate President Pro Tempore Kelly Arthur Anthon as Gem State Legacy PAC’s chairperson and Joelle Anthon as treasurer. Reinke defeated incumbent Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld in the May 19, 2026 Republican primary. Supported conclusion…
Read note and sources →