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 · 2026-09-18
Recorded status: Official legislative biography, organization biography and dated board-authored column; energy-company identity and financial relationships unresolved.
Focus shifted to Laurie Lickley, interpreting the owner's reference to likely in the immediately preceding Lickley discussion.
Lickley's 2019 official legislative biography identifies Idaho Beef Council chair service in 2009–2011, Idaho Cattle Association presidency in 2016, National Cattlemen's leadership/board involvement, and contract community-relations work with an unnamed renewable-energy company. It lists service on Environment, Energy & Technology…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-18
Recorded status: Working inventory; five direct Idaho recipients primary-verified; national and longer routes separately qualified; not exhaustive all-time or proof of pass-through.
This inventory identifies 21 Sixteen Thirty Fund grantees with Idaho connections in the research assembled as of September 18, 2026. It is a documented working inventory, not an exhaustive all-time audit. Amounts below are selected verified grant years, not lifetime totals. National grants are not Idaho spending totals. Links across different years describe organizational relationships, not necessarily sequential transfers of the same money.
Direct Idaho …
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-18
Recorded status: Primary official portal transcription; historical and current data distinguished.
WinAg reports a $40,000 contribution from Far West Agribusiness Association on April 29, 2024. FWAA describes itself as a membership trade association serving fertilizer and agricultural chemical businesses across Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Utah. Its current executive director is Doug Brock; its June 2024 newsletter names Craig Smith as executive director at that time.
Current FWAA board listings include president Jeff Pritchard (Westlink Co-op…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-18
Recorded status: Historical error/correction attributed to contemporary reporting; present Wyoming address and 2026 totals verified in official UI; intent unresolved
Newly retrieved historical reporting identifies a concrete geographic-disclosure correction. Sean Dolan's May 18, 2026 EdNews report says five timed contribution reports signed by Gary Raney since February 2024 placed Way Back PAC in Sheridan, Idaho rather than Wyoming. EdNews reports that the PAC acknowledged an error and that Secretary of State staff corrected Sunshine within about two hours of notification. The displayed in-state share reportedly change…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-18
Recorded status: Documented personnel and institutional links; Idaho strategic rationale is an explicitly labeled inference; grant-level direction remains unverified
Sixteen Thirty Fund should not be treated as the established ultimate source or controlling apex of the Idaho network. It describes itself as a progressive fiscal sponsor: sponsored projects operate under its legal status and receive administrative support, while donors supply project funding. Independently incorporated grant recipients are not automatically sponsored projects.
PERSONNEL. Amy Kurtz, identified as president by Sixteen Thirty and Columbia U…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-18
Recorded status: Primary official portal transcription; historical and current data distinguished.
The official WinAg Sunshine table displays 178 candidate allocations for 2024 totaling $195,434.22. These are independent expenditures, not candidate receipts. Includes $8,608.15 supporting Chenele Dixon. This transcription retains displayed vendor spellings and blank candidate labels; underlying amended reports have not all been reconciled.
| Date | Position | Candidate | Vendor | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---:|
| 12/16/2024 | Support | Parker, Julia | J…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified arithmetic from preserved official CSV; reported allocations are not audited bank payments or ad-content verification
Scope: only Defend and Protect Idaho's transactions to Redbird Strategies and Hulsen Media Services LLC in the official 2026 Expenditures CSV downloaded September 17. Source snapshot SHA256 b06d0cfbf358b6463309b015c35a65cdf106ff142a118591d438bf5b05fee9c1 was rechecked unchanged. Treat the repeated Transaction Amount on candidate rows as non-additive; vendor totals deduplicate by Transaction Id, while candidate totals sum populated Amount Applied rows. Redb…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Evidence-weight update, not definitive exclusion. Same legal entity appears unlikely; beneficial/personnel link remains unresolved.
The entity structures now differ in concrete ways. Prosecutors described Cade Cothren’s Redbird Strategies as based in West Palm Beach, Florida and operating by early 2020. The Idaho payee corresponds to an Idaho domestic LLC formed November 5, 2025, with an Idaho-identified domain registrant and Boise website timezone. No search result or filing found Cothren, Casada, Smith, Phoenix Solutions, Faith Family Freedom Fund, Dixieland Strategies, or Bulletproo…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: verified portal discrepancy; cause and legal significance unresolved
Idaho Sunshine currently displays a one-sided $23,000 inter-PAC transaction. Esto Perpetua's expenditure ledger reports a $23,000 contribution to Hometown Heroes on 2026-05-21, and links the recipient to Hometown Heroes GUID fa1d6e18-bc17-4805-be74-987ce8c71ed0. That same Hometown Heroes entity's contribution ledger displays the $35,000 Esto receipt of 2026-05-12 but does not display the $23,000 receipt of 2026-05-21; its profile likewise totals Esto Perpe…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: verified
Idaho Secretary of State entity 4676098 was formed March 30, 2022 as Right Impact LLC. Daniel Silver was its original governor and later manager. An April 6, 2023 amendment replaced Silver as manager with Right Insight LLC as member. The 2024 annual report again identified Right Insight LLC as member; the 2025 report changed Right Insight LLC's status from member to manager. On February 3, 2026, the entity legally changed its name from Right Impact LLC to …
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: PRIMARY VERIFIED transaction overlap from Idaho Sunshine; Herway’s control/founder roles first-party verified. Candidate-PAC coordination or quid pro quo not established.
A transaction-by-transaction comparison of Idaho Sunshine’s Sunnybrook Strategies vendor archive with Hometown Heroes’ complete independent-expenditure table identifies eight candidate overlaps. Sunnybrook’s disclosed campaign clients included Stephanie Mickelsen, Rodney Furniss, Jack Nelsen, Gregory Lanting, Chenele Dixon, Treg Bernt, Julie Yamamoto, Mark Sauter and Jim Woodward; Hometown Heroes later reported independent expenditures supporting those can…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: PRIMARY VERIFIED filing ID, formation date, address, and 53-day formation-to-first-payment interval. Organizer and beneficial owner remain unresolved pending the Wyoming filed-document PDFs.
Wyoming Secretary of State’s official 2021 domestic-charter archive identifies Esto Perpetua Group LLC as filing ID 2021-001059065, formed December 9, 2021, with the address 30 N. Gould St., Suite R, Sheridan, Wyoming 82801. Idaho Sunshine then records the company’s first presently reproduced Take Back Idaho transactions on January 31, 2022: $1,507.90 for postage and $790 for broadcast advertising. The LLC was therefore formed 53 days before the first repr…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: verified
A 13-page City of Nampa document says Right Insight LLC analyzed results and key themes from 2,414 responses to the city's 2023 citizen survey. Every substantive page is marked 'Confidential. All rights reserved by Right Impact LLC.' The report segmented responses by council district and demographics and recommended targeted follow-up for underrepresented groups. This is first-party evidence that the linked Right Insight/Right Impact entities performed loc…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified primary record; inference explicitly bounded
Idaho Sunshine’s Defend and Protect Idaho ledger lists three 2024 payments to Esto Perpetua Group totaling $90,427: $50,000 on May 20 for management services; $15,427 on May 20 for management services; and $25,000 on August 2 for preparation/production of advertising. The same committee’s 2024 ledger lists Hulsen Media Services LLC broadcast-advertising payments of $68,900 on May 3 and $10,250 on May 6. This supports a bounded division-of-labor inference—E…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: PRIMARY VERIFIED governance from Idaho Sunshine; spouse relationship from Anthon campaign biography. Funding totals are official-profile aggregates. No donor control or quid pro quo established.
Idaho Sunshine’s official committee profile identifies Gem State Legacy Political Action Committee (Gem State Legacy PAC), filing entity ID 1666, as registered December 11, 2024, with Joelle Anthon as treasurer and Kelly Arthur Anthon as chairperson; the mailing address is P.O. Box 76, Rupert, Idaho. Kelly Anthon’s campaign biography identifies Joelle Anthon as his wife, while current public records identify Kelly Anthon as an Idaho state senator and Senat…
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's leadership page identifies Brandon Pugmire as a board member. Current and 2024 finance data list Imprint City as a major IMC payee; public business references identify Pugmire as president/founder of Imprint City.
Evidence firewall: Related-party/vendor edge is relevant to mapping; no wrongdoing is inferred.
Read note and sources →Open question · 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.
Transparency USA's current contributor aggregate lists a Richard Larsen with $140,000 in Idaho contributions; candidate pages show Richard Larsen contributions to multiple candidates. Hometown Heroes' captured early-cycle page lists Richard Larsen at $50,000. Name-only identity matching remains unsafe.
Evidence firewall: Do not attach an occupation, employer, family, or other identity to the donor without a unique identifier.
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.
Way Back PAC's FEC filing shows a $100,000 disbursement to Hometown Heroes PAC in the relevant filing period. Idaho reporting based on Sunshine data says Hometown Heroes contributed more than $65,000 to Defend & Protect Idaho, $45,000 to Idaho First, and itself spent more than $150,000 supporting overlapping candidates. Later aggregate data show Hometown Heroes with substantial total receipts/expenditures and $222,000 as a contributor.
Evidence firewall: …
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: verified transaction chronology; allocation and earmarking unproven
Hometown Heroes functioned as a PAC redistribution hub during the May 2026 primary window. Its transaction ledger shows $212,000 in outgoing contributions between May 5 and May 15: Magic Valley Voter Action received $20,000 on May 5 and $82,000 on May 7 ($102,000 total); Idaho First received $45,000 on May 8; Defend and Protect Idaho received $45,000 on May 13 and $20,000 on May 15 ($65,000 total). Documented incoming contributions through May 15 included …
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.
Transparency USA shows Magic Valley Voter Action with a $10,000 contribution from Hometown Heroes. FCC public-file indexes show Magic Valley Voter Action political-file entries in Twin Falls-area media during May 2026.
Evidence firewall: Transfer and ad-file presence are documented; content, targeting, and coordination require the underlying ad/contract records.
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.
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 →