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.
Connection research · 2026-09-18
Recorded status: primary contract bridge verified; actual KHQ airings, producer and payment chain unresolved
Primary FCC documents inspected September 18, 2026: KHQ's Defend and Protect Idaho folder has eight posted PDFs (six contract versions covering three contract IDs, two NAB forms). The station-profile search for quoted defend returned No Results Found, yet direct navigation 2026 > Non-Candidate Issue Ads revealed the folder. Search failure is not evidence of no activity.
Latest posted contract snapshots: 248930 (May 13 revision 2), alt order28673260, estima…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-18
Recorded status: exact cross-station ad-ID and invoice totals verified; creative content, producer and Redbird/Cothren bridge unresolved
KXLY provides an exact creative-ID bridge to KREM, not just matching dates or campaign names. All49 logged30-second spots across three May31,2026 invoices carry CPMDAPI26005H, the same identifier on KREM's38 previously inspected logged spots. The three KXLY invoices were visually inspected in full (one page each).
24615-1/order24615/alt28673298/estimate4265:20spots May9–13,gross$3,880,commission$582,net$3,298,balance$0 asofJune3 4:44:22PMPT.
24618-1/order2…
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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →