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 · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified vendor overlap; evidentiary significance limited
A compiled Idaho campaign-finance payee index reports $39,935.12 from Idaho Liberty Defense and $12,124.43 from Defend and Protect Idaho to Autosort Commercial Mailing Services. This is a verified vendor overlap between the A.K. Lienhart-Minnick-controlled 2024 operation and one of the 2026 Republican-primary PACs. The overlap is low-probative by itself: Autosort is a general Boise commercial mailing/printing house, and the same payee index shows clients a…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified common-vendor continuity and same-day timing; dollar-level earmarking and coordination unproven
A second national media vendor links Idahoans for Open Primaries to the Hometown Heroes redistribution network. Idaho Sunshine records show Idahoans for Open Primaries paid Targeted Platform Media, LLC $1,683,351.30 in October 2024 ($599,596.30 on Oct. 11; $648,755 on Oct. 18; $435,000 on Oct. 28) for broadcast advertising supporting Proposition 1. In May 2026, Magic Valley Voter Action paid the same vendor $80,919 on May 7 for a 23-candidate supportive sl…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified ledger pattern; ownership still unresolved
Defend and Protect Idaho's 2024 expenditure ledger shows Esto Perpetua Group paid $50,000 and $15,427 on May 20 for management services, while distinct vendors handled production, media buying, digital ads, and printing. Peppershock Media received $3,736.97 for ad preparation/production on May 20; Hulsen Media Services LLC received $68,900 on May 3 and $10,250 on May 6 for broadcast advertising; separate payments went to Meta, Google, ESP Print and Mail, a…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: verified with role/time limitations
Idaho Secretary of State business record 4665889 shows Right Insight LLC active since March 21, 2022. Its expanded filing history identifies Daniel Silver as the original governor, later manager, and current member. The March 4, 2024 annual-report history also identifies S. Max Brown of Eagle as a manager. The February 3, 2025 report changed Silver from manager to member, and the February 3, 2026 report again lists Silver as member; Brown is not shown in t…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified multi-stage funding chain; dollar-level tracing, earmarking, and coordination unproven
Western Futures Fund’s IRS-derived FY2024 record identifies $5.5 million in grants from five organizations, led by Sixteen Thirty Fund ($2.8 million) and New Venture Fund ($1.8 million), followed by Guardian of Rights Fund ($500,000), Civic Truth Coalition ($450,000), and Sheriff Accountability Action ($30,000). The same return identifies Western Futures’ officers as Michael Hennesy (president), Jeremy Krones (treasurer), and Christopher Hirsch (secretary)…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: PRIMARY VERIFIED transaction series and vendor address from Idaho Sunshine; Idaho registry exact-name negative check completed. Beneficial ownership and legal relationship to Esto Perpetua PAC remain unresolved.
Idaho Sunshine’s vendor-specific record shows Take Back Idaho PAC made six payments to “Esto Perpetua Group LLC” in 2022: $1,507.90 for postage and $790 for broadcast advertising on January 31; $5,500 on February 28; $5,500 on April 28; and $18,500 plus $3,041 on June 1. The six payments total $34,838.90. The vendor profile classifies the payee as a company and gives only a mailing address at 30 N. Gould St., Suite R, Sheridan, Wyoming. An exact-name searc…
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.
Archived Idaho records show Esto Perpetua PAC active since at least 2011 with Jeremy Pisca and Maggie Mallea in formal roles. Jeremy Pisca is a longtime Idaho lobbyist; current and historical sources show representation of clients including DaVita, Idaho REALTORS, Micron, PhRMA, Idaho Ground Water Appropriators and others. Corporate disclosures and PAC records show some represented companies also contributed to Esto Perpetua.
Evidence firewall: Representa…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified common upstream funding and direct funder-recipient contact; expenditure coordination unproven
Federal and Idaho records identify Way Back PAC as a common upstream funder of three Hometown-network committees: $350,000 to Defend and Protect Idaho, $100,000 to Hometown Heroes PAC, and $100,000 to Idaho First during the April 1–June 3, 2026 federal reporting period. Thus Way Back did not merely fund Hometown before Hometown redistributed money; it separately capitalized Hometown and two of Hometown’s recipient PACs. Idaho Education News reported that W…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: verified primary-source connection; ownership and degree of coordination remain unresolved
Idaho Sunshine transaction-detail records show synchronized payments by otherwise separate PACs to Esto Perpetua Group at the same Boise PO box. On May 20, 2024, Right 2 Learn paid the vendor $15,000 for management services while Defend and Protect Idaho recorded two management-services payments of $50,000 and $15,427. On August 2, 2024, Hometown Heroes paid $22,396.57 for preparation and production of advertising while Defend and Protect Idaho paid $25,00…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified vendor relationship and service profile; specific Senate client unresolved
Defend and Protect Idaho's official Idaho Sunshine profile lists Right Insight LLC among its top vendors at $17,562.36. Right Insight is not a generic fulfillment vendor: its own site describes an all-in-one political platform covering voter data, targeting, communications, fundraising, polling, canvassing/phone banking, digital advertising, campaign finance, and AI-assisted audience and messaging work. Its public client carousel names the Republican Natio…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Purchaser-form and order linkage verified; Redbird production attribution unproven
KREM's two NAB issue-ad forms identify agency Commercial Space Experts (CSE), contact K. Black, advertiser Defend and Protect Idaho, sponsor contact Gary Raney, and governing officers Gary Raney (Chair) and Judith Ellis (Treasurer). The May 8 station-signed form explicitly covers contracts 3277030 and 3277092, estimates 4265 and 4267, and checks Yes for ad submitted, with date received May 8, 2026. The May 14 station-signed form covers contract 3279153, es…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Verified funding concentration; additional $10,000 MVVA transaction date unresolved; control and coordination unproven
Idaho Sunshine committee profiles show unusually concentrated funding for two Hometown-linked downstream PACs. Idaho First reported $181,000 in contributions, supplied entirely by four PAC/network sources: Way Back PAC $100,000 (55.2%), Hometown Heroes $45,000 (24.9%), Right 2 Learn $30,000 (16.6%), and Take Back Idaho PAC $6,000 (3.3%). Magic Valley Voter Action reported $126,700 in contributions, of which Hometown Heroes supplied $112,000 (88.4%); the ba…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: verified same-date network and targeting pattern; dollar-level allocation unproven
Hometown Heroes transferred $65,000 to Defend and Protect Idaho in two contributions: $45,000 on 2026-05-13 and $20,000 on 2026-05-15. Defend's independent-expenditure ledger reports $110,000 in Redbird Strategies broadcast expenditures on May 13 and $98,725 on May 15—$208,725 across the exact two transfer dates. May 13 opposition spending targeted Daniel Foreman ($26,671), Josh Keyser ($19,483.75), Christy Zito ($19,483.75), Julianne Young ($14,255), Barb…
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.
Six Ada County Republican Central Committee officers resigned in October 2023: Victor Miller, Megan Reichle, Travis Clyde, Barrett Tetlow, Dave Litster, and Kim Wickstrum. The resignation statement described a dispute with state-party direction and candidate-support constraints. Several of those names later appear in IMC leadership/donor records.
Evidence firewall: Supports a documented internal-party governance dispute, not an inference of deceptive inte…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-17
Recorded status: Primary-record operational identifiers verified; person-name equivalence, legal entity and Redbird links unresolved
New primary evidence: KSNQ contract packet 6601147 page 5 lists agency COMMERCIAL SPACE EXPERTS TX, buyer KRISTIN HULSEN, advertiser DEFEND AND PROTECT IDAHO PAC, and Katz Radio representative Brenda Deaton. The associated issue-ad form on page 3 lists contact K. Black. Invoice 6601147-1 page 1 bills Commercial Space Experts, Attention: Meenah Hulsen. All use the same Austin business billing address already seen on the KIVI form. These records establish sp…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PRIMARY + SELF-BIO VERIFIED: Contours president Sarah Stremlau previously led Arabella fiscal sponsorship. This establishes personnel/operational continuity, not current Arabella control, funding or coordination.
Contours' own Sept. 4, 2025 IRS information-request response identifies Sarah Stremlau as President and states Contours was formed Dec. 27, 2024. In that same sworn response, Contours reported approximately $6.058M total 2025 year-to-date expenditures, including $700,000 in grants to two Section 527 political organizations, $49,990 in political-campaign research/polling and $25,600 in candidate recruitment; it said it had no employees and that independent …
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: Verified prior Arabella Managed Organizations work plus current Blue Moon/WFF, Contours and Way Back roles. Current Arabella control or ultimate decision authority remains unproved.
The operational cross-role around Jonah Meyers can now be extended backward with higher-quality evidence. The University of Maryland School of Public Policy reported in 2019 that Meyers (MPP 2016) had been promoted to Associate Director, Managed Organizations at Arabella Advisors. An Arabella Advisors fiscal-sponsorship white paper also lists Jonah Meyers among Arabella contributors, independently establishing his work inside Arabella's nonprofit-managemen…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: STRONG CROSS-NETWORK POLICY SORTING: independent-expenditure records and contemporaneous reporting document opposite PAC support on the same HB93 fault line. No common coordination or motive is inferred.
The 2026 school-choice fights provide unusually clean evidence that outside money was not uniformly pushing one direction; competing outside-funded networks backed opposite sides of a specific Idaho GOP-platform issue. Idaho Education News reported that Citizens Alliance PAC, an Idaho PAC funded by a $450,000 contribution from a Virginia-based Citizens Alliance super PAC, spent $135,291 by April 9 to support 15 Republican legislative candidates. Every incu…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: STRONG POLICY/STRATEGY ALIGNMENT, NO DIRECT FUNDING FOUND: official GOP criticism and issue-level divergences are documented; Dixon/Common Ground open-primary advocacy aligns with Unite America's stated reform agenda. Funding/control remains unproved.
Chenele Dixon provides a concrete case for the new alignment audit because policy divergence, party criticism, and election-reform advocacy are all documented independently. The Idaho Republican State Central Committee's 2023 Resolution 2023-43 named Dixon in a vote of no confidence over her vote against overriding Gov. Brad Little's veto of HB 314 and said the named lawmakers had voted in conflict with the Republican platform. Dixon's 2024 campaign/public…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: ISSUE-LEVEL PATTERN VERIFIED WITH COUNTEREVIDENCE: several IDI-PAC endorsees voted against E-Verify, while Furniss/Guthrie voted for it. Control or single-issue endorsement motive is not established.
The dairy/immigration branch now has a more concrete candidate-vote comparison. Idaho Dairymen's Association publicly opposed E-Verify legislation absent major changes/guest-worker reform and its Spring 2026 PAC materials endorsed a slate that included Ben Fuhriman, Rick Cheatum, Dan Garner, Lori McCann, Stephanie Mickelsen, Rod Furniss and Jim Guthrie. On the House vote for SB 1247, an Idaho E-Verify Act, Fuhriman, Cheatum, Garner, McCann and Mickelsen vo…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: Primary House disclosure verifies consulting for Sixteen Thirty, New Venture and WFF; FEC-derived records verify later Way Back candidate support. Causation/control not established.
A primary U.S. House financial disclosure provides a concrete example of personnel overlap across the same national funding architecture now being traced into Idaho. Nebraska congressional candidate Denise Powell's Aug. 13, 2025 candidate financial disclosure lists compensation in excess of $5,000 from each of Sixteen Thirty Fund, New Venture Fund and Western Futures Fund for consulting, along with multiple Nebraska advocacy/campaign clients. The disclosur…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PRIMARY IRS VERIFIED: Sixteen Thirty's FY2024 general grant-monitoring procedure, $2.75M WFF grant and Arabella administrative-services role are documented. Specific WFF grant terms and downstream Idaho direction remain unresolved.
Sixteen Thirty Fund's FY2024 Form 990 materially clarifies the upstream Sixteen Thirty→Western Futures relationship. Schedule I says Sixteen Thirty generally requires a written grant application stating the proposed use of funds, reviews and evaluates the application before issuing a grant, and requires interim and final reporting to confirm funds were used for the specified purpose. The same 2024 filing reports a $2,750,000 grant to Western Futures Fund f…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: IRS/Schedule I VERIFIED: Article IV→Votes Idaho $75K across 2022–23; Article IV→Idahoans for Open Primaries $2.22M in 2024; Article IV→Conservative Accountability Project $25K in 2024. Control, coordination and upstream earmarking not established.
Article IV's reported Schedule I grant history adds a previously unrecorded direct Idaho lane. Its filings report two $37,500 general-support grants to Votes Idaho Company in 2022 and 2023 ($75,000 total), followed in 2024 by $2,220,000 to Idahoans for Open Primaries and $25,000 to Boise-based Conservative Accountability Project. An IRS-derived complete Article IV grant aggregation for 2021–2024 identifies these three Boise recipients as its Idaho portfoli…
Read note and sources →Connection research · 2026-09-16
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.
Current 2026 reporting and primary records extend the Contours→Western Futures→Way Back architecture beyond Idaho into a multistate political-support network, while still falling short of proving common legal control. Inside Elections' August 2026 investigation, based on tax and FEC records, reports that super PAC efforts supporting independent Montana Senate candidate Seth Bodnar received aggregate funding across the relevant PACs from Contours ($2.6M), W…
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