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 · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: COUNTEREVIDENCE UPGRADED: Mickelsen was network-supported and HB911 ratepayer protections became law. This cuts against broad candidate-level motive/interest generalizations.
Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen is a useful issue-specific counterexample to any attempt to classify the entire Defend/Dairy-supported candidate cluster as uniformly favoring concentrated business interests. Mickelsen voted against HB 93 and was later supported in the 2026 Republican primary by Defend and Protect Idaho, Idaho Dairy Industry PAC and Hometown Heroes, placing her inside the candidate cluster under alignment review. In February 2026 she introduced a …
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PRIMARY STRATEGY VERIFIED: IDI-PAC explicitly targets decisive GOP primaries to advance dairy interests, oppose contrary candidates, and develop industry leadership. Corruption/control not established.
Primary Idaho Dairymen's Association material makes the PAC's strategy unusually explicit and substantially sharpens this branch. In its Q1 2022 Idaho Dairy Focus, IDA explained that because Idaho is dominated by the Republican Party, the May Republican primary is the decisive election in most legislative districts; it noted that many November races are effectively uncontested. The same publication says IDI-PAC was formed by dairy producers, processors and…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: IPF endorsement + McCann votes + GOP E-Verify policy are documented. IACI/IPF motive for endorsing McCann remains unproved.
A concrete issue-level alignment case appears in Idaho Prosperity Fund's 2026 support for Lori McCann. Contemporary reporting identifies McCann as an IPF-endorsed candidate in the District 6 Senate primary. Separately, Idaho Capital Sun reports that, while serving in the House, McCann voted against HB 700 (prohibiting unlawful employment of unauthorized workers) and HB 704 (mandatory E-Verify). The Idaho Republican State Central Committee's accepted 2025 R…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: COUNTEREVIDENCE VERIFIED: documented GOP organizational participation coexists with an issue-level platform disagreement. Bad-faith motive cannot be inferred from divergence alone.
The alignment audit should preserve counterevidence alongside policy divergence. Rep. Ben Fuhriman is a useful example. He opposed 2025 HB 93, a parental-choice tax-credit policy consistent with the Idaho GOP platform's stated support for money following students and private/parochial options; Defend and Protect Idaho and the Idaho Dairy Industry PAC later supported him in the 2026 Republican primary. However, separate Idaho GOP records show Fuhriman parti…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PRIMARY AGREEMENT VERIFIED: representative Contours 527 grant was recipient-solicited, general support, not activity-earmarked, and expressly left subsequent decisions to the recipient. Political purpose exists; operational direction is not shown.
The representative Contours→Fight For Us PAC 527 grant agreement adds important counterevidence against overstating donor control. The July 8, 2025 letter says Contours' $50,000 grant was in response to Fight For Us PAC's June 2025 solicitation and was intended to assist the PAC with electoral advocacy for independent candidates for public office. The letter expressly describes the donation as a general-support grant not earmarked or targeted to a specific…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION VERIFIED. Structural effect: party primaries abolished; all voters choose top four; RCV only in general. Republican-exclusive nomination gatekeeping would end. Sponsor/funder motive remains unproven without additional evidence.
For influence analysis, Idaho's 2024 Proposition 1 should be described precisely. The official Attorney General/Secretary of State summary states the measure would abolish Idaho's party primaries, place all candidates for covered offices on one top-four primary ballot, permit all voters to vote among all candidates regardless of party affiliation, and advance the four highest vote-getters to the general election. Candidates could list an affiliation but wo…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: SOURCED FIRST-PASS ALIGNMENT AUDIT: several prior branches show direct issue-level alignment/divergence with current party platforms; dairy/labor is presently better classified as economic-interest lobbying. No overall ideological ranking, bad-faith motive or coordinated-control conclusion.
First retrospective alignment pass under the standing methodology shows several issue-specific patterns that are stronger than generic party labels. (1) Election structure: the 2024 Idahoans for Open Primaries/Prop 1 branch, funded heavily by Article IV, Unite America and Way Back PAC, sought to abolish party primaries and replace them with a top-four primary plus ranked-choice general election. That structure directly conflicts with the current 2026 Idaho…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PRIMARY IACI MATERIAL VERIFIED: business lobbying, coordinated advocacy, PAC candidate support and industry-policy work are documented; broader public-interest effects remain issue-specific.
IACI is a high-value node for the IdahoCabal influence audit because its own materials openly define the organization as Idaho's most effective business lobby and say it represents roughly 300 employers seeking to shape state policy. Its current board includes government/public-affairs, legal, tax, corporate-affairs and executive representatives from major employers and industries including utilities, health systems and insurers, banks, mining, agriculture…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
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.
Way Back PAC's Apr. 1–Jun. 3, 2026 FEC filing can now be structurally reconciled in a way that sharply narrows the previously mysterious $75,000 payment to Western Futures Fund. The filing's purpose breakout reports exactly one $75,000 transaction labeled 'Non-Federal In-Kind - Research Services - Non-Contribution Account.' Separately, the same filing's payee breakout reports exactly two $75,000 payees: Western Futures Fund and Government That Works PAC. T…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: PRIMARY IRS RESPONSE VERIFIED: Contours classifies 527 grants as indirect political-campaign activity and describes candidate/public-official alignment as a selection criterion. No Idaho-specific direction established.
Contours' Sept. 4, 2025 IRS response provides unusually direct primary-source language about how it selects and accounts for grants to political organizations. Contours states that it makes two grant types: grants to 501(c)(4) social-welfare organizations and grants to Section 527 political organizations. It says the 527 grants are intended to constitute indirect political campaign activity rather than social-welfare spending. For 527 grants, Contours says…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: Primary/official records verify SEP funding and Kansas anti-RCV testimony; previously documented Idaho records verify Way Back support for the Prop 1 RCV campaign. This is evidence against assuming uniform downstream policy control from shared funding alone.
A useful counterexample has emerged that constrains any claim that Sixteen Thirty Fund or Western Futures Fund imposes one uniform election-policy line on downstream organizations. Secure Elections Project received $2.205M from Sixteen Thirty across 2022–2024 and $50,000 from Western Futures in FY2024. In February 2025, Secure Elections Project submitted proponent testimony in Kansas for SB 6, legislation prohibiting ranked-choice voting. By contrast, in I…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: HISTORICAL MECHANISM VERIFIED: IACI sought larger repeal; final bipartisan compromise cut business taxes ~$20M with state sales-tax backfill. Capture/abuse is not established.
A historical IACI tax campaign provides a clean example of the concentrated-benefit-versus-cost-shift framework, although the final policy was a broad compromise rather than IACI's original proposal. In 2013 IACI pushed a phased full repeal of Idaho's business personal property tax, which applies to business equipment/furnishings. Contemporary reporting put IACI's full-repeal proposal at roughly $120 million; public schools alone received an estimated $38.…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
Recorded status: SOURCED USE/EFFECT BASELINE: candidate-selection, ballot-reform, legislative-pressure and campaign-infrastructure channels are documented. Ideological direction varies by branch; no claim of centralized control or sole causation.
The research should now distinguish money-flow from demonstrated use/effect. Current public records support at least four separate Idaho influence channels. (1) Republican primary candidate selection: Defend and Protect Idaho, whose largest 2026 donor was Way Back PAC at $350,000, spent more than $752,800 supporting 23 Republican primary candidates and opposing 14; Idaho Capital Sun and Idaho Education News describe the supported side primarily as mainstre…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-16
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.
Way Back PAC's June 4–30, 2026 Q2 filing materially resolves the same-name Government That Works identity problem preserved in sequence 528. The filing reports exactly one $750,000 'Contribution to Committee - Non-Contribution Account' transaction and eight 'Contribution to Non-Federal Committee - Non-Contribution Account' transactions totaling $605,000. Its payee table reconciles exactly: Montana Freedom PAC is the sole $750,000 federal-committee payment;…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-15
Recorded status: Verified organizational operating model plus multiple legal-entity funding/campaign relationships; specific Idaho strategic guidance and cross-entity earmarking remain unproved.
Unite America’s own current strategy describes a deliberately integrated investment model spanning 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), and PAC giving. It says Unite America invests in state campaigns, national partners and infrastructure; builds political/public/ecosystem power; funds and connects partners; advises grantees on strategies/campaigns/programs; makes network connections; and provides shared messaging, polling and other infrastructure. Separate records now s…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-15
Recorded status: Verified from IRS-derived grant records; donor-advised-fund underlying donors may remain undisclosed.
IRS-derived records covering 2018-2025 identify Hopewell Fund as receiving about $729.7 million across 975 grants from 396 funders. The largest identified institutional sources include Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund at approximately $332.9 million, Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation about $73.8 million, Foundation to Promote Open Society about $28.3 million, Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation about $20.4 million, and Silicon Valley Community Found…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-15
Recorded status: Verified alumni governance/funding architecture. Clinton administration/federal funding is NOT established; Berger grant terms prohibit election use.
Two independent Clinton-administration alumni routes converge on Sixteen Thirty Fund, which later made direct Idaho grants. First, the National Democratic Institute biography of Arabella Advisors founder Eric Kessler states that he served as a White House appointee helping manage conservation issues during the Clinton administration and serves on the board of the 1630 Fund. Sixteen Thirty's 2020 filing identifies Arabella as a 35%-controlled entity of boar…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-15
Recorded status: Verified event-level relationship and targeted financial negative check. No public direct payment/grant/contribution located; private or unindexed transactions cannot be excluded.
A targeted search for direct financial transactions between Reclaim Idaho/Reclaim Idaho Fund and Idaho Solutions Inc./Idaho Solutions Foundation did not locate a public grant, contribution, payment, invoice, sponsorship transfer, or campaign-finance transaction between the entities. Exact-name searches for Idaho Solutions + Reclaim Idaho with payment/contribution/donation/grant terminology repeatedly surfaced the documented event relationships instead: (1)…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-15
Recorded status: Strong secondary transaction evidence from current Idaho campaign-finance aggregation plus verified V4IV public activity; primary Sunshine transaction row still pending.
Current 2026 Transparency USA aggregation for Veterans for Idaho Voters Inc. reports $78,457 total contributions and attributes $75,000 to Idahoans for Open Primaries, approximately 95.6% of reported cycle contributions. The same contributor table lists Cindy Wilson, separately documented as MWEG Idaho State Director and an Idaho Solutions board member, as a $40 individual contributor. V4IV’s current website says the organization now recruits/supports vete…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-15
Recorded status: PRIMARY/IRS-derived governance and program structure verified; Blue Moon day-to-day role separately primary verified. Individual officers’ external identities and donor influence remain unresolved unless uniquely sourced.
Western Futures Fund’s FY2024 Form 990 identifies a compact governance structure above the separately documented Blue Moon Strategies operating layer. The return reports three voting members of the governing body and three independent voting members. Part VII identifies Michael Hennesy as president, Jeremy Krones as treasurer and Christopher Hirsch as secretary; each reports $0 compensation from Western Futures Fund, and the filing reports no family or bus…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-15
Recorded status: Verified WEF network/support relationship and Boise voter-information project announcement. Specific WEF funding, partisan activity or electoral/legislative causation is NOT established.
A narrow but direct World Economic Forum institutional route into Idaho civic/election-related activity is documented through the Global Shapers Community. WEF's own 2016 Global Shapers annual report lists a Boise Hub. A November 30, 2015 Idaho Statesman item introducing Global Shapers Boise says it was a branch of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community and identified an upcoming project to inform Boise young adults and first-time voters about t…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-15
Recorded status: PRIMARY FCC VERIFIED local governing/contact and media-buy vendor. Funding-source direction, shared-vendor coordination and upstream earmarking are NOT established.
Primary 2026 FCC political-file records identify the Idaho-side steering and media-buying structure for Idaho First. An FCC issue-ad disclosure for Idaho First lists PO Box 334, Boise, Idaho 83701; identifies Richard Johnson as the organization contact; gives richard@idaho-first.com; and lists Richard Johnson as the sole named member of the chief executive officers/executive committee/board/other governing group field. The same record identifies Targeted P…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-15
Recorded status: Unresolved identity; secondary normalization is insufficient. Keep separate until unique primary identifier is found.
Primary FCC material for Idaho Values First identifies 'Judy Ellis' among its governing persons. Defend and Protect Idaho's official records/site identify 'Judith Ellis' as treasurer. Secondary 2026 reporting normalizes the Idaho Values First name to 'Judith Ellis,' which increases the plausibility of an identity match, but no primary record reviewed supplies a matching full legal name, address or other unique identifier connecting the two. Keep them as se…
Read note and sources →Research finding · 2026-09-15
Recorded status: Verified from IRS-derived FY2024 filing data. Asset accumulation established; use/transfer/restriction of those assets remains unresolved.
IRS-derived FY2024 Form 990 data for Reclaim Idaho Fund Inc. (EIN 86-3680412) reports $312,808 total revenue, including $312,428 in contributions, against $40,550 of expenses, producing $272,258 in net income and $351,972 in year-end net assets with no reported liabilities. FY2023 net assets were $79,714, so the 2024 increase in net assets matches the reported $272,258 net income. This shows the 501(c)(4) entered 2025 with substantial accumulated assets re…
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