COEUR d'ALENE - A political committee agreed to fund an election challenge tied to a non-partisan race on Tuesday.

The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee approved donating $2,500 in support of Seat 2 City Council challenger Jim Brannon's courtroom challenge of last year's general election.

The committee said the issue at hand - ensuring whether proper votes were cast and counted - was a non-partisan issue that affect all voters, regardless of party affiliation.

"I can say people were concerned with mistakes in the vote count," said Doug Weir, treasurer. "That was the motivation for the discussion."

Weir and several other members declined to comment specifically on the action as the committee plans to issue a press release explaining its decision. Tina Jacobson, committee chair, said in an e-mail to The Press that the release would be issued today.

But Weir said it wasn't a pledge to support Brannon as a candidate, rather financial support for the legal fees associated with the case that is attempting to determine whether proper votes were counted.

"The committee was concerned about vote count and that's it," Weir said.

The City Council race is a non-partisan race. And the $2,500 was raised at the committee's Lincoln Day fundraiser back in February, proceeds for which are reserved to endorse Republican candidates in either the general or primary elections.

Brannon, also a committee member, is in neither. He is in a several month legal battle for the seat 2 race with incumbent Mike Kennedy that has a mid-September trial date.

Brannon did not return phone calls from The Press on Wednesday.

Some committee members had expressed concern at last month's meeting on the perception a political contribution could create in a nonpartisan issue.

"I feel like it's going to make us look really bad if we come down on one side or the other," Weir had said at that meeting. "It's risky business."

It withheld making a decision then until it had a legal opinion on whether it could do so from its GOP counsel Jason Risch. That opinion was received in time for Tuesday's vote.

Kennedy declined to comment on Wednesday.