COEUR d'ALENE - Bob Pedersen, spelled with all e's, is from southern California - a transplant.

Shocking, or not all, but it's just one detail about the 58-year-old pastor, woodworker, auctioneer and family man. And details about the political heavyweight - though Pedersen denies that title - have been hard to come by.

For the past four years Pedersen has been guarded, at least publicly.

He has consistently turned down interview requests, avoids online political threads - especially the ones about him - and deflects credit for the recent conservative movement inside the Republican Party.

But Pedersen, founder of the far-reaching Rally Right, moved to North Idaho from Orange County, Calif., 18 years ago.

"I'm not one of those Californians who wanted to change anything, you know?" Pedersen said last week, meeting over coffee at a Post Falls coffee shop. "I wanted to stay conservative."

Love him, hate him, Pedersen is conservative.

Supporters, including those who label themselves Ron Paulers, say he's restoring conservatism to its true roots. Opponents, and there are plenty, call him fringe, far right, a divider inside the Grand Old Party.

"He wanted to be a RINO hunter, but he thought everybody was a RINO," said Jeff Ward, co-founder of the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans, a political group with its own large following that dismisses Pedersen and Rally Right. "It turned out anyone who didn't kiss his ring was a liberal."

A RINO means Republican In Name Only - an off-hand way of calling a Republican a Democrat and a common insult inside today's local party. Factions do exist. Ward says so, Pedersen says so, others say so as well.

Four years ago, when Pedersen jumped into North Idaho politics, he tapped into an under-utilized avenue by supporting precinct committeemen in elections.

Precinct committeemen form the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee. The KCRCC votes for its leaders, its leaders help select the state party leaders, and up the chain the political domino goes. Four years ago, Pedersen helped get 42 of 71 precinct committeemen elected, and the political scene hasn't been the same since.

It's why Pedersen, standing 6 feet 4 inches tall, calls committeemen the ground force, the soul of the Republican Party.

"I didn't care if Rally Right's name was out there," he said. "I just cared if we got conservatives elected."

In fact, Pedersen insists he gets too much credit.

Rally Right doesn't have a membership list, it's not a PAC, there aren't dues and he doesn't throw money at campaigns, he said. While he started the original meetings, it's since grown offshoots, such as the United Conservatives of North Idaho. There's no membership list, but Pedersen estimates Rally Right has spread in some form to 3,000 people across the area, and former members Ron Mendive, state representative, and Steve Adams, Coeur d'Alene City Councilman, are two former attendees now holding office.

"I've never heard anybody who is neutral on Bob," said Ward, a critic of Pedersen's.

But Pedersen - soft spoken and polite, often ending sentences with "you know?" as if to affirm what he's saying - dismisses the man-behind-the curtain figure some opponents have made him out to be.

He laughed at the charge that he spells Pedersen with all e's as a way to evade, to hide, to stay under the radar, although he said he didn't want to answer too many personal questions so as not to give ammo to his political opponents. Because there are factions inside the party, he said, and called it "a war."

But Pedersen? With all e's?

"That's my name," he said. "My name has been goofed up all my life. They can't find me in school, they can't find me in government. No matter how many times I tell them it's all e's, they put o's in there."

What started your political drive?

Obama got elected and I went to the Republican party meetings, and they were just not even concerned. Just like - I couldn't believe they weren't going to get to work on something to stop this liberalism and progressivism from taking over the country.

Do you mean you went to the mainstream Republican meetings?

Yes, I went to the pachyderms, I went to all of these meetings, I went to all of them ... and I just go, man, 'what's wrong with the Republican Party?' It's not even standing by it's platform, you know, as conservatives.

What were they doing, what were they saying?

Oh, they weren't even concerned. There wasn't no plan to work on anything for politics for conservatives or getting conservatives elected or doing all that. They were only concerned with stopping conservatives. And of course I'm a conservative Christian, you know? So I went around to all the groups to get involved and I said, 'Look it, I got to do something. America is going down, tanking, and we got to get things together.' I felt God was leading me to do something, so then I came up with this idea and met with some people and they told me, 'Bob, you gotta start (local). Don't focus on the national, but you gotta focus on the local.'

And so I placed some ads in the Nickel's Worth, ... one picture with Ronald Reagan on it, one with Abraham Lincoln and one with George Washington on it, and I said, 'Conservatives Unite, meet at Nate's Pizza. It was April 1, four years ago ... Everybody thought it was an April Fool's joke.

Did you know what you were getting into when you placed those Nickel's Worth ads?

No. I thought I'd get 10 people.

What is a true Republican?

A true Republican stands by the platform of conservative values. And socialism is not part of conservatism. Socialism, on the verge of communism, is not part, you know, of that ... The country is going so far away from its self-reliance, you know, there's now more, way more, takers than there are givers. Everyone wants something from the government. In Communist philosophy, government is God.

So four years ago, in the local politics, what did you see? Besides them not doing anything, what did you see?

I'll completely admit I was completely ignorant of everything. I just got involved in it by accident. I placed those ads in the paper on a whim to get some people to come over. Let's get some people together. So at 5 O'clock, there is nobody there, at 5:30 I had one person there and at quarter 'til there was 10 people there. And then between quarter 'til 6 and 6 o'clock, 130 people came through the door into that 60-person place ... It was standing room only and everyone was ordering pizza and you had to pass the pizza person to person. (Mimicking passing a pie over his head) It was so jammed.

- The next meeting was moved to Golden Spike Estates, and 200 people attended. In six months, Pedersen estimated Rally Right had grown to 3,000 people. It now reaches the five northern counties, and eastern Washington. Pedersen has since written The Christian Conservative Creed for conservatives to follow, and the ABC's of being a precinct committeeman. Info: www.rallyright.org -

How many people organize Rally Right, run it?

So then there were all these volunteers who just worked like crazy. They did everything I mean, they organized everything, they organized things at the fairgrounds and the thing to sign people up, they organized everything. The whole plan was to organize to get precinct committeemen elected ... I had all these facilitators, but then Rally Right took a little bit of a drop, because all of my leaders, all of my facilitators, all my precinct committeemen, they all got elected."

Are your political opponents giving you too much credit for your role in the Republican Party?

They're giving me too much credit because all God had me do was start something. And I became, not the leader, I just became the facilitator, to let these people become what they are. I didn't become the head of the Republican Party. People think I'm telling the Republican Party what to do, I don't. I just get these Christian Conservatives elected.

How do you support them? Do you speak on their behalf or do you financially support them?

We actually organize groups, and we went out to neighborhoods and we walked the whole neighborhood and we pass out fliers. My son would make up fliers for each individual person, design them, make up the flier and we would go to all the neighborhoods.

Describe the snapshot of local politics now compared to four years ago. Are you satisfied?

I'm not satisfied with anything that's going on with the country right now. But we can't kick ourselves because we made such big inroads here locally. It shows with the passing of Obamacare in the state of Idaho we have a long way to go.

You're going to keep working the local level?

Right. The whole Northwest. The whole Inland Northwest. I have leadership all over the whole Northwest ... The churches aren't really doing anything in this country. They've sold their souls to the 501 (c) 3. Sorry, the churches have sold their souls. Most churches. Say most, for me.

How many people has RR touched?

I think there is, now, like, I'm not really doing all this. Everyone thinks I'm doing all this stuff. I don't even go to the conservative caucus of the Republican Party ... I don't even go to their meetings because I don't want anyone to think I'm running the Republican Party. I go to every Central Committee meeting but I don't say, I'm not allowed to say anything there. The liberals attack me. One of them stood up right in the middle of a meeting and went right after me a few months ago.

Explain to me two well-known terms. A reasonable Republican and a RINO

RINOs are people are in the Republican party who are not true, you know ... they call them RINOs.

How do you tell one, besides say, Obamacare?

You shall know them by what they do.

Like what?

Like right now, (Rep. Ed) Morse and (Rep. Luke) Malek got elected and they go for Obamacare and John Cross stood up at the meeting against Malek because these people have betrayed the fundamentals of what a Republican is, you know what I mean? And Otter is also the same way. This country is changing completely ... Just to show you in the last election, they tried to take away your right to vote (Kootenai County reorganization issue). I want to watch my words here. All these people are being manipulated one way or the other. So in the last election they try to take away your right to vote for local elections ... It went down two to one.

Describe the relationship between the factions in the Republican Party. Is it tense? Is hostile?

There's liberals, there's progressives, and there's full Democrats in the Republican Party. Anybody who wants to get elected in Kootenai County has to be in the Republican Party ... I mean, everybody who wants to get elected now, shows up at the Republican Party. Everybody, whether they're commissioners or whatever they want to run for ... I mean, it is unbelievable. If you go to Republican meetings now the precinct committeemen show up in droves - the whole room is full of people, and all your major politicians show up. It's huge.

So how much credit do you deserve?

I only take 5 percent. The conservatives who got elected are doing all of it.

So between the factions, just one more time, is it tense or hostile at times?

It's been pretty civilized. You know, it has gotten pretty tense but it is held to a minimum ...

The Kootenai County Reagan Republicans, are they moderate? Where do they fall?

They're just political animals.

Meaning?

They'll do, they'll go wherever the wind blows, with whatever the money comes through ... They have their Strategery, they got the Reagan Republicans, but the two are pretty much hand in hand ... I'd say they're the moderate to the liberal end of the Republican Party, and they're using Reagan's name to do it.

Let's talk about you. People talk about you, 'who is Bob Pedersen?' You've read it, you've read the blogs ...

When I started Rally Right I was a nobody, right? I'll give you an example. A state representative from Bonner County launched an email attack against me calling me a communist and everything under the sun .. and sent out an email to the Governor to everybody in whole the state of Idaho in the Republican Party saying they needed to stop me. They attacked me and they made somebody that was a nobody into a giant overnight because they attacked me and I don't attack anybody.

You're a pastor as well.

I've been in ministry for 40 years. And I was ordained as a pastor 25 years ago in California and I was a pastor of a church in Spokane up until 2 and half years ago for five years as a volunteer. I've always been a volunteer in the ministry, and I'm a pastor at a church here.

So when you see that stuff on the blogs, people saying he's secretive, he's the man behind the curtain, this, that and the other thing?

They attack me for everything. They tried to say take down his businesses, destroy him. I've had so many attacks against me, but I just, I don't care. It doesn't faze me one bit.

Do you still meet, Rally Right?

We don't have Rally Right meetings anymore, you know? Like I said, all my leadership got elected so now the Rally Right meetings are the conservatives in the Republican Party so there became no need for the Rally Right meetings anymore. Because it's all happening at the central committee right now. But there is a war in the Republican Party.

But it's not tense? You just called it a war.

There is a war outside the political party. I am just saying it was pretty civil there (the other) night. They're pouring everything they can into destroying, there's factions ... You know proxigate. They'll do anything to stop the conservatives, even sign false proxies, they will do all of these things. They will try every underhanded thing they can. These guys don't do anything for the Republican Party. They don't work to get anybody elected ... They're just destroyers.

Where do you go from here?

Rally Right is still my arm where I'll work to get precinct committeemen elected ... I'm not allowed to support state representatives ... I'm going to support all the local that is going on here, as before.

What's the future of North Idaho politics?

I see the conservatives going stronger and stronger. But they're pouring so much energy and money into destroying us but it's not working.

Is that a tip of the hat?

I don't know. All I know is it doesn't bother me at all. You know what I mean. It comes down to people. All the people that are getting elected are mom and pop people. There are so many young people in the Republican party now, 20 somethings ...

Have you been having fun, is it stressful? How would you describe it?

You know, I went through a lot of battles in California over the years. And I took on, at one time in history, I took one of the biggest development companies in the whole United States and I beat them when I was in my 30s. They were trying to condemn my property in California and I took them on and a whole bunch of people got with me. They were going to try and steal my property and build a 20-floor high-rise ... I was the first person in the history of California to defeat the development, and I took on one of the biggest companies in the United States, but they threatened to kill me, you know? There were death threats against me. At one of the meetings they had 20 police officers there ...

So death threats are stressful?

It stresses my wife out. I'm the kind of guy, you can write this: I just believe so many young people have never seen their 20th birthday so we can have our freedom ... So it's just completely ludicrous for me to say that I'm not ready to die for what I believe in this country. So if my time's up, my time's up. So I've never feared death since I became a Christian, a born-again Christian, when I was 19 years old.

Any threats up here?

Just political threats, threats to take out my businesses, they've called me every name in the book.

What do you say to those that call you a crazy right-winger trying to take over the Republican Party?

I didn't answer anything. It just doesn't make any difference. As I Bible believer, you saw what they did to Jesus and he didn't answer them a word. They're trying to goad me into a fight.