COEUR d'ALENE - The mood was cautiously optimistic in the Reagan Republican camp at Fedora Bar and Grille when the county started posting voter results around 10 p.m. Tuesday night.

Jeff Ward, president of the group, said he expected the first numbers to come in strong for the "more conservative" candidates because their campaigns focused on absentee voters.

"If I don't win the absentees, I probably won't win," Ward said.

His instinct was right.

The first round of numbers reported by the county were all absentee ballots, and the more conservative candidates had an edge over the mainstream Republican candidates.

Ward himself was holding a close second to front-runner Don Cheatham, both considered more conservative, in the race for the 3rd Legislative District house seat B. Greg Gfeller, the mainstream conservative, was trailing in third place in the same race.

In the 4th Legislative District, at least two of the races were much tighter.

At deadline Tuesday night, Mary Souza, the more conservative candidate, held a slight lead over incumbent Senator John Goedde with a 93-point lead.

Incumbent State Rep. Luke Malek, the mainstream conservative, was leading challenger Toby Schindelbeck by 63 votes.

Incumbent State Rep. Kathy Sims, the more conservative candidate, had a strong lead against challenger Rick Currie, with 1,051 votes to Currie's 652 votes.

The North Idaho Political Action Committee hosted a candidate's party at the Grill and Tap House at Highlands Golf Course. They supported the mainstream conservatives.

Members of NIPAC were frustrated at midnight when only 11 of 70 precincts had been counted.

"We can't understand why the interim county clerk can't get the information out quicker," said NIPAC Spokeswoman Sandy Patano. "They have all new state-of-the-art equipment and they still only have 11 precincts counted?"

Kootenai County Clerk Jim Brannon said the high number of write-in candidates filed by the Democratic Party caused a slowdown in the vote-counting process.