COEUR d'ALENE - Having only three months to pull the Republican Party together is both a challenge and a blessing of sorts, said the party's new chairman, Steve Yates.

"We have a large party looking to find a way to work constructively through an election cycle and then get beyond the election cycle and figure out where to go from there," Yates said.

The Idaho Falls businessman was in Coeur d'Alene for the gubernatorial debate on Friday. He is also on a statewide listening tour, where he is meeting with Republican leaders to discuss how best to repair the fractured party.

Yates was elected party chairman in August after a judge determined his predecessor was not legally elected at the GOP convention earlier this year.

He hit the ground running to prepare for the upcoming general election on Nov. 4.

"I have the luxury of this being a general election," Yates said. "General elections are different from other seasons of politics."

Yates said the party has already nominated its candidates, and now it is time to support the candidates and help them get elected.

"We are trying to work in ways that make clear what we need people to do now," he said, adding there will be plenty of time to revisit the contentious political issues after the election.

"At this point it's pretty simple. We have Ds and we have Rs," he said. "It's pretty clear what side I am on, and it's my job to work as hard as I can to get our candidates elected."

After the election, he said, he is prepared to dig into the bigger issues which divided the party and nearly ground it to a halt earlier this year.

"I am working hard to go around the state to listen to the different parts of the party," he said. "I have been encouraged by the people I have talked with, but it's going to be a long-term process."

Yates said some people want to reopen and take a hard look at the party's rules, resolutions, presidential primary process and platform positions.

"All of these things are up for discussion," he said. "We will run them through the process and let the votes count."

Yates said he and his new director have also been reviewing and resolving all the outstanding issues which arose when the Republican convention melted down in May.

"There are divisions in the party," he said. "If the convention were a total success, I wouldn't be sitting here today."

Yates said Idaho has a lot of Republicans, but it also has a lot of independents. As chairman, he said he was going to try and attract more people to return to the GOP, and he thinks it may be working.

Yates said he has been working hard to reach out to people who stopped donating to the party, and in two months he has raised more than $75,000.

"It's not all about how much money we raise, but rather how the money is used to help the party," Yates said, explaining that he is trying to spend the money in ways that donors can see it working.

"If they can see it, they can verify what their money went into," he said.

Yates is also experimenting with field offices around the state.

"There is another thing I hope to try to do in leading by example, and I may not be the best example of it all of the time," he said. "But we should have civility in all of our discourse in the party and our meetings.

"I want people to feel comfortable to come in with differing points of view and talk through them," he said. "The votes count. You might not like the outcome, but you shouldn't feel like you're under personal assault for having a differing view."