COEUR d’ALENE — A last-minute recruitment blitz by Kootenai Democrats may have thwarted an attempt by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee to dismantle the local Democratic Party.

The Press published on Wednesday a recorded phone call between Kootenai County resident John Grimm and a person he identified as KCRCC Youth Chair Dan Bell.

“Long story short, we want to take over the Democrat Party,” Bell reportedly said during the Tuesday call.

In Idaho, recording telephone conversations is allowed with the consent of at least one party to the conversation.

You can hear the full 30-minute recording at cdapress.com.

Bell described a plan by the KCRCC to take control of the local Democratic Party by having its own candidates run for Democratic precinct captain positions, then install one of their own as party chair.

GOP leadership denied the plot’s existence.

Still, the news appears to have galvanized local Democrats, who began working to fill their 70 precincts.

“Democrats have shown up to protect the integrity of free and fair elections in Kootenai County,” Kootenai Democrats chair Evan Koch said Friday.

Just 11 people had filed for Democratic precinct captain positions on Wednesday, at least one of whom was allegedly a KCRCC plant.

By Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline, 82 people had filed as Democrats.

Bell said at least 25 Republican volunteers had committed to running as Democrats as of Tuesday, while the KCRCC aimed to recruit at least 40.

“We’re going to do a bum rush on Thursday and Friday so that our people are on the ballot and theirs aren’t,” Bell said.

Koch said 19 of those filing are either unknown to the Kootenai Democratic Party or are known conservatives.

They include John Malloy, leader of the Coeur d’Alene chapter of the John Birch Society, and Guy McAninch, a Post Falls School Board trustee who was endorsed by the KCRCC.

David J. Reilly filed Thursday to run for a Democratic precinct captain position.

A recent Pennsylvania transplant, Reilly was condemned by the nation’s largest pro-Israel organization for his antisemitic writings and called an “antisemitic troll” by The Daily Beast.

Reilly, whose social media posts in 2020 included comments that “all Jews are dangerous” and that more Americans should believe antisemitic stereotypes, ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Post Falls School Board in 2021.

The KCRCC endorsed his candidacy and stood by that endorsement even as national criticism of the candidate poured in.

If the takeover effort were to succeed, Bell said KCRCC plants would vote Reilly in as party chair.

Reilly would then use his position to halt Democratic operations for at least two years, when the next primary election occurs, and funnel money donated to Democrats toward Republicans.

“He’s going to revamp their website,” Bell said. “He’s going to take donations and spend that on conservative causes.”

Under Idaho law, theft by false promise occurs when a person obtains the property of another by representing that he or a third person will engage in particular conduct with no intention to actually engage in that conduct.

Bell said KCRCC chair Brent Regan came up with the idea to install Reilly as party chair.

Regan denied it.

“No, it is not true,” he said Thursday. “I really don’t care who the Democrats elect as chairman.”

District 5 Chair Lindsey Barber was one of several area Democrats who worked around the clock to recruit candidates.

She said many local Democrats are hesitant to run for office for fear of backlash from their conservative neighbors.

“People are afraid to hold an office as a Democrat,” she said Friday. “But in the last 48 hours, they saw it was worth it and really stepped up.”

A total of 74 people filed for Republican precinct captain positions.

For the complete list of candidates, visit kcgov.us/31/elections.