A news website with more than 1 million daily readers has turned its attention back to North Idaho amid what it called a “bizarre plot” by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee to infiltrate the local Democratic Party.

The Daily Beast reported this week on 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.

The Press published the phone call last week. 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 caption positions, then install local conservative David J. Reilly as party chair and funnel donations toward conservative causes.

GOP leadership has denied the plot’s existence.

The Daily Beast previously reported on Reilly’s history amid his unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the Post Falls School Board in 2021.

A recent Pennsylvania transplant, Reilly was condemned by the nation’s largest pro-Israel organization for his antisemitic writings, including comments that “all Jews are dangerous.”

In 2017, schools and businesses in Reilly’s Pennsylvania community cut ties with a radio station where he worked after he attended the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

Reilly reportedly said in the days after the rally that he attended as a private citizen, not in his professional capacity with the radio station.

Reporter Kelly Weill, who covered Reilly’s history for The Daily Beast last year, described him this week as an “F-list antisemitic troll.”

A last-minute recruitment blitz by the Kootenai Democrats appears to have stymied the alleged effort to dismantle the party.

By last week’s deadline, 82 people had filed for Democratic precinct captain positions, 19 of whom are reportedly either unknown to the Kootenai Democratic Party or are known conservatives.