Republican candidates from around the area congregated at NIC to meet their constituents Oct. 2.
The event was hosted by the Republicans Club alongside the local republican party in the SUB, and had a healthy turnout from the community.
In attendance was Jim Brannon, county clerk; District 2 Senator Steve Vick; District 2A Representative Vito Barbieri; District 2B Representative candidate Eric Redman; District 3 Senator Bob Nonini; District 3A Representative Ron Mendive; District 3B Representative candidate Don Cheatham; District 4 Senator candidate Mary Souza; District 4A Representative Lucas Malek; and District 4B Representative Kathy Sims.
Steven Matheson, running in Kootenai County for treasurer, was unable to attend. Dr. Warren Keene was also unable to attend, and is running for coroner.
Jennifer Locke, of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee and chair of the elections committee, helped kick off the event with Rodriguez. Locke said they had a great turnout.
Dirk Mendive, 31, General Studies, said, “I thought it was good. Would’ve liked to have seen a few more people come out and meet their representatives, but it was good.”
Dirk is a committee member for the republican party in Coeur d’Alene, and the son of Ron Mendive.
“I thought it was a great event, and what I really like the most is to see more and more young people involved,” said Souza. “Politics and what government chooses to do either makes our lives much better, or much worse, and it is really important that we all get involved.”
The entirety of the event was focused on letting the republican guests speak to the people who attended in an informal meet and greet style, and there was a mixture of political talk and humor that filled the room. Souza said she met several people she had yet to meet.
Despite all the merriment, the student turnout was disappointing for the people running the event, however.
“The students didn’t come out as I thought they would have,” said Reina Rodriguez, 18, Political Science, Yakima Wash., president of the Republicans Club. “They never do.”
Student attendance for the event was minimal, attracting only two or three students outside of the club. Rodriguez said that their events get good reception from the community, and that people have a good view of NIC, but she’d like to see more students.
“I really hope that we can reach young people here about the conservative values of the party and what we stand for, and grow the base here,” Locke said. “I think we have a great leadership role in these people that are in office this time around for the college republicans.”
One of the students that showed up for the event spent the majority of it debating with students from the club, and learning about the viewpoints of the republicans.
Josh Nicholson, 21, Accounting with a minor in Political Science, Coeur d’Alene, is a democrat that came to learn about the local candidates.
“I talked to people from the Republicans Club, and they actually did a great job of not only swaying my viewpoints, but doing so in a very professional manner,” Nicholson said. “It was impressive that they got all of the candidates to come out, and that was really cool.”
Nicholson said he spoke to Vito Barbierri, and that he changed his viewpoint on a couple things and gave him some reading material.
Nicholson shared the views of Rodriguez and Locke in regards to student turnout on the event.
“I love politics. I think that our age group- it’s almost tragic that we don’t go out and vote, or know who we’re voting for or what their viewpoints are,” Nicholson said. “I want to know who I’m going to be voting for, and who’s going to be running the city and the state I’m going to be living in.”
Even though Nicholson considers himself a democrat, he said he wants to make informed choices about which republican candidates he votes for in Idaho’s elections, which heavily favor republican candidates.
The Republicans Club has no planned events for the future because many of them will be involved in the elections being held this year on an individual level. Rodriguez said that they plan to be heavily involved in the school board elections later in the year.
