KALISPELL -- A group of Flathead County Republicans says the local party has been taken over by "extremists" and they plan to take the party back, initially by supporting a Democratic candidate for county commission.
"Enough is enough," said Cal Sweet, a longtime Kalispell businessman. "We need some sanity when it comes to conservative politics in the Flathead Valley."
According to Sweet and nearly a dozen other businessmen, the local Republican Party has been hijacked by a "small, radical group" of religious fundamentalists and Libertarians.
Sweet said the Republican Assembly has taken over the local party from the bottom up by capturing political precinct posts.
So Sweet and others have formed a political action committee, Republicans for the Flathead, to support a Democrat and to run "thoughtful and intelligent" Republicans in the future.
"The Republican Assembly is trying to drive a wedge," said Butch "C.M." Clark. "If you don't accept their ideology, then you're out. Well, that's not the way conservative politics works. We want to help the party elect candidates, but the Republican Assembly is not the Republican Party."
But Ron Hoye, chairman of the Flathead Republican Assembly, said its platform is "absolutely identical" to that of the Republican Party.
Republican Assemblies are the self-appointed "Republican wing of the Republican Party," a Bible-based group of conservatives who have questioned, among other things, the modern separation of church and state.
Unlike the official GOP, the assembly endorses Republicans against Republicans in primary elections, helping voters identify the more conservative candidates.
