Rep. Phil Hart
In other Idaho primary races of interest, a tax-protesting northern Idaho Republican state lawmaker was ousted in a four-way primary.
Rep. Phil Hart, of Athol lost to challenger Ed Morse in Kootenai County’s District 2 on Tuesday. Morse received 35.4 percent of the vote, followed by Hart’s 31.2 percent, and two other challengers.
Hart has been fighting the state and federal government over hundreds of thousands in unpaid income taxes. He’s written a book that challenges the legality of income taxes and has been a regular sponsor of bills seeking to allow Idaho residents to make payments in gold and silver.
The four-term lawmaker has also acknowledged taking timber he didn’t pay for in the mid-1990s from state land to build his home in Athol.
Meanwhile, a white supremacist and Republican northern Idaho sheriff’s candidate who held a cross-burning last week in the run-up to the primary election finished a distant third in his race.
In Tuesday’s results in Bonner County, Shaun Winkler garnered just 182 votes, or 3.3 percent, falling well short of incumbent Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler’s 71 percent, and runner-up Tim Fry’s 25.7 percent.
Winkler’s status as a Ku Klux Klan member and former Aryan Nations follower garnered him significant attention in the race.
The winner of the sheriff’s contest will face independent Rocky Jordan in the November election. (AP)
