North Idaho lawmaker pours $250K into new PAC backing legislative candidates

Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, last week contributed $250,000 of his own money to a new political action committee and has spent nearly $200,000 in independent expenditures to support like-minded Republican primary candidates running for the Idaho Legislature.

Registered on April 26, the “36-18-1 Inc. Political Action Committee” has spent $199,393 to buy advertisements to support 20 candidates from around the state. The name appears to reference the 36 House votes, 18 Senate votes and one governor’s signature needed to pass legislation. Redman’s father, former state representative Eric Redman, is the PAC’s treasurer. 

The $250,000 donation was reported on April 30. Redman did not immediately respond to a phone call or email from EdNews on Monday morning.

According to Redman’s campaign website, he is an entrepreneur who in 2005 purchased his parents’ insurance agency, Redman & Company Insurance in Coeur d’Alene. He has also been involved in real estate development since 2018 and purchased several local pharmacies in 2021.

While direct contributions to legislative candidates are capped at $1,000 per election, there are no limits on independent expenditures in Idaho. But PACs cannot coordinate with campaigns when making independent expenditures.

Election Day is two weeks away, on May 19.

Here’s the full list of candidates the 36-18-1 PAC has supported so far, in alphabetical order:

District/zone Candidate Level of support Primary opponent(s)
D6 House A Colton Bennett $16,478 Cindy Agidius
D23 House A Rep. Chris Bruce $17,939 Melissa Durrant
D29 House B Rep. Tanya Burgoyne $13,751 Jennifer Miles
D35 House A Chad Christensen $3,250 Rep. Mike Veile
D33 House A Rep. Barbara Ehardt $14,699 Connor Cook
D32 House A Kelly Golden $1,755 Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen
D7 House A Rep. Kyle Harris $17,383 Michael Collins
D1 Senate Scott Herndon $5,362 Sen. Jim Woodward
D24 House A Rep. Clint Hostetler $1,463 Alexandra Caval
D25 Senate Sen. Josh Kohl $11,198 Casey Swensen
D25 House B Rep. David Leavitt $4,480 Cherie Vollmer
D32 House B Brian McKellar $1,755 Rep. Erin Bingham
D25 House A Andrew Messer $1,725 Grayson Stone, Zaine Newberry, Josh Callen
D24 House B William Mostoller $1,463 Rep. Steve Miller, Chance Requa
D4 House B Rep. Elaine Price $16,732 Christa Hazel
D1 House B Rep. Cornel Rasor $5,362 Chuck Lowman
D1 House A Jane Sauter $16,192 Rep. Mark Sauter
D13 House B Rep. Steve Tanner $15,374 Kody Daffer
D28 Senate David Worley $15,883 Sen. Jim Guthrie
D30 House B Julianne Young $16,848 Rep. Ben Fuhriman
Sean Dolan

Sean Dolan

Sean previously reported on local government for three newspapers in the Mountain West, including the Twin Falls Times-News. He graduated from James Madison University in Virginia. Contact him at sean@idahoednews.org

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