Coeur d’Alene, named after the tribe of the same name, has been at the center of many border disputes over the years. It has been contested by the United States and Great Britain, by Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, and by the Indian tribes and the U.S. government. In the late 1800s, gold miners flocked to the area, sparking conflicts between laborers and mine owners. Even the famous Wyatt Earp briefly served as a sheriff’s deputy during those heady days.
The Coeur d’Alene region prospered from timber harvesting in the early 20th century but pivoted toward tourism following the Great Depression and World War II. The Coeur d’Alene Resort and Silverwood Theme Park opened in 1986 and 1988, respectively.
The Idaho Panhandle was once considered a Democratic stronghold—or as close as anywhere in Idaho ever came to that level. However, the last time Kootenai County voted for a Democrat for president was in Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 landslide, which was also the last time Idaho went blue.
Back in 1911, Coeur d’Alene elected an outright socialist as mayor. Today, however, it has been solidly Republican for generations.
Coeur d’Alene is Idaho’s seventh-largest city and the largest north of the Treasure Valley. It serves as the eastern spoke of the Spokane metropolitan area, relying on Washington-based news stations and sharing the Pacific Time Zone with the West Coast. Many residents likely feel that Coeur d’Alene is far from everything. It’s an eight-hour drive for me, and in many ways, it feels like entering a different state.
As with other conservative cities like Eagle, local elections in Coeur d’Alene do not always follow high-level ideological lines. City residents often look for leaders who will keep taxes low, manage growth, improve traffic, and generally protect their way of life. Yet, as we know, everything is partisan these days. Left-wing ideologues increasingly use even local offices to push progressive cultural agendas through library books, publicly funded art, selective prosecution, and more.
This Election Day, Coeur d’Alene residents will choose two new council members and decide whether to elect a new mayor. Woody McEvers served many terms on the council and was appointed mayor in 2024 to finish Jim Hammond’s term after Hammond stepped down to move to Colorado.
McEvers is running for a full term in his own right, challenged by three other candidates: Council Member Dan Gookin, businesswoman Debbie Loffman, and dentist John Pulsipher.
Woody McEvers grew up on the beaches of California during the peak of surfing culture and brought that attitude to Idaho in 1977. He and his brother bought the Rustler’s Roost restaurant, moving it to Hayden in 2008 while continuing to operate it to this day. McEvers was first elected to City Council in 2002 and was unanimously appointed mayor by his peers last year. A skate park in town bears his name in honor of his contributions to local recreation.
Click here to visit McEvers’ Facebook page.
Dan Gookin moved to Idaho from California in 1993, already known as the original author of the For Dummies book series. In 2002, he ran for State Senate in District 4 on the Libertarian Party ticket and was elected to Coeur d’Alene City Council in 2011. He later switched to the Republican Party and won a seat as a precinct committeeman in 2022.
Gookin has long had a contentious relationship with Christians and conservatives in the Kootenai County GOP, referring to some as “mindless, cult member, group-thinking morons.” He has also supported ranked-choice voting and marched in local LGBTQ+ pride parades. However, in this campaign, he seems to be courting conservative voters, sponsoring a traditional family values resolution on City Council earlier this summer and attending Candlelight Christian Fellowship, a local evangelical church actively engaged in politics.
Click here to visit Gookin’s website.
Debbie Loffman moved to Idaho in 2019 after living in California since 1983. She built a career in real estate, starting a successful property management business in Rocklin, CA, in 2005. Loffman earned the recommendation of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC), long considered a conservative gold standard.
Click here to visit Loffman’s website.
John Pulsipher graduated from BYU and earned a doctorate in dentistry from USC before settling in Idaho in 2008. He is a partner at a local dental office and has attended city government meetings for the past ten years.
Click here to visit Pulsipher’s website.
As for City Council, three of the six seats are up for election this year. Kenny Gabriel, recently appointed to fill a term in seat #4, is running unopposed. Amy Evans is being challenged by Jeff Larson for seat #2, while Bill Brooks and JD Claridge are challenging Kiki Miller for seat #6.
Check out the candidates below:
Last year, the Coeur d’Alene City Council voted unanimously to add a “hate crime” provision to city code, allowing additional prosecution for “racially motivated” crimes. The ordinance followed disputed claims of harassment of a women’s college basketball team in town for a tournament. Of the current incumbents, only Gabriel was not on the council for this vote.
Tension is growing between the conservative leadership of the KCRCC and those who want to move Coeur d’Alene in a more progressive direction. The so-called North Idaho Republicans claim to be the “true” GOP, in contrast to the KCRCC, but many of their leaders supported Joe Biden in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024, raising questions about what it really means to be a “Republican.”
In any case, JD Claridge was the only council candidate to earn the KCRCC’s recommendation.
That tension has surfaced in multiple arenas. When conservative-backed candidates won a majority of seats on the North Idaho College Board of Trustees, leftists and members of the North Idaho Republicans rallied to regain control of the college. This led to farcical incidents, such as when a fire alarm was pulled during a board meeting in December 2022. The person alleged to have pulled the alarm was later physically removed from a KCRCC town hall meeting in 2025, sparking claims and counterclaims between the individual and private security, as well as involvement from Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris.
All of this drama illustrates that residents of Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai County, and all of North Idaho are grappling with an identity crisis. Just as the region once served as a battleground between natives and settlers, and later between miners and Pinkertons, it is now witnessing a battle of ideology. Voters must decide what they want their city to be as it continues to grow: Will it remain a stronghold for traditional conservative values in the Idaho Panhandle, or will it follow cities like Spokane and Boise, embracing left-wing causes and the consequences they bring?
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About Brian Almon
Brian Almon is the Editor of the Gem State Chronicle. He also serves as Chairman of the District 14 Republican Party and is a trustee of the Eagle Public Library Board. He lives with his wife and five children in Eagle.
