Wild time at this month's BCRCC meeting

By Mike Weland

Mark Moseley and daughter

Monday evening, March 6, was atypical for Boundary County Republican Central Committee chair and expectant father Caleb Davis, who oversaw one of the most contentious BCRCC meetings ever, and did so while his wife, Madelyn, was in labor. After the meeting, he drove home, picked up Madelyn and they drove to Kootenai Health in Coeur d'Alene. On Tuesday morning, their son, Atticus, was born.

Both mom and baby are fine. It's too early to tell if the same can be said of the BCRCC.

While details are sketchy and events remain under investigation, the incident, some BCRCC members said, has been building since Copeland precinct committeeman Mark Mosely, who ran unopposed in the 2022 primary, took his seat at the meeting following the election.

His behavior from the outset, members say, has been combative and destructive, getting in the way of work the committee is obligated to do.

"In my law enforcement career, we had a name for people like Mark," said North Bonners Ferry precinct committeeman Les Pinkerton, even providing a definition. "Tyrannizers: Confrontation is essential -- supervisors must deal with this type of behavior by responding at the same level. Manipulators, masters of deceit, half-truths, strive to create conflict."

A computer and networking consultant and network operations/systems engineer for the Defense Information Systems Agency, Moseley, without the knowledge or approval of the committee, created and maintains a Boundary County GOP website, boundarycountygop.org, which at first glance appears to represent the BCRCC, but in which nearly every page proclaims "the BCRCC is little more than a club of leftist chronies committing subversion."

"The BCRCC consists of a majority of leftists who have made sure to stack the Committee with their friends," he posted in February. "This insures that conservatives on the Committee have no power to ensure accountability. In fact, conservatives on the Committee have been slandered openly by other Committee members and their families.

"This Committee has literally done nothing to support the GOP Primary winners, in years. In fact, they have voiced to me personally, their distain for conservatives such as Scott Herndon, and Heather Scott.

"This Committee of leftists is more concerned about fundraisers than they are about actually supporting the GOP.

"They refused to support Heather Scott when she was our representative. They did not support the Primary winners in 2022. In fact, Their names were on a flier put out by a Soros organization. We verified that the domain name associated with this flier was registered in ICELAND. We also learned that this organization is registered out of Sandpoint by someone named Diana L Dawson on 11/20/2019."

Trouble at Monday's meeting started early when Moseley took the chair at the center of the head table, the spot traditionally reserved for the chairman, spread his papers and set up his two video cameras. When told that wasn't his chair, he allegedly said something to the effect that you will physically have to move me.

When Caleb arrived, he took a seat at a side table and opened the meeting from there.

Because he has been so disruptive, discussions have been held of removing Moseley from the BCRCC, and a first attempt to discipline Moseley came on Monday's agenda, where his name had been struck through during time for precinct reports and marked, "Indefinite Suspension."

"There was a text that was sent out that contained a lot of falsehoods and untruths and mischaracterizations of fact and something that was contained in it was that there were accusations that we were going to tell an elected committee member that he cannot speak," Caleb explained before calling for a motion to approve the agenda. "That is a pretty absolute term and I don't think that is accurate. There is going to be no prohibition, and there cannot be any prohibition, so long as somebody abides within Roberts Rules of Order and maintains a sense of decorum. I think official committeemen have the right to participate in the sense that they provide a quorum, that they can originate motions, that they can vote and that they can engage in debate, so that is some of the rights of a precinct committeeman that are not being violated or taken away."

State Committeeman Eric Oslon made motion to approve the agenda, committee treasurer Sue Larson seconded and Davis opened for discussion.

"Line item 10b, indefinite suspension? You don't have that authority, period," Moseley said. "I do not approve ... are you going to call me a liar again? Dorothy (Moon, chair of the Idaho GOP) said you don't have the authority to bar any member to speak on behalf of his constituents and to give his or her report, period. There's been no due process ..."

He tried to go on, getting loud, but Davis stopped him, saying "if we're getting into personal accusations we will enter executive session. There's a lot of responses and reasons that go behind this that a lot of people in this room are not privy to and have not seen with their own eyes."

When asked if he wanted to continue in executive session, "Moseley responded, "I already know what's going to happen here because they outnumber us and so therefore they will approve the agenda as is."

After a brief confrontation during which Davis called Moseley out of order, Moseley declined to invoke executive session, the agenda was approved and the meeting continued. But later, when line item 10b came up, Moseley insisted on giving his precinct report, a continuing admonition that it was the duty of the BCRCC to advocate for primary winners.

Except for those inside during the executive session, no one knows just what transpired, but according to witnesses, when the doors were opened, state committeewoman Danielle Ahrens was moving Moseley's cameras and papers. Some said she was attempting to clear his seat for the chairmen, some thought she was carrying them to a nearby restroom. Moseley allegedly picked up Ahrens's cell phone, threw or dropped it to the floor as he rounds the table and approaches Ahrens, a 63-year-old grandma who walks with a cane. Law enforcement was called, Moseley filed a charge of assault against Ahrens and a charge of making a threat against Olson.

The video below shows little of the brief melee, but the audio gives a sense of what transpired.

Order was restored and Davis was at last free for his family's trip south.

In the wake of the melee, Dorothy Moon set plans to come to Bonners Ferry Friday to meet with the BCRCC, which will likely be looking for a new meeting place as Ahrens and Moseley were both allegedly barred from Mugsy's for a year.

Moseley was given the opportunity to contribute to this article, but he declined. "I will be giving my testimony to Boundary.News," he wrote, another website he administers.

"Hey there, you lying piece of trash," Moseley emailed me tonight. "I posted the truth at https://boundary.news/2023/03/12/the-truth-about-the-boundary-county-central-commitee-the-threats-and-the-assault/."

In a rambling diatribe in which he rails out against the BCRCC for not supporting the most radical of the Republicans who won their  primaries, Moseley concludes with this:

"I am innocent regarding the allegations by this committee, saying that I am disruptive and cause strife during the meetings. I am willing to testify in court of my innocence.

"This committee is merely bothered by the fact that I am calling out corruption, and that I am critical of this committee for not doing its job.

"This committee has zero accountability, and they know it. They often abuse their positions, and nothing is ever done to stop it. All the while, they have been trying to destroy me. The difference is, I have all of the evidence to prove my case. They have nothing but lies and distortions of truth.

"It is time for the GOP to finally disband this committee, or cast out those who have committed assault, threats of bodily harm, or committed dereliction of duty. I plea for the GOP leadership to do their job to resolve this once and for all, and I have faith that they will.

"I personally believe that Caleb Davis is a liability to Russ Fulcher, and the GOP organization, based on his performance on the BCRCC.

"Lastly, I thank The Most High for the use of recordings in these meetings. Without them, these people would have been successful in destroying my name and credibility."

The video below was taken by Moseley of the alleged altercation following the executive session and posted to You Tube by Boundary Watchman.