COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Minutes before the Coeur d’Alene’s bi-monthly City Council meeting, Council Member Dan Gookin ran into the process server, ready to hand Gookin a lawsuit filed against him by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC).
“She told me she was to present (the lawsuit) during public comment,” Gookin said. “She said she was really uncomfortable with that, so I said, ‘y’know just go ahead and serve me now…’ So I took the papers and that was when I read that my own central committee was suing me for my freedom of speech.”
According to KCRCC Chairman Brent Regan, the KCRCC Executive Committee unanimously agreed to file a lawsuit against Gookin, and decided they should serve him the papers at the Council meeting where there were plenty of witnesses.
The lawsuit references five mid-September “X” posts – formerly known as Twitter – which the KCRCC alleges are false and defamatory. They go on to claim Gookin should know the materials were false due to his role as a committeeman for the KCRCC.
“In a nutshell (the KCRCC alleges) I have made some very mean tweets,” Gookin said.
The five posts listed in the lawsuit:
1) “Tomorrow I finally get to see who the white-supremacist loving KCRCC selected to run against me for City Council. Even if my opponent isn’t rated and vetted, they’ll stick him on the endorsement card anyway – which they’ve done before. Rules don’t mean anything to Brent.”
2) “My ‘rated and vetted’ criminal opponent just loaned his campaign $5000. Where do you think this money came from? A) Money he saved up specifically to run for CDA City Council? B) Dark money provided by Brent from the secret KCRCC account they don’t tell anyone about? #laundering”
3) “Brent & Co. claim the 2020 election was ‘stolen.’ Yet he had no problem last night taking the KCRCC ‘rated and vetted’ ballots home with him to count. Then the results were proclaimed this morning. Lesson learned or lesson learned? #stolenelection”
4) “Be aware that many PCs had their own tally cards, which aren’t the official results. These are what you see on social media.”
5) “Oh, and this: Brent sent out the results of last night’s KCRCC ‘rating and vetting’ sham to all PC members. All but one, that is. I got nothing. Checked the spam box. Nothing. All hail the pigs! #facilitator”
In the posts, Gookin refers to the rating and vetting process done by the KCRCC, where the committee rates the candidates and publishes a list of endorsed candidates. The KCRCC says the attacks on the validity of the system are not only false, but they harmed their “reputation and goodwill”.
But Gookin, who’s been an outspoken critic of the KCRCC and Regan, said he doesn’t believe the information is false.
“I’m going to be releasing a campaign video, it will be about my opponent,” Gookin said. “It will show my opponent was originally a candidate for school district, and when they couldn’t find anyone to run against me they switched him from the school district to run against me… which means the process is being manipulated by the Central Committee and not being controlled by the voters.”
He also says the lawsuit is a politically motivated attack.
“The term is called lawfare,” Gookin said. “It’s a nuisance suit designed to distract people from my election because the KCRCC has backed a very weak and inappropriate candidate against me.”
The KCRCC claims they filed the suit against Gookin as a private citizen.
“Perhaps Mr. Gookin is referencing his own comments as being politically motivated. We are simply responding to those comments,” Regan said. “He is being sued as an individual, not a councilman or a candidate.”
