Massive out-of-state contribution funds Idaho political action committee

BOISE (IdahoEdNews.org) — Slapping an “of Idaho” onto the end of a political action committee’s name doesn’t necessarily mean the money it spends comes from within the Gem State. 

The Citizens Alliance of Idaho PAC on Wednesday reported a $400,000 contribution from Citizens Alliance Political Action Committee Inc., a super PAC based in Fairfax, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C.

That’s on top of a $50,000 donation the super PAC made last month to the Idaho PAC, for a total of $450,000 this year.

The only other itemized contributions the Citizens Alliance of Idaho PAC has reported this year are $100 donations from Jilene Burger of Idaho Falls — a Republican running against Rep. Marco Erickson, R-Idaho Falls, in May — and Robert Shillingstad of Hayden.

According to the Citizens Alliance of Idaho PAC’s website, the group wants to bring honesty and integrity to state politics by getting legislators to sign “The Citizens Alliance of Idaho Pledge.”

Forty-two have signed on, including Republican Reps. Cornel Rasor, Heather Scott, Dale Hawkins, Vito Barbieri, Jordan Redman, Joe Alfieri, Elaine Price and Republican Sens. Phil Hart, Doug Okuniewicz, Ben Toews and Carl Bjerke.

According to the PAC’s website, legislators who sign the pledge agree to vote in support of:

• The right to self defense
• Individual medical freedom
• Election integrity
• Expanding education freedom
• The right to due process

The pledge was inspired by the Idaho State Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, the website states. A video on the site provides more information.

“Talk is cheap and so are political promises, hidden agendas and special interests,” a narrator says over a video clip of a cowboy wrangling livestock. “That’s why we created the Citizens Alliance of Idaho pledge, affirming the values Idahoans have been livin’ by for over a hundred years.”

Who’s funding the super PAC?

As the Citizens Alliance super PAC is a national committee, the Federal Election Commission provides data on its funding and spending.

For the two-year period of 2025 and 2026, the super PAC reported $1.79 million in donations.

Of that, $1.29 million came from one business, POM of Pennsylvania LLC, which is associated with Pace-O-Matic, Inc., a business that describes itself as the “nation’s leading developer of skills games.”

There is a debate over whether the “skill games” that Pace-O-Matic produces are gambling devices, according to a November story from the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, part of the nonprofit States Newsroom, which also owns the Idaho Capital Sun.

In the 2025-26 filing period, two Idaho residents contributed to the Citizens Alliance super PAC.

Eagle resident Dan McKnight contributed $2,500 and Camp Hill resident Lynn Bradescu donated $1,000. Bradescu is a conservative realtor who ran for Boise City Council last year, as BoiseDev reported. That $3,500 from Idaho residents accounts for 0.2% of the super PAC’s funding in 2025.

During the 2024 election cycle, the super PAC donated $435,000 to the Citizens Alliance of Idaho PAC. The Idaho PAC spent $67,107 on independent expenditures to support or oppose legislative candidates in 2024 and reported $446,961 in expenditures that year to Mobilize the Message LLC, based in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

“If anything, the only special interests represented by the Pledge are the citizens of Idaho,” the Citizens Alliance of Idaho’s website states.

This article was originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on March 26, 2026