The Idaho Republican Party is hiring two full-time staffers to spearhead a "parallel campaign" on behalf of newly nominated GOP congressional candidate Raul Labrador, who's challenging 1st District Democratic Congressman Walt Minnick. Jonathan Parker, state GOP executive director, said he requested the funds for the two positions from the Republican National Committee, "essentially making the point that you can't take Idaho for granted and CD 1 for granted, that we're going to have to do everything in our power and run a competent campaign to unseat Walt Minnick. That's the plan we're putting together."

The two staffers will be a "victory director," Lindsay Hemmer, who will be based in Boise, and a North Idaho field office head, Jeff Ward, the current president of the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans group. Both will start June 8.    Minnick's campaign manager, John Foster, said, "My friend Jonathan Parker obviously understands what everyone has known for a long time, is that this is going to be a ground game. And if it's won or lost on the ground, I'm quite confident that Walt will be successful in November." You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.