Moderates sweep race for North Idaho College

Nov. 6—Three moderate candidates for North Idaho College Board of Trustees beat their GOP-endorsed opponents in Tuesday's election, shifting control of the embattled board as the college waits to hear if it will retain accreditation next year.

With all precincts counted Wednesday morning, Rick Durbin beat William Lyons 52% to 48%.

Eve Knudtsen won by the greatest margin, beating the only incumbent, Greg McKenzie, with 56% of the vote.

Mary Havercroft beat Michael Angilletta with 51%.

Durbin, Knudtsen and Havercroft will join Brad Corkill and Tarie Zimmerman on the five-member board. All five were endorsed by the activist organization Save NIC, which has advocated for responsible governance amid the college's years-long accreditation crisis that resulted largely from board dysfunction.

North Idaho Republicans, another organization of moderate conservatives that has opposed the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee's influence on nonpartisan races, had also endorsed the winning candidates.

Knudtsen said she is "overjoyed," and it is time for the board to chart a new course. She said the new board can demonstrate to the college's accreditor a sustainable commitment to meeting all accreditation requirements.

"We have our work cut out for us, particularly over the next two months," Knudtsen said.

Brent Regan, chairman of the KCRCC, posted on the social media platform X his pride that all of the party's endorsed races won except for NIC.

"I wish the new NIC Trustee elects all the best and look forward to North Idaho College continuing on its current upward trajectory," Regan wrote.

The next board meeting is Nov. 20.

James Hanlon's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.