The Curious Case of Dorothy Moon’s Many Miles, They’re Missing!
We Thought We’d Just Peek at the Books, Not Uncover a Soap Opera
When Party Watch started digging into the Idaho GOP’s finances in January 2025, we had modest ambitions. We sent our first email, titled Where is All the Money!, to a handful of friends and some party insiders. Honestly, we figured it would be a quick peek at the numbers, maybe a little healthy skepticism about the party’s self-proclaimed fundraising prowess under Chair Dorothy Moon. We compared one year of data from her tenure to that of her predecessor, Tom Luna. We had no idea what kind of beehive we were about to kick. Suffice it to say, the fallout was immediate, dramatic, and more than a little revealing.
Dorothy Moon: Idaho’s Hardest Working Road Warrior?
Let’s talk about the core discovery that grabbed everyone’s attention: Dorothy Moon’s astonishing mileage reimbursements. We told you in January about Dorothy supposedly driving 29,076.51 miles for party business. For context, Tom Luna, the previous chair, claimed exactly zero dollars for mileage reimbursement. Why? Because no chair had ever done this before. The party’s rules don’t even provide for it. But Dorothy didn’t stop at one year. Over her now three-year tenure, she has reimbursed herself a grand total of $38,778.21 for mileage. If you use the IRS’s average reimbursement rate over that period (around $0.665 per mile, though charitable organizations are supposed to stick to $0.14 per mile), that means Moon would have had to drive 58,314 miles for party business. Just for reference, the Earth’s circumference is about 24,901 miles. Apparently, running the Idaho GOP requires more driving than lapping the globe: twice.
Brent Regan: Defender-in-Chief or Dorothy’s Personal Press Secretary?
If you thought the financial hijinks were odd, just wait until you see the lengths some party officials will go to defend them. Enter Brent Regan, Chair of the Kootenai County GOP and self-appointed hype man for Dorothy Moon.
On January 30, 2025, Brent scored the privilege of sending out a glowing op-ed about Dorothy, declaring her “the hardest working and most dedicated” chair the Idaho GOP has ever seen. Not only did Brent write this love letter, but the state party itself blasted it out through official communications—effectively using the party’s resources to run PR for one person. For those keeping score at home, that’s not how a serious political organization should operate. But at least we all got to witness Brent’s loyalty in action—something he’s never extended to anyone who isn’t firmly in his corner.
In his op-ed, Brent claimed Dorothy “logged over 29,000 miles crisscrossing the state for the party” in 2024. Funny how that number popped up just two weeks after Party Watch publicly questioned her travel reimbursements. Did Brent see the logs the rest of us haven’t? We’d love to see them. So would the executive and central committees, who, as far as we can tell, are just as in the dark as the average party member.
But Brent wasn’t finished. On July 2, 2025, he dropped another “Brent-to-the-rescue” op-ed, once again distributed through official party channels. This time he rebranded Moon’s meager fundraising and questionable travel as “fiscal conservatism” and even patted her on the back for “returning money to counties.” Small problem: the money she handed back was already owed to those counties under party rules, and she only returned about half of what they were due. That’s not generosity, that’s called “fudging the rules and hoping no one notices.”
More concerning was Brent’s apparent access to financial data that no one else, not even the executive committee, can get their hands on. Where is he getting this information? Why does he have it, and why is everyone else left in the dark? The party preaches transparency, but apparently, the only thing transparent is the favoritism.
So, Brent, we have a few questions:
Where exactly are you getting your data? You keep sharing details the rest of us can’t even see.
Did Dorothy hand you these talking points? Because your defenses are starting to sound a little rehearsed.
If everything is above board, why the constant defensiveness and carefully curated narratives?
When will you and Dorothy let the rest of the party see the full data? If transparency isn’t the problem, maybe it’s the bookkeeping.
Brent’s relentless defense of Dorothy, paired with his allergy to basic transparency, says more than any op-ed ever could. When party officials go this far to run interference, it’s rarely about protecting the truth. And let’s not forget, Brent’s own record in Kootenai County is littered with rule-bending and heavy-handed tactics. Looks like old habits die hard.
Rules Are for Other People, Apparently
None of this would be especially notable if it were above board. The Idaho GOP rules are clear: any remuneration for an Executive Board member must be approved by the Executive Board. We know that hasn’t happened for Dorothy Moon. The mileage claims seem to have been processed without proper oversight or approval, raising questions not just about transparency but about basic financial stewardship. And this isn’t just a quirk or a difference in leadership style. It’s a pattern of mismanagement that, in our view, borders on self-dealing.
The Magic Trick: Disappearing Mileage Claims
This all came to a head after our second email, Complaints filed against Republican party leadership, sent out on February 6, 2025. This time, we didn’t just share numbers. We filed a formal complaint with the Idaho Secretary of State, asking for an investigation into Dorothy Moon’s broader financial practices. Here’s where things get interesting: Dorothy took one last mileage reimbursement in February, and then; nothing. Not a single mileage claim since. It’s now August 3. Either the chairwoman has stopped circling the state in her trusty party-mobile, or maybe, just maybe, she sensed the jig was up.
Tune in Next Week for More Dysfunction
Meanwhile, Party Watch will keep tracking the dysfunction that’s become all too familiar in the Idaho GOP. There’s an executive board meeting in a week, and the anticipation is thick. Will Dorothy Moon finally step aside and let someone more competent restore some order? Or will the party continue its slow-motion car crash under her leadership? We’ll be watching, calculators in hand, ready to keep Idaho’s voters informed about where the money is really going. Because when party leaders treat transparency as optional, someone has to keep the receipts.
-Party Watch