Coeur d'Alene Mayor Faces Backlash for Liking Controversial Post

A former law enforcement official is calling out Coeur d'Alene Mayor Dan Gookin for publicly liking a social media post containing serious, unverified accusations, raising questions about whether a sitting mayor's online endorsements carry the implicit weight of official validation. A video circulating online frames the incident as part of a broader pattern, pointing to what critics describe as a habit of shaping narratives through digital engagement before facts are established.

The criticism lands at a complicated moment for Gookin, who has never had an easy relationship with the boundaries between political commentary and official conduct. He operates a YouTube channel called "Kootenai Rants" that has generated controversy throughout his public career. In 2023, at a forum hosted by the Kootenai County Republican Women Federated, attendees questioned him about remarks on that channel they viewed as derogatory toward Christians and Republicans. The exchange grew tense. After Gookin won the mayoralty in November 2025, the controversy resurged when past clips were amplified by right-leaning national outlets. Gookin dismissed the coverage as a "smear job," saying anyone with intelligence who watched the full version would realize it was edited to discredit him.

His online combativeness has already carried a financial consequence: the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee sued him for defamation over posts on X, and the parties settled for $25,000. That legal battle tracks a long-running feud between Gookin and the KCRCC, an organization chaired by Brent Regan that has been a dominant and often divisive force in Kootenai County politics. Gookin was endorsed for mayor not by the KCRCC but by the independent North Idaho Republicans, even as he remains a registered precinct committeeman within the county party structure.

The political environment in which his latest controversy unfolds has been volatile. In February 2025, Teresa Borrenpohl was physically dragged from a KCRCC-hosted town hall at Coeur d'Alene High School by three plainclothes men, prompting a public investigation into Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris and others present. The Coeur d'Alene City Council issued a statement calling for equal protection under the law. That incident underscored how quickly political tensions in the county can move from digital to physical, and why scrutiny of what elected officials signal online carries stakes beyond social media optics.

Gookin won the November 5, 2025 mayoral race with 34.8% of the vote in a four-way contest, narrowly defeating incumbent Woody McEvers at 27.7% and Debbie Loffman at 26.4%. Voter participation was reported at less than 10%, meaning his mandate rests on a comparatively thin slice of the electorate. He has served in Coeur d'Alene public life since joining the City Council in 2011, and moved to Kootenai County in 1993. The distance between council critic and sitting mayor has not, so far, quieted the digital habits that defined his path there.