Top Idaho Republican Party Staffer Quits to Work for the State

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The top staffer at the Idaho Republican Party is departing after less than a year on the job for a new post in state government. State GOP executive director Josh Whitworth will be working in Idaho State Controller Brandon Woolf's office starting next month.

Whitworth, a former Idaho State University football player from an Idaho ranching family, had filled the post vacated by former Republican Party director Jonathan Parker last July 23.

Republican Party Chairman Barry Peterson says now Whitworth will be replaced next month by Trevor Thorpe, who served as the state GOP's political director for the past year and a half. Thorpe is a Virginia native and a Brigham Young University graduate who moved to Idaho in 2010 to take a job with the state's dominant political party.