A new political action committee raised $261,000 in 2017, with donors including the father of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tommy Ahlquist, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

Kimberlee Kruesi of the AP wrote about the Idaho First PAC, the new committee supported by John T. Ahlquist Jr., among others. The story also chronicled a separate and short-lived PAC, Building Idaho’s Future Inc.

Republican operative Carl Forti filed paperwork in August to create the Building Idaho’s Future PAC. In September, the PAC received $100,000 from the Idaho Land Fund, Kruesi reported, but the PAC returned slightly more than $91,000 to the Land Fund in November and ultimately dissolved in February.

J.B. Scott, chairman of the board of the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation, is affiliated with the Idaho Land Fund.

In December, Scott contributed $91,000 to the fledgling Idaho First PAC. Ten days earlier, John T. Ahlquist Jr. contributed $100,000 to the PAC.

Tommy Ahlquist, a Boise developer and physician, is one of three big-name Republicans seeking to succeed retiring Gov. Butch Otter. Ahlquist, U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador and Lt. Gov. Brad Little will square off in the May 15 Republican primary.

Disclosure: Idaho Education News is funded through a grant from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation.