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Eye On Boise

GOP still posting strong numbers in Idaho; full Sunday column

Here's my full column from Sunday's Spokesman-Review:

By Betsy Z. Russell

BOISE – With all the roiling national hubbub surrounding President Trump, there’s been speculation on the national scene that voters may turn away from the Republican Party, but there’s certainly no sign of that here in Idaho.

According to data posted Friday by the Idaho secretary of state’s office, about 50 percent of Idaho’s registered voters were Republicans, 11 percent were Democrats and 38 percent were unaffiliated as of May 1.

On Jan. 3 of this year, Republicans were at 48 percent, Democrats at 11 percent and unaffiliated voters at 40 percent. So the percentage of registered Republicans in Idaho has actually grown slightly since Trump took office, from 48 to 50 percent, at the expense of the unaffiliated group, while the percentage for Democrats remained unchanged.

During that time period, the total number of registered voters in Idaho dropped by nearly 71,000, from 869,904 to 799,140. The majority of those came from the unaffiliated category, which dropped in total numbers by 13 percent. Republican registrants dropped 5 percent; Democrats, 7 percent; and both Constitution and Libertarian party registrants, 8 percent.

Idaho never used to have party registration. It first came into play in 2012, when the state held its first closed GOP primary. That has caused registered Republican numbers to rise since registering as a Republican is the only way to vote in Idaho’s contested primary elections. The Idaho Democrats hold an open primary, so anyone can vote in theirs, regardless of how they’re registered.

On Nov. 1, 2013, the oldest data posted on the Idaho secretary of state’s website, 32 percent of Idaho voters were registered as Republicans; 8 percent as Democrats; and 59 percent as unaffiliated.

Republicans hold every statewide office in Idaho, every seat in the state’s four-member congressional delegation and 84 percent of the seats in the state Legislature.

Idaho to get its fourth community college

Bonneville County voters last week overwhelmingly approved creating a new community college, the College of Eastern Idaho; it’ll be Idaho’s fourth community college.

In final unofficial results, 71.4 percent of voters favored forming a community college district, which can charge local property taxes to help support the school, like the College of Western Idaho near Boise, North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene and the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. Just 28.6 percent opposed the move, which required a two-thirds margin to pass.

The approval means Eastern Idaho Technical College, a two-year, state-funded technical school in Idaho Falls, will be converted into the new community college, expanding its offerings and qualifying for $5 million in startup funding that lawmakers approved several years ago, just as they did when CWI started in 2007.

During the campaign, the Bonneville County Republican Central Committee passed a resolution opposing the new community college, in part because some GOP officials said they feared attracting refugees and “weird stuff.” The resolution said there’s no guarantee that the community college wouldn’t engage in “controversial and divisive activities beyond the scope of its educational mission.”

Subsequently, both the Bonneville County Democrats and the Bonneville County Republican Women passed resolutions supporting the new community college. Community colleges are governed by locally elected boards of trustees.

Little, as acting governor, issues executive order

Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little, serving as acting governor on Friday, signed an executive order to launch a review of Idaho’s occupational licensing requirements, after a big legislative fight this year over changes to cosmetology licensing that ended up being vetoed by Gov. Butch Otter. “To my knowledge, we have never reviewed many of these licenses,” Little said. “From this last legislative session, it’s clear that we need to take a comprehensive look at our practices, and how and why they were implemented.”

Little, who is running for governor in 2018, titled his executive order the “Licensing Freedom Act.” Under it, state agencies are required to submit a report to the governor’s office by July 1, 2018, assessing whether existing occupational licensing requirements are necessary and in the public interest, and also addressing recommendations for improvement, modification or elimination.

Little also announced a website and email address for the public to provide input on concerns about occupational licensing. “I’d like to hear directly from those who are affected by licensing requirements,” Little said. “I realize they might not want to report directly to overseeing agencies, so this will provide an outlet for them to freely express their ideas and concerns. Government always needs to do its part to protect citizens, but it also must make sure it does not interfere where it’s not needed.”

The website is lgo.idaho.gov/freedomact/ and the email address for public comments is freedomact@lgo.gov.

Little is serving as acting governor while Otter is out of state for his grandson’s graduation from a high school military academy back east; he’s been acting governor since noon Thursday, and will continue in the role until Otter returns Sunday evening.

Idaho’s lieutenant governor is acting governor whenever the governor is out of state or incapacitated, and when serving in that role, has the full power of the office. However, Little did discuss the planned executive order with Otter in advance. Jon Hanian, Otter’s spokesman, said, “He supports it wholeheartedly.”

Crapo wants bipartisan regulation reform effort

InvestmentNews, a national publication for financial advisers, reports that Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, the new chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, is pledging to seek “bipartisan support for legislation” to reform and reduce federal financial regulations.

“We will have a strong grounding from which to build a commonsense financial regulation reform process in America,” Crapo told the annual conference of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Wednesday. “My goal this Congress is to work in a bipartisan manner with members of the Senate Banking Committee, the administration, with (House Financial Services Committee) Chairman (Jeb) Hensarling and with the regulators to strike a smart balance with thoughtful regulation that promotes economic growth.”

InvestmentNews reports that “Mr. Crapo’s insistence on generating support from both sides of the aisle could cause problems in the Senate for Mr. Hensarling’s bill that would overhaul the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. That measure was recently approved on a party-line vote in committee and could reach the House floor next week. It contains a provision that would kill the Labor Department’s fiduciary duty rule.”

Crapo also told the group that he believes excessive financial regulation holds back the economy. “It’s becoming as big an issue as the tax code and the national debt in term of big-ticket issues we need to face and deal with in America,” he said.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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