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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Ahlquist to launch 44-day, 44-county tour; names 107 county chairs

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Tommy Ahlquist plans to launch a 44-day tour of Idaho’s 44 counties on Thursday, with a 7 p.m. event at the Scentsy Commons Amphitheater in Meridian. The tour will move the next day to Payette and Emmett, continue around the state and wrap up on Nov. 4 in Cascade; the full schedule is online here.

Ahlquist’s campaign says every stop will include a town-hall style event, open to the public and press, at which the Boise developer and physician will share more details about his plans for the state and take questions from the public.

Ahlquist also recently announced 107 county campaign chairs, a group to be coordinated by Tyler Hurst, former Idaho Young Republicans chair and current Idaho GOP 2nd-vice chair, who’s been named grassroots chairman for the Ahlquist campaign. Among the names on the list are eight mayors from around the state; the full list is online here.

Ahlquist is facing Lt. Gov. Brad Little and 1st District Rep. Raul Labrador in the race to become the GOP nominee for governor of Idaho in 2018; all three have been actively campaigning around the state. No major Democratic candidate has yet announced, but a total of 10 candidates have filed initial paperwork to run for the seat, not counting two who filed as independents but then withdrew. They include eight Republicans, one Democrat, and one independent; among the Republicans, three were recruited to run by perennial candidate Lisa Marie; Marie also is running as a Republican.



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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