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The six Republican candidate for two Kootenai County commissioner seats will meet for a debate at 6:30 tonight at Lake City Senior Center, sponsored by the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans and the North Idaho Pachyderm Club. In a press release, Reagan Republicans’ president Jeff Ward noted that candidates have submitted questions for their opponents and will get a chance to rebut their answers. Ward said this is the first event jointly sponsored by the two local Repub groups although the Reagan Republicans hosted a contentious 2009 Coeur d’Alene City Council debate, “which was boycotted by Councilman Mike Kennedy, and resulted in the controversial endorsements and active support by the Reagan Republicans of Steve Adams, Jim Brannon, and Dan Gookin in the November election.” More here.
Question (to Dems): Are you tempted to cross over to vote in the GOPrimary for commissioner because the winner will also win the general election by default because there’s no Dem candidate?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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Bigguy on April 01 at 9:10 a.m.
It’s the name: “Kennedy” strikes fear into the heart of the Rs.
bpoole on April 01 at 9:52 a.m.
No
JIMMYMAC on April 01 at 10:00 a.m.
Boycotted? Seriously?
JIMMYMAC on April 01 at 10:01 a.m.
BTW, my previous post was chalk full of sarcasm.
McGruber on April 01 at 10:14 a.m.
I predict a lot of Ds will cross over for two reasons, there are no dems in the commissioner races and they want to have the weakest opponent facing Minnick on the ballot in November. It’s probably the only shot Labradour has of winning in the primaries for the Ds to vote for him. No way Minnick wants Ward in a head to head in November.
danofthecommunity on April 01 at 10:46 a.m.
When this is the only set of choices to pick a candidate I don’t think it’s crossing over, I think it’s called voting.
And as long as primary elections are paid for by everyone in the county instead of just being solely political party functions that could and should (in my personal opinion) be run and paid for by the parties then I think every voter has the right to engage in the process and make their choices accordingly.
Otherwise it seems like a clear case of taxation without representation.
This seems especially true of the precinct committee elections. With “regular” elected officials there is at least the common ideal that they represent everyone regardless of political affiliation but with precinct committee people there isn’t even the illusion that they represent anyone but their own political party. At yet it costs tens of thousands of dollars all over the state in extra printing, computer programming, and other expenses to include them with all the other candidates on the primary ballot.
Now that would be place for the state to look at some cost savings.
McGruber on April 01 at 12:35 p.m.
So why are precinct committee positions on a regular ballot? Why not have the political parties have their own elections like the Rotary or other organizations? It’s not like the precinct committees have any “power” or authority, except in the rare case of a legislative vacancy and making recommendations to the governor for a replacement. They don’t need to be part of the official county ballot to perform that function.