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BOISE – There are the same number of Idaho State Police troopers patrolling the state’s roads now as there were in 1977, Idaho lawmakers learned last week, even though the state's population has swelled 75 percent since then. Col. Jerry Russell, ISP chief, told lawmakers that of his current patrol force of 150 authorized positions, six are investigators, and there are 33 vacancies.
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BOISE – New GOP congressman Raul Labrador has hired outgoing Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick’s constituent services director, Lisa Anderson, to be his constituent services director. “Essentially she’ll be performing the same job that she was doing for Rep. Minnick,” said Phil Hardy, Labrador spokesman. “She’s extremely dedicated, and she came out as the most qualified person who had applied for the job,” Hardy said.
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Remember when voters were concerned that irresponsible youth would decide important matters at the ballot box after the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 way back when? Well, young adults have little or no impact on the Idaho voting scene, particularly in North Idaho. ...
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BOISE – Before Keith Allred ran for governor of Idaho, the former Harvard University professor was becoming an increasingly common sight in Idaho’s state Capitol, where he spent five years lobbying for what he called “the common interest” on behalf of his nonpartisan citizens group. Allred brought together people of all political stripes from throughout the state into a group that collectively studied and debated issues, and where they reached broad consensus, he lobbied for those positions in the state Legislature, with some notable successes.
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BOISE – Idaho’s state Land Board has paid more than a quarter-million dollars since 2007 to one of the state’s top Republican operatives for a public relations campaign, but officials say the state’s getting a great deal. “We’re very happy with the results so far,” said Lands Department Director George Bacon.
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BOISE – Idaho Congressman Walt Minnick’s election-night concession on Twitter made history – according to Twitter. It was ranked No. 8 on the site’s list of the “10 Most Powerful Tweets of 2010.” The tweet, sent by campaign manager John Foster around 2 a.m. as Election Night stretched into morning, said, “Congratulations to Raul Labrador on a hard-earned win, and best of luck as Idaho’s next Congressman.”
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BOISE – Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, who filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, says Hart confronted him over it during the Dec. 2 organizational session of the Legislature, and Anderson subsequently was punished in his committee assignments, losing the vice-chairmanship of the House State Affairs Committee and being denied a third committee assignment he’d requested. “They made this very personal with me,” Anderson said.
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Here's a news item from the Associated Press: MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) — A Republican who lost his bid for the Idaho Senate says religious mailers that were sent to Latah County voters and appeared to carry his endorsement may have cost him the election. Gresham Bouma is offering a $1,000 reward for information on who sent the fliers, which featured his picture and urged voters to become true believers or be "struck down," The Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports. ...
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BOISE – Idaho’s newest congressman-elect is a 42-year-old attorney and former state lawmaker, but he’s also still paying off thousands in student loans. “It’s how I got through law school,” said Idaho Rep.-elect Raul Labrador. “It worked fine.”
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BOISE – Idaho’s newest congressman-elect is a 42-year-old attorney and former state lawmaker, but he’s also still paying off thousands in student loans.
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BOISE – Idaho’s public employee retirement system has been deluged by calls, e-mail and visits from worried state and local government retirees who are concerned that it’s going to be eliminated or cut back, but PERSI Director Don Drum said there’s no truth to the rumors driving those concerns. “I think it’s being driven by national media coverage,” Drum said. “There are many funds out there that are in trouble.” But Idaho’s isn’t, he said.
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There's some very interesting data in the Moore Information poll released today by a coalition of health groups pushing for a big cigarette tax increase in Idaho. Among the results: 47 percent of Idahoans say the state is generally headed in the right direction, while 40 percent think Idaho's on the wrong track. That's pretty closely divided; the poll's margin of error is plus or minus 4 percent. ...
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Idaho's state Board of Canvassers met today to certify the results of the Nov. 2 election, and here's the news: Just 58.1 percent of Idaho's registered voters cast ballots. That's the lowest turnout for a midterm election since 1978 (that year it was 56.51 percent), and well below the Idaho Secretary of State's office forecast of 63 percent. That forecast, based in part on heavy early voting and fairly high interest in candidates and issues, simply was off, said Tim Hurst, chief deputy secretary of state, and it's not clear why. ...
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The "Interstices" blog crunched some numbers and found that the Nov. 2 election marked the lowest turnout as a percentage of Idaho's voting age population in a gubernatorial election in the past 50 years. That measure, as opposed to the percentage of registered voters who cast ballots, has long been declining, but in the last three gubernatorial elections was relatively stable. ...
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In a new opinion piece today, Gov. Butch Otter says he's "read all the postmortems and punditry about the 'meaning' of the November 2nd election results," and declares, "I believe most of it is well-intentioned, although there certainly is a fair amount of cynicism, condescension and sour grapes involved. And yes, there has been a little chest thumping too. ...
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BOISE – While much of the nation endorsed a sharp change in political direction Tuesday, Idaho went its own way – the same way it’s headed for the past four years, only more so. “Here in Idaho, it’s a different story – it’s about staying the course,” said Idaho Republican Party Chairman Norm Semanko. “It’s about fiscal responsibility, about understanding that government needs to be small.”
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BOISE – Here’s why it’s not surprising that all four constitutional amendments on this year’s Idaho ballot passed, and passed fairly easily: That’s our history. All 11 previous constitutional amendments that have appeared on Idaho’s ballot since 1998 have won approval from Idaho voters, including complex measures dealing with endowment investment reform. Even when amendments are complicated and difficult to understand, Idaho voters tend to support them.
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Item: Ysursa to tackle absentee ballot rules: Hoffman, Spencer fought ballot opening before Election Day/Jay Patrick, Idaho ReporterMore Info: This time around, Wayne Hoffman, executive director of the Idaho Freedom
Foundation, took note and petitioned the Idaho Supreme Court on Nov. ...
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Here's an interesting tidbit shared by Idaho Republican Party Chairman Norm Semanko on IPTV's "Dialogue" program last night: Despite the GOP sweep in this year's elections, Idaho is no longer the "most-Republican" state as measured by Republican dominance in its top offices and Legislature. Wyoming takes that prize. Wyoming, like Idaho, has its entire congressional delegation and all its statewide offices held by Republicans. ...
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The untold and certainly most important story from the 2010
General Election in Idaho is this: Not a single representative, senator or
executive branch official who supported significant reductions in government
spending lost re-election Nov. ...
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Republican Sen.-elect Kelly
Ayotte and some supporters hold signs in Manchester, N.H., to thank
voters Wednesday. Even though many high-profile women ran for office, feminists
say the 2010 campaign was rife with sexism ranging from snarky fashion critiques to sexual innuendo. And when all
the ballots are counted, women may end up withfewer seats in Congress
than they started with. ...
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"It's my intention that the legacy of the current coroner
doesn't end with him. I'll use everything I have to make sure you get
the best cause of death" -- Kootenai County Coroner-elect Debbie Wilkey in Coeur d'Alene Press. Full story here.Question: Which "best cause of death" would you want on your certificate?
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Dan of the County: To be clear, no ballots are counted early, period. It took two solid days of 8-10 people working to open just the
absentee ballots that KC received this time. As it was, every available
election worker worked until after 5 a.m.the next morning. ...
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Some folks are ecstatic over results while others walk away saddened with the realization that it wasn't their turn.Those who voted and are upset can at least hold their collective heads up high with the knowledge that they participated in democracy. For those that are disappointed and didn't vote, shut yur pie hole. ...
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If (Tuesday's) election in Idaho had been a Little League baseball game, it would have been called on account of the ten run rule. ... As elections go, this one was a tidal wave. The huge Republican majorities in the Idaho Legislature will soon enough face big challenges, including more budget cutting - potentially including education and social services - but the GOP and Gov. ...
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Idaho's state Republican and Democratic party chairmen - Norm Semanko and Keith Roark - will analyze the election results and take calls from viewers tonight on Idaho Public Television's "Dialogue" with host Marcia Franklin; there's more info here. The show airs live at 8:30 p.m. Mountain time, 7:30 Pacific; to join the conversation, you can email your questions in before the show to dialogue@idahoptv.org, or call in live during the show, toll free, at (800) 973-9800.
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Wednesday Poll: A majority of Hucks Nation either didn't like the results of the 2010 election or had a mixed view of it. 84 of 195 respondents (43%) said they didn't like the outcome. 59 of 195 (30%) said they had a mixed reaction to the results. 49 of 195 (25%), however, said they were happy with the results. 3 respondents were undecided.Today's Poll: What will House Speaker Lawerence Denney do with Rep. ...
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BOISE – Idaho elected its first Hispanic to represent the state in Congress on Tuesday, as Raul Labrador upset freshman Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick with a decisive 51 percent to 41.3 percent victory. Labrador, a conservative Republican state lawmaker and immigration attorney, said he thought the “first” was significant because it sent a message to the nation about Idahoans.
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Kootenai County, already among the most conservative regions of the country, is about to lose its sole surviving Democratic elected county official. Longtime Kootenai County Clerk Dan English was defeated 60 percent to 40 percent by Cliff Hayes, the former Post Falls police chief. English had been Kootenai County’s clerk for 15 years.
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Idaho elected its first Hispanic to represent the state in Congress on Tuesday, as Raul Labrador upset freshman Democratic Congressman Walt Minnick with a decisive 51 percent to 41.3 percent victory. Labrador, a conservative Republican state lawmaker and immigration attorney who charged during the race that Minnick's attack ads against him had racial overtones, said he thought the "first" was significant because it sent a message to the nation about Idahoans."People have such a bad connotation of what Idaho represents," Labrador said, "a bad place, a racist place. ...
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Idaho elected its first Hispanic to represent the state in Congress on Tuesday, as Raul Labrador upset freshman Democratic Congressman Walt Minnick with a decisive 51 percent to 41.3 percent victory. Labrador, a conservative Republican state lawmaker and immigration attorney who charged during the race that Minnick's attack ads against him had racial overtones, said he thought the "first" was significant because it sent a message to the nation about Idahoans.
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The Republican sweep of Idaho's elections on Tuesday carried off one of North Idaho's longest-serving lawmakers, a Democrat who often voted with the Republicans and whose campaign slogan was "as independent as Idaho." Rep. Mary Lou Shepherd, D-Prichard, lost her bid for a seventh term in the Idaho House to political newcomer Shannon McMillan, who won with 54.9 percent of the vote. ...
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The Republican sweep of Idaho's elections on Tuesday carried off one of North Idaho's longest-serving lawmakers, a Democrat who often voted with the Republicans and whose campaign slogan was "as independent as Idaho." Rep. Mary Lou Shepherd, D-Prichard, lost her bid for a seventh term in the Idaho House to political newcomer Shannon McMillan, who won with 54.9 percent of the vote.
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Victorious Republican candidates gathered on the Statehouse steps for a rally today, where Idaho GOP Chairman Norm Semanko declared, "Last night was the biggest victory in the history of Idaho Republican politics." Newly elected 1st District GOP Congressman Raul Labrador said he can now remove the bright red "Fire Pelosi" pin he's been wearing on his lapel for the last few weeks. ...
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Tuesday's Poll: 54 of 93 respondents (58%) correctly said that congressional control would split between the parties after Election Day, with Democrats continuing to control the Senate, while Republicans would take back the House. 28 of 93 (30.1%) said the R's would take both houses. 7 of 93 (7.53%) said the D's would hold control ofboth houses, while 4 of 93 (4.3%) said the D's would keep the House and lose the Senate to the R's.Today's Question: Are you happy with the results of the 2010 Election?DFO: I've asked Blogmeister Ryan to reinstitute the Hucks Online poll in the left rail. ...
