Wayne Hoffman, head of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a lobbying and political action group, has sent out a column seeking to discredit my article on residency questions surrounding Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird. The facts in my article all came directly from public records: That Rep. Giddings had a homeowner’s exemption in Ada County in 2015 and 2016, also obtained a homeowner’s exemption in Idaho County in late March of 2016, and ran for the House from Idaho County in November of 2016, for which she was required to be a resident for 12 months. If she legally qualified for the Ada homeowner’s exemption in 2015 and 2016, then she may not have qualified to run for office in Idaho County. Under the Idaho Constitution, only the House can resolve this question, and House members have concerns. We stand by our story.

Wayne’s column makes reference to Rep. Giddings’ military service. I also inquired of Rep. Giddings about that, as a clause in the Idaho homeowner’s exemption law permits active-duty military members to retain their homeowner’s exemption when their military service takes them away from home, even if they rent out the home while they’re gone. But Rep. Giddings left active duty in 2014, so that clause did not apply to the years in question.

And Wayne’s column makes reference to a Wednesday article in the Lewiston Tribune, headlined “Elections officials have no beef with Giddings,” without mentioning the rest of the headline: “but assessor might; Idaho Rep. received homeowner's exemption in Ada County when she was registered to vote in Idaho County.” The Tribune also ran my article on Tuesday; their Wednesday article doesn’t contradict mine in any way.

Giddings is among just eight House members who scored higher than 95 percent on Hoffman’s “Freedom Index” for their votes in the 2017 legislative session, which reflects how closely their votes align with the IFF’s agenda. The highest-scoring House members, at No. 1 and No. 2, were Reps. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg; and Heather Scott, R-Blanchard.