Idaho purity test: Conservative enough?

In his online column today, Shawn Vestal/SR writes:

Maxine Bell is almost certainly headed toward the happy conclusion of a 30-year career as a rock-solid, budget-minded Idaho conservative legislator. She just won her primary and there is no Democrat on the general election ballot.

Bell, an 84-year-old from the south-central Idaho town of Jerome, has been a member of the budget committee since her second year in office. She’s a retired librarian, farmer, and member of the LDS Church. She is a dues-paying member of the NRA who opposes background checks on private gun sales. She opposes abortion, even in cases of incest or rape, according to Project Vote Smart.

She is also – by the lights of the self-appointed right-wing police – not conservative enough.

The Idaho Freedom Foundation, a secretive lobbying group that hides its donors by identifying itself as a charitable organization, has given her a score of 4 on its Freedom Index. Out of 100. It’s a ridiculous list, made by an organization that believes Idaho’s Legislature is “not even close” to conservative enough, but still. And an absolutist gun-rights group with growing influence in Idaho politics has labeled Bell “anti-Second Amendment” and worked against her in the recent primary, which she won anyway.

Welcome to Idaho politics, circa 2016 – where the question is: Conservative enough? More here.