Race for Idaho Senate seat pits conservative incumbent accused of residency issues against Democrat

Democrat Tom Hearn is seeking the Idaho Senate seat held by incumbent Republican Phil Hart, who has faced a complaint this year that asserts he doesn’t live at the Kellogg home where he is registered to vote.

Hearn, a retired social worker and counselor from St. Maries, previously served on the Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai school boards. Hart, who has served one term in the state Senate representing District 2 and in the Idaho House of Representatives from 2004-12, declined to comment for this story.

Hearn said he decided to run against Hart because of Hart’s stance on most items before the Legislature.

“I strongly disagree with him on many issues,” he said. “He voted opposite me on just about every issue. I strongly support education, and he voted against that. He voted in favor of the library bill, which I did not support.”

The library bill passed by the state requires that libraries segregate materials deemed “harmful” to minors to special sections or be sued.

Hart also voted against the state’s health and welfare budget and against a statement condemning racism, Hearn said.

Most of Hearn’s community service happened through organizations dedicated to children. He served on the Friends of Head Start board for 12 years and was a founding member of the Idaho Network for Children. Education has been a priority for him, and he said the state does not support schools adequately. Funding is structured in such a way that school districts are forced to go to voters to approve levy money, he said.

“Public schools in Idaho are in bad shape,” he said. “If you look at the national statistics, we are always near the bottom.”

School vouchers are not the answer, Hearn said.

“Vouchers, in my opinion, are a way of diverting public money into private schools without any accountability. Republicans have made it very clear they want to do vouchers,” noting that he “strongly opposes” them.

Republicans have been in control of the state Legislature for decades, so the state of Idaho’s schools are because of their policies, Hearn said.

“The problems in Idaho can be laid at the feet of Republicans,” he said.

Hearn said that Hart lists immigration as one of his priorities and boasts of visiting the southern border seven times. Hart always wants to back money with enough gold and silver currency, Hearn said.

“Those are not things the Idaho Legislature has any say about,” he said.

Voters don’t care much about those issues, either, Hearn said.

“They’re concerned about roads, schools, public lands being available for fishing and hunting,” he said.

Hearn said he favors promoting tourism and supporting small businesses as a way to increase economic development in rural areas. Those areas need good infrastructure and good roads, he said.

“A lot of rural areas are hurting,” he said. “There’s a lot of poverty.”

Hearn said he also does not favor the bill the state Legislature passed that bans all abortions except in rare cases and makes performing an abortion a felony. Hearn said many medical professionals left the state after the law was passed. The Bonner General Health in Sandpoint shuttered its labor and delivery department because there weren’t enough doctors left.

“That’s a problem across the state,” he said.

In states where abortion bans were put on the ballot, they were all voted down, Hearn said. He favors putting Idaho’s new law on the ballot for a public vote.

“Let the public decide if they really want this law,” he said. “I don’t think they do.”

Hearn said he knows he faces an uphill battle as a Democrat in heavily Republican Idaho.

“Being a Democrat, it’s going to be tough to win over here,” he said. “I wanted to give voters a choice. I’m really good at listening to people. I feel strongly that I would be a good senator.”

In early October, a pair of District 2 residents filed a complaint with the Secretary of State alleging that Hart does not live at the home in Kellogg where he is registered to vote. The home has been under construction for years and it doesn’t appear that anyone lives there, they alleged.

The secretary of state’s office quickly closed the complaint, releasing a letter on Oct. 7 saying Hart had provided proof of residency. Under state law, that proof can include a driver’s license, a property deed or a property tax assessment.

Residency issues are not new for Hart. In 2018, when he was running for a District 7 seat against Rep. Paul Shepherd, the Secretary of State declared Hart ineligible to appear on the ballot because he hadn’t been a registered voter in the district for the required year before running for office.

Hart previously served in the Idaho House of Representatives for eight years before losing to Ed Morse in 2012.

On his website, Hart lays out his support for gun rights, lower taxes and parental rights. He argues that all federal lands in Idaho should be handed over to the state and that state rights should be protected from “federal encroachment.” He also quotes the Bible as the reason he supports homeschooling.

“Train up your child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 reads.

In addition to favoring the elimination of the state’s sales tax on groceries, Hart states that he believes that all food grown, produced and sold in Idaho should be exempt from federal regulations.

Hart also writes about a logging theft case in 1996 where he cut trees from state school endowment land and built a log home in Athol with them. He argued at the time that, as a citizen, he was allowed to take however many trees he wanted from state land. He reiterates that argument on his web page, but the court did not agree.

“The court said I had to pay for the logs,” his website says. “The missing link for the bureaucrats was that I didn’t get a permit from them.”

Hart then included a link to a logging permit he obtained on Aug. 18, 2020, that was valid through Dec. 31, 2020.

“Recently I did get such a permit,” he wrote.

Also in 1996, Hart filed a lawsuit against the IRS, arguing federal income tax is unconstitutional, and also stopped filing his taxes. After he lost the suit, he entered a settlement with the IRS in 2015 to auction off his Athol home in order to partially satisfy his tax debt, according to a Spokesman-Review story.

Hart touts endorsements by Action Idaho, Gem State Patriot, Stop Idaho RINOs PAC and Make Liberty Win.

Finance records show that Hart raised $18,473 in donations, about $7,000 of which came from individuals. Donors giving $2,000 include SMC Properties LLC; Stefan Gleason of Charlotte, North Carolina; the Senate Republican PAC of Idaho; and Kelly Anthon, of Burley, Idaho.

Hearn has raised $19,760, almost all of it from individuals. His only PAC donations were $1,000 from the Kootenai County Democrats Club and $500 from the Idaho Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. His top donor was Dennis Carter of San Diego, who contributed $2,000.

District 2 includes most of northern Kootenai County north of state Highway 53 as well as areas north of Coeur d’Alene, including Hayden and Hayden Lake. The district also includes all of western Kootenai County.