BOISE – Idaho County Commissioner Jim Chmelik would use the position of lieutenant governor the same way he’s used his county position, he said in a televised debate Friday: He’d travel the state and nation urging support for the transfer of federal public lands to the states. Chmelik is facing incumbent Lt. Gov. Brad Little in the May 20 primary election. Both are Republicans.

BOISE – The four Republican candidates for Idaho state schools chief split over the new student testing program that the state is currently developing, with just one of the four backing the state’s current approach. “Our local school district has already created curriculum to meet that higher standard of the Common Core, and it would be nice to see how our students did,” said Andy Grover, superintendent of schools in Melba, in a televised debate Thursday night. “We have to have some accountability, and that accountability for the Common Core standards is the SBAC testing.”

BOISE – About a week out from the primary election, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has launched his first TV campaign commercial, showing him in a cowboy hat, riding a horse, touting tax cuts and explaining how he’s “fought EPA.” “I follow the Code of the West: stay true to your brand and your values,” Otter says in the ad, referring to a cowboy ethics code published in a 2004 book by Wall Street veteran James P. Owen titled, “Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West.”

BOISE – Challenger C.T. “Chris” Troupis came out swinging against Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden Thursday night as the two Republicans met in a televised debate, accusing the third-term official of being “weak” and having “lost his way.” “Perhaps decades ago, he had the right vision, but his weak actions show that he’s been captured by the immense power of office,” Troupis said. “Time and again he’s chosen to side with the government rather than the people.”