A Changing Landscape
While Idaho’s biggest metro area is seeing a largely unexpected explosion in growth driven by an influx of newcomers, the results has been a a spike in home prices and a jolt of high-wage jobs in several profession, a decrease in affordable housing, pressures on infrastructure and transportation and more. While Idaho, as a whole, is the fastest-growing state in the nation, many of our rural communities continue to suffer. These are among the issues to be addressed by Idaho’s leaders.
Boise has driven Idaho’s the growth — more than four in 10 Idaho residents now live within a half-hour’s drive of the State Capitol in the heart of the city.
According to a May, 2018 article by Kirk Johnson in the New York Times prior to the 2018 Idaho primary “that wave of urbanization and economic development has come a new political chemistry in this conservative rural state. Idaho’s new residents, clustering in Boise’s boom zone, are creating uncertainty about how they might vote in Tuesday’s primary for governor in a moment when economics, politics and demographics are all in motion.”
Women Candidates & Divisive Politics
And that’s pretty much what we saw. New faces have emerged from the Democratic Party in Idaho and, for the most part, they are women! While Idaho isn’t unique in this aspect as nationally more women are running for statewide offices than ever before.
What I find interesting is Idaho has seldom followed any national political trend. On both sides, Democrat and Republican, there is movement. Even so, the differences between the two major parties has never been so clear cut. According to the Idaho GOP, the Democratic Party is being run by the ghost of Stalin and communists, a very macho and obviously less than intuitive notion:
Idaho Democrats have accepted the endorsement of a group so extreme it almost makes Bernie Sanders look moderate. Gov’t takeover of healthcare, housing & banking. Open borders & reparations. “Mass liberation” of prisoners. Gun bans. #idpol #idaho #idleg https://t.co/IQHyawbPGR
— Idaho GOP (@IdahoGOP) September 18, 2018
The Idaho GOP has fielded candidates, this one a woman, who spouts off about showing kids her ammo when the kids are protesting Trump policy toward refugeees at a public event on campus at ISU, and seemingly supports domestic terrorism like Bunkerville and the Bundys…
I am pleased to have been able to meet this fine man, Scott Drexler, who was acquitted of charges in the Bunkerville, Oregon standoff case.
Scott and the other attendees who packed the Salmon Library to capacity are engaged and informed citizens. pic.twitter.com/1OF3qY9GO6
— Janice McGeachin (@JaniceMcGeachin) December 8, 2017
Sorry Janice, Bunkerville is Nevada.
Why the difference? Two often undervalued qualities are becoming more needed in today’s political climate – empathy and intuitiveness. Both qualities are generally part of the psychological make up for women. These traits aren’t simply personality bonuses. According to a recent study by Amen Clinics “the female brain is wired for leadership”.
Our 2018 Picks
♥ ♥ ♥ Our District 19 Team
And for 2018 and forever as long as they choose to run, there are no better candidates than the D19 Democratic team. Senator Cherie Buckner-Webb and Representatives Melissa Wintrow and Mat Erpelding and highly engaged and represent our district and are progressive voices for all Idahoans.
District 19 includes neighborhoods in North and Northwest Boise adjacent to the foothills up to Highway 55.
Ada County Commission
♥ Diane Lachiondo (Dist 1)
♥ Kendra Kenyon (Dist 3)
In addition to supporting Proposition 2 Medicaid Expansion, Northend.org is obviously focused on electing new leadership in Idaho. Regrettably there is little hope of picking up the District 1 or 2 seats in the U.S. Congress but there are some great leaders in the waiting. In our local races Diana Lachiondo has emerged as and excellent choice for Ada County Commission. Her running mate Kendra Kenyon has also given voters a clear choice. It is time the Ada County Commission, as well as all Ada County elected officials, started paying attention to the broader issues of land use, transportation, sustainability and affordable housing. These issues make Diana and Kendra the obvious choices!
♥ Paulette Jordan – Governor
Jordan is our pick for Idaho Governor over Lt. Governor Brad Little. Little has been Lt. Governor since 2009, was on the board of IACI for 20 years representing industry special interests. He represents, to our thinking, a continuation of the GOP hegemony of the past 25 years that has pushed Idaho down in education and innovation. Jordan’s election would be historic and she would prove to be the most innovative and original governor Idaho has had in the last 25 years.
Paulette Jordan was an Idaho legislator who won in 2014 and kept her seat in a historically Republican rural district during the 2016 Trump wave. She was first elected in 2014, beating a Republican incumbent, drawing heavily on the Native American vote in her district.
She is a distinguished member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s leadership, grew up in Plummer. She understands life in a unique way. About a third of the people in Plummer live below the poverty line and she has seen first hand the challenges rural Idaho faces. She has drawn on her childhood lessons from tribal elders and the struggles of her rural neighbors to form a platform that is unabashedly progressive, but nuanced for rural Idaho. She touts independence from party politics, both from Boise’s power structure and the ugliness in Washington.
More about Paulette Jordan here.
♥ Kristin Collum – Lt. Governor
Our choice for Lieutenant Governor is Kristin Collum. Not only does her service to our country stand out, her work ethic is evident through her campaign as she visited all of Idaho’s 44 counties. Her opponent Janice McGeachin (see tweet above) is another longtime Republican officeholder with the dubious distinction of espousing ideologies consistent with the Bundy clan and right-wing extremism on healthcare, public lands and women’s rights.
Kristin Collum received her bachelor’s in information systems management from the University of Maryland-College Park and master’s degree in information systems from Hawaii Pacific University. She has worked extensively in IT and served in the United States Army. Her military experience includes serving as platoon leader, special assignments with NATO and the personal staff for General Colin Powell. Collum listed the following as her professional credentials: Oracle Certified Professional, Project Management Professional, Agile Certified Practitioner, Certified Scrum Professional, and Certified Scrum Master. In other words, she has the smarts to be on a progressive team moving Idaho forward.
She is an advocate for public lands, education, health care and will be the first woman to serve as Idaho’s Lieutenant Governor.
Learn more about Kristin Collum here.
♥ Cindy Wilson – Superintendent
As Cindy Wilson’s message puts it, everything really does “boil down to one key word: learning.” Not only does Idaho’s constitution guarantees all Idaho kids a “uniform and thorough” system of public schools, the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled the GOP controlled Idaho legislature has shirked its duty in providing it. With the tax shift by former (temporary) Gov. James Rich in 2006 and the shenanigans of subsequent Governors, school funding was changed putting schools in a deep hole.
For over 30 years, Cindy’s been in the trenches of the effort to improve public education, teaching in the classroom and advocating for meaningful education reform. As Idaho’s next Superintendent of Public Instruction, Cindy will show up! She will show up for kids like she’s been showing up for class every day for 33 years. She knows that before a student can learn, they have to show up!
Learn more about Cindy Wilson here.