I’m going to make this short and sweet as this primary election has been more contentious than any I have experienced in my 31 years of following politics in Idaho. I have said many times in my writing and on the radio that Idaho is basically a Libertarian-bent state when it comes to politics and once again this year we see the many factions that are vying for your support. The Gem State Patriot has already put out their picks for this year’s primary and we hope you all had an opportunity to read it. We realize that we are not the with-all to end-all when it comes to figuring out who the most conservative candidates are so we are going to give you another source that you can examine to decide who will serve Idahoans values best.
We chose the Institute for Legislative Analysis for 2023 which we published a link to several issues ago. Their extensive voting analysis clearly showed that members of our senate according to their voting records had definitely turned it Blue. Here is the link for this report.
https://scorecard.limitedgov.org/lawmakers?state=ID
This second report was just recently published and is also from the Institute for Legislative Analysis but it shows the voting records for 2024. This is where it gets interesting as we can clearly see from the scoring of how our legislators voted that Idaho not only has a Senate that has turned Blue but also a House that has also shifted to the left. So while the various factions of Republicans continue to rip and tear each other apart the RINO’S are winning and will continue to win until all of these various splinter groups that have formed join together to fight the real enemy. So without further ado, we will share the link for the 2024 rankings.
As you can see there has been a definite shift in the number of House members who are voting as if they were democrats. Keep in mind this study matches our representatives’ philosophical values based on their voting on legislation. Idaho’s Senate is made up of 35 members and in the 2023 survey 21 of these legislators had voted as if they were democrats but for 2024, they flipped one more moderate republican to give them solid control with 22 republicans voting like democrats. As for the House of Representatives, there are a total of 70 seats and this is where the rubber meets the road. This new survey has shown that our House has also been flipped. This was a study, encompassing over 5,200 votes and found philosophically Democratic lawmakers have now taken control of Idaho’s House of Representatives (37 Democrats to 33 Republicans) due to 5 moderate Republicans shifting their philosophies to the Democratic side.
Mike Moyle has been a target of the elitists Rino’s controlled by IACI evidently because Mike did not quite tow the mark with them so they are on the attack to unseat him in this primary. I have known Mike for many years and although I found him to be a fence sitter in many cases, he weighs his vote carefully before committing. He evidently has crossed the line for the IACI Pac. Mike took aim at Idaho’s Dept. of Health and Welfare and the $93 million loss it took for the Health Data Exchange. This caused Dave Jepperson it’s director and a confirmed IACI Lackey to retire. Only to be replaced temporally by another IACI Lackey Dean Cameron Idaho’s director of Insurance. It should also be noted that House Speaker Mike Moyle’s record shows his overall political philosophy has remained unchanged since the last analysis (64.52% in 2024 vs. 64.22% in 2023). While Mike became more progressive in his economic philosophy this was offset by more conservative positions in the healthcare and local and national security categories.
When we look at the leader of our Senate Chuck Winder, he now holds a solid Democratic philosophy due to his further movement to the left with a score of (37.97% in 2024 vs. 43.75% in 2023). It appears that Idaho’s republican representatives don’t just have differing views on policy but completely different political philosophies. While the ILA says “It appears Democratic operatives have cracked the code on how to confuse voters and take control of a legislature in a predominately Republican state” we look at it a bit differently. In the past Idaho has been dubbed the Reddest of the Red States but over the past 20 years that moniker is no longer applicable. We believe that Idaho has over the past 24 years been taken over by the old-line Ag boys and the corporate elitists ever since Governor Little was Chairman of IACI in 2000 “the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry”. Idaho’s metamorphosis started with Governor Butch Otter who was once a fire-breathing libertarian, an opponent of taxes, regulation, and government spending. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long after he was elected governor that he too was influenced by the corporate and Agriculture elitists who together formed the new political power structure in Idaho. Those who did not bend a knee to this new group were destined to be challenged in their next primary by someone promoted by these new political hacks.
If you’re wondering why you have received so many shiny new mailers promoting various candidates for committeeman, representatives, and senators it is because this is the final push by the elites to take over our state and turn it bright blue. We ask you to do some homework before the primary and look hard at these two surveys as they tell a very important story as to who you can trust and who you can’t.
Our message at the Gem State has always been clear. Know who your candidates are and if they truly represent your values or you will, as we always say, “Get the Government YOU Deserve”.
