Last February there was an apparent coordinated effort to disrupt a Republican Town Hall event featuring local legislators. The guests were advised by me and the Master of Ceremonies that good behavior was expected and that people who refused to respect the rights of others would be removed from the venue. Despite the warnings, the […]
How big a mess? No one really knows, because those running the bureaucracy—and those supposed to cover it in the press—have shown remarkably little curiosity about what is happening inside our state government. The LUMA accounting system, for example, has been associated with serious implementation problems, including duplicated payments and delays in reconciling transactions across […]
As we hear the cry from many Americans about how unaffordable America is, we need to ask ourselves how this came about. Well, I would suggest that opening our borders and allowing 10 or 15 million illegal aliens to migrate and scatter to every congressional district in the country has caused a serious strain on […]
Dear Friends, Last month, our entire office gathered at the Idaho State Capitol for our annual Office Wide Meeting. Every November, we bring everyone together to look back on the year’s work and recognize the people who made it happen. My Chief of Staff Phil Skinner kicked things off with updates from every division on […]
IDAHO FALLS, ID — Attorney General Raúl Labrador recognized Detective Jared Mendenhall of the Idaho Falls Police Department and Detective Korey Payne of the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office for reaching 100 combined arrests through the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. The milestone represents years of investigations protecting vulnerable children from online predators across […]
Reprinted with permission of the Idaho Freedom Foundation It’s no exaggeration to say that Idaho taxpayers spend millions of dollars every single day on wasteful and sometimes unconstitutional state-run programs. The Idaho Freedom Foundation’s (IFF) goal is to find and eliminate as many of these programs as possible. To this end, the IFF has submitted recommendations on […]
Don’t you love Election Day? I’ve always enjoyed watching the returns come in, digging into the numbers, and seeing what’s happening beneath the surface. Like any sporting contest, every Election Day has winners and losers. I’ve been on both sides. Winning is certainly better than losing, but anyone willing to put their name on the […]
You know, I think I’ve traveled more in the three and a half years since I was elected chair of the Idaho GOP than ever before in my life. In that time, I’ve visited nearly every county in Idaho—sometimes crossing from one end of the state to the other in the course of just a […]
Idaho is growing faster than most of us can keep up with. New subdivisions appear almost overnight. Cities expand their boundaries. State lawmakers celebrate population increases as a mark of success. Growth has become the headline. But in the middle of this boom, something deeper is being forgotten: the difference between growth politics and governance. […]
When most people think of elections, they picture the noise and spectacle of presidential years—rallies, debates, and wall-to-wall news coverage. But while those contests grab the headlines, it’s the quieter local elections that often shape our daily lives the most. On November 4th, Idahoans will once again have the chance to vote—this time for city […]
North Idaho is largely populated by good and friendly people. People who volunteer their time for civic and charitable causes. People you would want for neighbors. People who inspired the joke: “I was at the local hardware store and while I was searching for what I wanted, three different people asked if I needed assistance…. […]
Origins of Idaho’s Grocery Tax: Idaho had briefly experimented with a 2% sales tax (including on food) in 1935 to raise revenue, but that early tax proved hugely unpopular and was repealed in 1937. Idaho’s taxation of groceries is rooted in the state’s adoption of a general sales tax in the mid-1960s. While many assume […]