Some suggestions when you go to the polls
Today the Daily Bee continues its tradition of endorsing candidates or causes we feel will best represent the interests of residents in Bonner and Boundary counties.
We don’t pretend to think our choices will impact most voters; in fact, we hope they don’t. It would be our desire that voters have independently researched the candidates, their views, their affiliations, met them and attended a political forum or two.
Unfortunately, only about 40 percent of registered voters will cast a ballot this election cycle. It is impossible to say what percentage of the electorate will just vote straight ticket down party lines or will be influenced by a colorful yard sign or a rumor.
The Bee interviewed all of the candidates in the local races and most state races as well as sponsored a political forum.
In the end, all we can do is hope you cast a ballot this election. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain about the outcome and worse — you have ceded your vote to someone else.
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A funny thing happened in the Grand Old Party during the past few years in one of the most conservative states in the nation.
Terms like derailment and hijacking have been bantered about when a minority of the GOP decided to take the red party to a place it hadn’t gone before.
Some call this branch of the GOP the Tea Party. Several political stalwarts were “primaried” as the Tea Party wing disposed of Rep. George Eskridge, scared Gov. Butch Otter and gave Shawn Keough the closest race she has ever had as an Idaho state senator.
When the primary dust settled, the GOP had a very right-wing slate of candidates, so right-wing that another Republican group sprang up to right the GOP ship for the long-term.
The North Idaho Federation of Republican Women is a who’s who of movers and shakers of the traditional GOP. Mary Jo Ambrosiani, Donna Hutter, Verna Brady, former Idaho Sen. Joyce Broadsword, and Nancy Coffelt are forces to be reckoned with as far as GOP chops go. For them to flee the “old” Republican women’s group to start their own, means something is afoot.
Endorsements
State Sen. District 1
Shawn Keough earns our endorsement partially for the reason mentioned above but mostly because she has done a commendable job representing the varied interests in District 1.
She has refused to follow the Tea Party in lockstep and as a result has earned the ire of that group. She is facing Christian Fioravanti, who is running in the Constitution party.
Fioravanti is a compelling campaigner and an accomplished public speaker. If not elected in this cycle, our thought is he will run for a position that might better suit his lack of experience and begin building a political resume.
Keough is in a position of influence in a state capitol that will be in desperate need of leadership during the next session. She is savvy and experienced enough to avoid landmines while at the same time bringing disparate groups together. She is needed as we address Idaho’s ongoing issues with education and terrible infrastructure.
State Rep. Position A
Newcomer Laura Bry earns our support in a race where she will probably be clobbered on Tuesday.
Her opponent, Heather Scott, has outspent Bry because of deep pocketed groups that see the seat left open by the retiring Eric Anderson as too big of an opportunity to pass up.
Scott has some good ideas about inviting the public to learn more about hot-button issues but at the same time loses credibility when she refers to the Tea Party talking points about Idaho “reclaiming” federal lands as well as purposely misleading the public about how Idaho ended up with its version of Obamacare.
Her mistrust of the media — asking me in one private meeting in my office if I was recording our conversation — while blaming the media for supposedly taking a statement about how to avoid the invasive species checkpoints out of context from the primaries, shows me she is going to have trouble working with anyone who doesn’t buy into her Tea Party cookie cutter template.
The bottom line is Bry has not raised enough money to counter the prevailing winds this election cycle. For Bry to come close, she would have to turn out all of the dormant Democrats, bring in a host of moderate Republicans and hope that the rest of the anti-Tea Party Republicans don’t vote.
The Tea Party Republicans will be in the minority in Boise almost as much as the Democrats. For this once-influential seat to be moved to the back of the bus this year is a shame and it will be up to the voters to decide how long we remain there.
State Rep. Position B
Our endorsement of Andrew Sorg over Sage Dixon for Rep. George Eskridge’s old seat isn’t as ringing as it is for the other state representative seat detailed above.
Sage Dixon should win Tuesday’s election in a walk for many of the same reasons I mentioned in the endorsement above. While he isn’t getting the same amount of election cash Scott is receiving, he has been the hardest working of the four candidates in these two races.
He is also the most improved candidate from the primary to the general election.
What slightly tips the scale to Sorg is that he better expresses the importance of managing Lake Pend Oreille’s fishery, pool levels and quality better than his opponent. He also thinks outside of the box and would work across the aisle if elected in the future.
Dixon won’t be a firebrand, headline making politico. He has shown an ability to listen, work hard and nobody should assume he is in the bag for anyone. He could truly be a statesmen in waiting.
Sorg hasn’t had enough money or time to go after the soft voter in this election and that is a shame. While more diehard Republicans have told me they are going to support Sorg than Bry, the gap is wide.
Sorg is planting seeds this election cycle for a crop of candidates that are betting that Boise and the GOP will be bogged down in partisan and inter-party squabbling this session and that the public will finally say enough is enough.
Bonner County
County Clerk
Help! Everyone likes the current clerk Ann Dutson-Sater and most everyone agrees that she made a rookie mistake with how she handled a recall petition for school trustee Steve Youngdahl.
She is still facing felony charges for her actions and she will have her day in court after the election. If she is found guilty of the felony, she cannot serve as clerk but she could is she pleads the charge down to a misdemeanor.
Lost in all of this is the fact that her opponent, Michael Rosedale, is a practicing attorney and CPA and by all accounts would be taking a steep decrease in pay and a huge increase in hassle if he gave up his lawyering to take the position.
Dutson-Sater and Rosedale are cordial to each other and seem to enjoy each other’s company. In the short amount of time Dutson-Sater has been in office she has jumped on tightening up communication with other departments and representing her employees. Rosedale would bring in a deeper level of organization to the clerk’s department and would vanquish the last Democratic county official.
Rosedale has been cautious about commenting on the legal whirlwind surrounding Dutson-Sater. For good reason. In his questionnaire he steered away from any topic he didn’t feel comfortable answering. He answered the fewest questions of anyone on the ballot.
While Dutson-Sater in a known commodity who made what looks like a rookie mistake but appears to be on the right track, Rosedale is an unknown who appears to be overqualified for the job and strikes me as a consummate professional.
Can’t help you on this one. Both would do a good job. This is a “you pick’em.”
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County Commission, Dist. 1
Who doesn’t like Steve Johnson? The former educator/principal lifetime local calls them as he sees them whether it is the courthouse funding fiasco, questioning the honesty and integrity of current commissioners as well as what he calls a lack of leadership in the courthouse. Whew!
The only problem with all of this is that the last commissioner that had anything to do with the courthouse funding is gone and by most accounts, commission chairman Cary Kelly and incoming commissioner Todd Sudick are pretty straight shooters.
It appears the voters have already solved most of what is motivating Johnson to run.
Glen Bailey has taken to on the job training better than most. He is onboard to ride the Silverwing lawsuit out and is working to attract more high tech businesses to the county.
While Johnson would to a good job, we feel that Bailey is learning and growing with the position and deserves a chance to serve for a full term. Remember, he replaced Joyce Broadsword after she left the position to go to work for the state Health and Welfare department.
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Increase the Sandpoint Bed Tax from 5 percent to 7 percent. We are absolutely in favor of this painless tax.