On radio, Rep. Heather Scott goes on attack day after public punishment in Idaho House

Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, took to the radio waves Friday to defend her actions and to tear into a fellow lawmaker she said has tarnished the House of Representatives.

Scott blamed gossip and Rep. Christy Perry, R-Nampa, for the fact that Scott lost her seats on three House committees.

On Thursday, House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, removed Scott from the committees as punishment for Scott’s comments overheard by other lawmakers that female legislators earn committee chairmanships only through sexual favors.

Scott spoke on the Nate Shelman Show on 670 KBOI Friday evening, saying allegations Perry made about Scott in a letter to Bedke “are completely false if not slanderous. ... She is probably going to get a letter from my attorney.”

In her letter, Perry said she had “grave concerns” about Scott’s “behavior patterns” and asked the speaker to “make necessary adjustments to secure a comfortable and safe work environment.”

Perry also said Scott “displayed paranoid and aggressive behavior,” including damaging the Capitol in a search for bugs she was convinced were installed by leadership to spy on her.

But Scott said that when Perry broke Idaho’s adultery law by having an extramarital affair with Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-Inkom, Perry was “promoted” and not prosecuted. Perry was named chairman of the House Local Government Committee this session, but Scott didn’t say why she thought the affair contributed to Perry’s assignment. News of the affair became public when Guthrie’s wife discussed it last summer.

When Scott was asked by Shelman whether she wants Bedke to reinstate her committee seats, Scott responded: “I will take what I am given. That’s what you have to do when you have a top-down micromanager in charge of a body. You do what you are told.”

The full interview is available here.

Also on Friday, the Idaho Attorney General’s Office announced that it has decided not to file criminal charges after the office was asked to review accusations of possible voter intimidation and interference by Scott’s team during campaigning for last November’s election.

According to police reports, a Democratic campaign volunteer in late September was told he “better watch his back” by a man wearing a hat promoting the re-election campaign of Scott. The volunteer later found a group of people wearing Scott campaign hats and buttons taking pictures of his vehicle in a grocery store parking lot.

This story was originally published January 13, 2017 at 6:06 PM with the headline "On radio, Rep. Heather Scott goes on attack day after public punishment in Idaho House."