‘Am I next?’: Idaho politicians face increasing threats and harassment while in office
During Chad Houck’s brief run for the job of Idaho secretary of state, he received dozens of angry emails and phone calls. A package of shredded campaign materials was sent to his home.
But it’s when people started sending messages to his teenage children on social media and approaching them in person that he reconsidered his candidacy.
“When you start crossing those lines … it becomes really difficult to put up with that level of tension,” said Houck, the chief deputy secretary of state, in a phone interview.
He announced in December that he would end his campaign.
In recent months, several public officials and candidates across the Treasure Valley have either resigned, dropped out of races or announced they won’t run for reelection because of harassment and threats they have received in office.
The Idaho Statesman has counted at least nine public officials across the area who have publicly discussed having received threats or harassment in recent months. Their experience mirrors a national trend of public officials facing an increasing number of threatening comments from their constituents.
The most recent local example is Democratic Ada County Commissioner Kendra Kenyon, who said Thursday that she would not seek reelection for a second term, citing “a hostile community culture.”
That includes a barrage of negative comments and threats surrounding the appointment last year of COVID-19 vaccine critic Ryan Cole to the Central District Health board.
“It’s not healthy for me,” Kenyon said by phone. “I think I could do as much good on the outside without the pressure of the bullying.”
Her announcement came more than a year after Kenyon’s former colleague on the commission, Diana Lachiondo, also a Democrat, had a swarm of anti-mask protesters in late 2020 surround her home while her son was home alone. Protesters also went to homes of several other local officials.
While Kenyon said she hasn’t received the same level of threats, seeing those made against Lachiondo, as well as Boise Mayor Lauren McLean, made her worry about the potential escalation she could face.
“Those are two female Democrat leaders in this community — am I next?” she said.
While there’s usually an element of vitriol in politics, Boise State Public Policy Professor Stephanie Witt said the harassment of public officials has gone beyond the norm.
“It does seem worse to me and more widespread,” Witt said by phone.
School board officials have seen some of the vitriolic behavior from the public, as many local school boards were making decisions regarding masks and vaccine requirements for their students and staff. Three school board members — Paula Kellerer and Mike Kipp of Nampa and Amy Johnson of West Ada — have resigned in 2022 because of harassment they say they received while in office.
Kipp, in particular, faced an attempted recall over his vote to delay in-person learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The behavior can be seen in nearly every type of public body, aimed at people in either political party. Idaho Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder, R-Boise, said there were multiple instances last summer of anti-vaccine protesters appearing at his residence and knocking on his door.
Winder said the harassment is a tactic used by some organizations to wear down those they don’t agree with and drive them into leaving public life altogether.
“All of us that are in elected office know that we’re targets,” he said. “When they take it down to our family and to our own homes, that’s crossed a new line.”
Winder said that in the past four years, he’s seen a large number of people who would have made good politicians decide not to run.
Local party officials have taken notice, too. Erik Berg, chairman of the Ada County Democratic Party, said it’s becoming harder to recruit candidates for positions as low as a precinct captain.
“They don’t want to have their name on the ballot or be publicly identified with that, because they don’t want to be harassed,” Berg said.
Idaho GOP Chair Tom Luna said Friday that no official or candidate of his party has come to him with concerns about being harassed or threatened. He said such behavior “has no place” in local elections.
Some threats have prompted changes in official policy on the local level. The Boise City Council’s policy on keeping travel plans undisclosed beforehand stems from serious threats made towards some members of the body, although specifics about the threats have not been made public.
In response to a Statesman request for comment, Mayor Lauren McLean did not discuss any threats she or the council have received but said it’s becoming all too prevalent for public officials to fear for their safety.
“I’m incredibly disheartened to see good people stepping down from public service because of the very real threats made against them,” McLean said in an emailed statement. “I hope as a community we won’t let these threats designed to terrify and silence us win.”
Witt said fixing the problem will likely require Republican and Democratic leaders admonishing those who continue to behave poorly.
“It’s pretty intuitive: If people are afraid, or afraid for their kids, they’re not going to run,” Witt said. “And that costs all of us in the long run.”
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