Republicans take control of Ada County Commission with wins by Davidson, Beck
Just two years after Democrats flipped the Ada County Commission, Republicans won it back.
Ryan Davidson, a Republican from Garden City and former chair of the Ada County GOP, ousted incumbent Commissioner Diana Lachiondo in a narrow race for District 1. He’ll join Rod Beck, a Republican who won District 2, as business-friendly faces on the commission.
Republican incumbents won resounding victories in the prosecutor’s race and the sheriff’s race.
Commission
Lachiondo, a Democrat from Boise, lost her seat just two years after being elected. Davidson took 51.2% of the vote with all precincts reporting.
Some voters apparently chose Davidson as a referendum on Lachiondo’s pro-mask stance in the fight against the coronavirus as part of her role as a board member for Central District Health. Lachiondo’s seat on the CDH board will go to a different member of the commission.
While Lachiondo held a big lead in early and absentee votes, as Election Day votes trickled in, she ultimately conceded the election early Wednesday.
In a Wednesday morning Facebook post, Lachiondo wrote that she was pleased with Ada County’s high voter turnout, and the high number of ballots cast was the result of months of tireless work.
“But we came up short,” Lachiondo wrote. “It was an important and worthy fight, but we came up short.”
Lachiondo went on to thank voters for electing her two years ago, and she will continue to serve Ada County for the two months remaining in her term.
“I have called Mr. Davidson and left him a message,” Lachiondo told the Statesman through her campaign. “I sincerely wish him well.”
Davidson will serve a four-year term, during which he told the Statesman he hopes to address property taxes and support businesses negatively affected by COVID-19.
He called Lachiondo a “class act” and a “great public servant.”
“We had a different way of looking at things,” he told the Statesman early Wednesday. “This year, I think we’ll see a bit of different direction for the county.”
Beck, a former state Senate majority leader who works in real estate, also won, over Bill Rutherford, a Democrat and a retired engineer from Meridian, for District 2 commissioner. Beck had 53.9% of the vote, solidifying a Republican majority on the three-person commission for at least the next two years.
Beck will replace Commissioner Patrick Malloy for a two-year term representing Eagle, Star, much of Meridian and pieces of the westernmost parts of Boise. Malloy was named to the commission by Gov. Brad Little in April after former Commissioner Rick Visser retired in March. Malloy was originally in the race but dropped out of the primary election shortly before being appointed to the commission.
The three-member Ada County Commission rotates terms so that two commissioners are on the ballot in any given election, which is why Lachiondo was up only two years after winning her seat for the first time in 2018.
Lachiondo raised more money for her race than any other non-federal candidate in Idaho, according to records from the Secretary of State’s Office, bringing in more than $200,000 as of Election Day. Much of that came from local Democrats, including state-level politicians such as Sen. Maryanne Jordan, and from some developers, including Tommy Ahlquist and David Wali.
Many of her supporters were in favor of her attempts to try to pay for growth by working to impose county impact fees on developers in an attempt to keep taxes lower for people who already live in the county.
Davidson raised $16,534. Davidson ran primarily a small-government campaign, saying he would work to lower property taxes and get state law changed to try to limit high appraisals on homes by the Ada County Assessor’s Office. He also focused on limiting the budget and said he considers the county’s current strategies for growth to be irresponsible, including the push for impact fees. Those stances won him favor with pro-business groups, particularly with many developers looking to build homes in the county.
In the District 2 race, Beck, a Boisean, raised more than $66,000, according to campaign finance reports, including several $1,000 donations from construction companies and builders. Rutherford raised just over $12,000, much of it from local Democrats. That included $1,000 donations each from former gubernatorial candidate A.J. Balukoff and his wife, Susie, and $250 each from Rep. Lauren Necochea, former Idaho House Minority Leader Mat Erpelding and fellow commission candidate Lachiondo.
Prosecutor
Jan Bennetts, an Eagle Republican, won a second term with a solid lead in the prosecutor’s race, claiming 58.8% of the reported votes to opponent Ron Twilegar’s 41.4%.
In a race where Republicans typically run unopposed, Bennetts ran a relatively quiet race against the Boise Democrat, who once served as Boise County prosecutor.
“I am so humbled, grateful, privileged, to represent my community,” Bennetts wrote in a text message early Wednesday morning. “It is the greatest honor of my career to keep my community safe. I am so honored to represent my team of women and men who work so hard to keep our community safe.”
Bennetts promised to continue advocating for public safety and victims’ rights. She raised nearly $10,000, which includes donations from the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police and several in-kind donations she made to herself.
Twilegar questioned Bennetts’ judgment, including calling her out for felony-level marijuana charges against out-of-state truckers who transported hemp through Idaho on his campaign website. His campaign took in more than $30,000, according to campaign finance records. Nearly 95% of that money came from a $28,750 loan Twilegar made to himself in April. He reported donations from only three other named individuals.
Sheriff
Steve Bartlett, a Republican from Meridian, also won a second full term, besting Boise Democrat Zachery Wagner with 61.4% of the vote.
Bartlett has been in office since being appointed sheriff in 2015. He won the seat in an unopposed race in 2016. Campaign finance reports show he took in only $1,000 in donations this cycle, from an Alabama-based company called Global Tel Link Corp. Much of his spending has come from more than $41,000 he had on hand from his previous campaign.
It appears that even with only a single donation, Bartlett still outraised Wagner, who has not filed any campaign finance reports with the Secretary of State’s Office since submitting his treasurer application in May.
Candidates were competing in Ada County’s largest election ever, with more than 87% of the county’s nearly 300,000 registered voters casting a ballot.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 9:40 PM.
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