Young challengers oust longtime College of Western Idaho trustees in tight race
In one of many of the Boise area’s many electoral upsets Tuesday night, two challengers — and first-time candidates — ousted established incumbents on the College of Western Idaho’s board of trustees.
After leading most of the night, Samantha Guerrero, a Caldwell Latina, defeated incumbent board chairman Skip Smyser in Zone 1, while April Baylon-Mendoza, a Filipina from Kuna, defeated incumbent Mary Niland in Zone 3.
With State Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb — Idaho’s first and only Black female senator — securing her unopposed run in Zone 5, the incoming board of Idaho’s largest community college creates a rarity in the state’s politics: an all-female board, with a majority women of color.
“It better represents our community,” Guerrero, 27, told the Statesman by phone in the early hours of Wednesday. “We have more diversity, we have different cultures. When you look at Idaho and our changing demographics, as well as the community we serve, it better reflects that.”
Baylon-Mendoza, 35, said she believed voters wanted a change and their message resonated with their respective communities.
“We’re both people who were students here, we know the experience here and we want to see our students stay within Idaho colleges, graduate from Idaho colleges and be able to come back to their communities and do exactly what we’ve done,” Baylon-Mendoza said.
Each seat on the College of Western Idaho board of trustees has a four-year term, and trustees are selected by voters in Ada and Canyon counties, regardless of zone.
Trustees Molly Lenty of Zone 2 and Annie Hightower of Zone 4 were not up for reelection. Mark Dunham of Boise, who helped found the college, stepped down after serving for 13 years and endorsed Buckner-Webb, according to Idaho Education News.
The new board will be sworn in and begin their terms Nov. 16. The incoming trustees of the Nampa-based college will address some of the same pandemic-related challenges many college leaders are grappling with around the country.
About the CWI candidates
Guerrero handily defeated Zone 1 incumbent and board chairman Skip Smyser by a margin of more than 25,000 votes. After leading most of the night, Guerrero tallied a total of 139,828 votes, winning the majority in both Ada and Canyon counties. Smyser followed behind with 113,775 votes.
Guerrero grew up in Caldwell and graduated from the College of Idaho in 2017. She is a bilingual community organizer for the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils and the co-founder of the Idaho Immigrant Resource Alliance, which is raising money to help undocumented Idaho families during the pandemic. This was her first time running for office.
Smyser, a fifth-generation Idahoan and Canyon County resident, is the former CEO of Lobby Idaho and the owner of Capitol Cellars, a restaurant in Downtown Boise. He is a former member of both the Idaho State Senate and the Idaho House of Representatives and a former deputy attorney general.
In Zone 3, incumbent Mary Niland, who is the board’s treasurer and secretary, also trailed Baylon-Mendoza for most of the night, although by a much tighter margin. According to final results from Ada and Canyon counties, Baylon-Mendoza had 124,044 votes and Niland had 117,345 votes.
Nampa native Niland has served on the board of trustees since CWI was founded in 2007 and recently retired from her position as the president and CEO of the Western Idaho Training Company, a nonprofit that helps people with disabilities in southwest Idaho and eastern Oregon. She was a founding member of the college in 2007.
Baylon-Mendoza, a graduate of CWI and Boise State University, is a child services supervisor for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. This was also her first time running for elected office.
In statements to the Idaho Statesman, Baylon-Mendoza and Guerrero emphasized the importance of taking the college in new directions and making higher education increasingly accessible for students from non-traditional backgrounds or who are the first in their family to attend college.
“My life was changed by my time at CWI,” Baylon-Mendoza said, saying her experience working full-time with a family while attending CWI drives her desire to help students like her. “I’m really looking forward to getting to the table and talking with the other trustees to have these solutions for students within Ada County and in these areas that kind of get overlooked.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 9:46 PM.
