Why were Meridian’s City Council elections so close? Look at the partisan infighting

Conservative activism wedged itself forcefully into the latest nonpartisan Meridian City Council races and nearly succeeded in unseating two incumbents.

In heavily Republican Meridian, a GOP-dominated slate of conservatives challenged the GOP incumbents for three of the council’s six seats in last week’s election. Two challengers questioned the incumbents’ Republican Party loyalty and conservatism. Those two challengers, despite raising little money for campaigns, lost their races by thin margins — 56 votes in one case.

The third challenger evidently did little campaigning yet still collected more than 5,000 votes, two of every five cast, in his race.

“There was definitely a tinge of partisan infighting,” said Luke Cavener, a Meridian City Councilman who barely managed to keep his seat despite outspending his challenger 6 to 1, according to the latest campaign-finance reports.

Cavener, the managing director of the Western Advocacy for the American Cancer Society Action Network and a two-term council veteran, won the race for City Council Seat 6 by just 56 votes, according to preliminary election results from Ada County. He raised $37,530 in campaign donations — $31,526 more than his challenger, Mike Hon, as of Oct. 10.

Cavener won his first City Council race in 2013 by just 45 votes. There were five other candidates in that race.

Hon, a real estate broker, had the backing of ConservativesOf, a political action committee and organization based in Eagle that is dedicated to gathering and providing information on candidates for local, state and federal offices.

The ConservativesOf website says the organization’s focus is on “often overlooked local elections especially which are ‘nonpartisan’ in nature, more numerous, and therefore often more difficult to acquire the pertinent information regarding their ideological and political affiliations and origins.”

Scott Garbarino also ran for Seat 6, but told the Idaho Press that he would not be campaigning and endorsed Hon. Hon’s and Garbarino’s combined votes exceed Cavener’s.

ConservativesOf Meridian backed Hon, Adam Nelson and Hunter Wolf. Nelson, a managing partner at the Meridian Speedway, challenged Treg Bernt, who owns his own flooring business and has served one term, for Seat 4. Wolf challenged Joe Borton, an attorney who has served three terms, for Seat 2.

At least five of the six active candidates are Republican. Wolf’s party affiliation could not be verified. Wolf filed no campaign-finance disclosure report, did not attend any City Council candidate forums and had no online campaign presence — and garnered more than 5,000 votes. He did not return repeated requests for comment.

MERIDIAN CITY COUNCIL ELECTION RESULTS

Money raised through Oct. 10, the latest available. Winners in boldface. Unofficial results.

“Joe, Treg and I have been Republicans as long as ever,” Cavener said. “This is the first time in Meridian, that I can remember, where one group is questioning and trying to diminish a candidate because they don’t subscribe to a specific brand.”

On Hon and Nelson’s campaign Facebook pages, they appear in videos frequently together, pushing viewers to vote for both of them and Wolf.

“Adam Nelson is a guy who cares about Meridian, who has been a Meridian guy for a long time,” Cavener said. “When Adam ran, I think, there were people who don’t always vote in races, who voted because they support Adam. If Adam is going to campaign for Mike Hon and Hunter Wolf, those people are also going to vote for them.”

Nonpartisan city races become partisan

City races are nonpartisan, but in recent years partisanship has been making its way into these races anyway.

Stephanie Witt, professor and director of training at Boise State University’s School of Public Service, said she first noticed more partisanship in city elections when Dave Beiter ran for Boise mayor after leaving his Idaho House of Representatives District 19 seat.

“I was seeing his campaign be helped by the mailing lists that the local Democrats had used,” Witt said. “This race, we saw more pronounced use of party resources and endorsements, and the mailers were more vicious, similar to how they are in state legislative races. I had never noticed attack mailings in local city council.”

Michael Overton, an assistant professor of political science and public administration at the University of Idaho, said there has been a recent “nationalization of local politics.”

“This is a big change from previous local elections that were generally nonpartisan,” he said in an email. “The adage among city leaders was ‘there is no such thing as a Republican or Democrat pothole.’ This reflected the idea that local politics were about local issues.”

Overton said partisanship started to play a role in local elections mainly in large cities, but it seems to be seeping into smaller cities, too, “as local candidates are more frequently framing their candidacy along partisan lines.”

Gender identity, sexual orientation, personal pronouns

On Facebook, Hon said he, Nelson and Wolf were running to address the following: repealing an ordinance that bans discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in the city of Meridian, “common sense growth” that appears to mean putting a halt on approving high density housing, fiscal responsibility, transparency, and making Meridian a Second Amendment sanctuary city.

Hon posted multiple times on Facebook about the gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination ordinance and criticized his opponent, Cavener, for having voted in favor it.

One of Hon’s Facebook posts says: “Question from the Meridian City Council Candidate Forum: How did or would you vote on the Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity Ordinance that allows biological males to use women’s bathrooms? Both incumbents in Seats 2 and 6 both voted YES. Would “Conservatives” vote yes on this ordinance? Would elected officials who profess family safety vote YES on this ordinance?”

The ordinance says “all persons, regardless of sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression enjoy the full benefits of citizenship and are afforded equal opportunities for employment, housing, and the use of public accommodations.”

Another post includes a photo of Cavener’s Twitter biography where he lists his preferred pronouns. Hon wrote: “Never met a Republican that uses pronouns.”

Cavener told the Statesman, “The hateful rhetoric of my opponent has no place in Meridian and no place in our state, and he should be embarrassed and ashamed.”

Hon declined an interview request. Borton, Bernt and Nelson did not respond to requests for comment.

Hon seeks recount

Hon is asking people on Facebook to donate money to help him fund a recount of the votes.

The race for Seat 6 does not qualify for a free recount, said Chelsea Carattini, Ada County Elections Office spokesperson. If the margin was 0.1% of the votes or five votes, whichever is greater, it would have qualified for a free recount, she said.

If Hon does pay for the recount, it would be held after the Ada County Board of County Commissioners canvasses the election on Tuesday.

This City Council election was Meridian’s last with at-large seats. Because the city topped 100,000 people in the 2020 census, Meridian will become subject to a state law enacted last year requiring elections by district, like the Boise City Council elections this year.

This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 3:13 PM.

Rachel Spacek

Idaho Statesman

Rachel Spacek is a former reporter covering Meridian, Eagle, Star and Canyon city and county governments for the Idaho Statesman.