Arnold and Pickering repeated their 2020 contest for the ACHD Commission. See who won

A political slugfest in the race for the Ada County Highway District Commission came to a close Tuesday as voters chose to keep Commission President Alexis Pickering instead of rehiring former board member Rebecca Arnold, whom Pickering dethroned in 2020 after Arnold spent 16 years in the post.

With all ballots counted, Pickering defeated Arnold, 56.3% to 43.7%, to represent the agency’s 2nd Subdistrict. Pickering garnered 20,039 votes to Arnold’s 15,552, the Ada County clerk reported.

“I’m just really humbled and honored,” Pickering said by phone Tuesday night. “It’s a decisive victory.”

Pickering said voters seemed to choose her for the collaboration and safety on which she focused much of her campaign, and her tenure with the commission.

Arnold did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The battle for the 2nd Subdistrict was a rematch from four years ago, when Pickering, a political newcomer at the time, beat Arnold, who is now the Ada County assessor, by just four votes. Arnold sued Pickering and two Ada County officials afterward and alleged that ballots weren’t counted correctly. A judge dismissed the case.

“I think that the voters have demonstrably spoken about how they’re happy with the status quo and they want to keep that going,” Pickering said.

The 2024 race was, at times, acrimonious. Pickering, 33, and Arnold, 67, didn’t hold back on their history over the past few months. They accused each other of spreading misinformation and excoriated each other over policy positions.

ACHD’s 2nd Subdistrict is bordered by Eagle Road in the west, the Boise River in the east and north, and Interstate 84 and Franklin Road in the south. It includes most of Garden City and Boise’s West Bench.

Meanwhile, former land use planner Patricia Nilsson, 65, and real estate agent Antonio Bommarito, 39, vied in the 1st Subdistrict. Nilsson won in a landslide, 65.3% to 34.7%. She collected 24,211 votes to Bommarito’s 12,870.

”I just feel very grateful to the voters,” Nilsson said by phone Tuesday night. “There’s a lot of work to do.”

Nilsson said that she’d had good engagement with voters throughout the campaign and that the election confirmed that constituents in the 1st Subdistrict wanted better transportation for all users, not just cars.

“I was really heartened with the conversations I had,” she said.

Bommarito did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.

ACHD’s 1st Subdistrict is bordered by the county line in the east and northeast; Interstate 84 and Kuna Mora Road in the south; Pleasant Valley and Maple Grove roads in the west; and loosely along Franklin Road, the Boise River and Reserve Street in the north. It includes south and southeast Boise.

Former civil engineer Dave McKinney ran unopposed to keep his 5th Subdistrict seat that runs from southern Eagle to central Meridian.

ACHD is a unique agency. In most of the country, cities control their own streets. Amid poor infrastructure and quality between rural and city roads in the 1970s, though, Ada County voters approved the creation of the district. ACHD is a separate entity from Ada County and has a five-person, nonpartisan board of elected commissioners who serve four-year terms.

While the agency is responsible for the major transportation projects across the county, its biggest, and most often overlooked, function is to maintain the streets. It will work towards both goals with a budget of $233.6 million in 2025, with nearly $52 million coming from property taxes.

ACHD commissioners were paid about $27,000 in 2023, while Pickering earned about $32,000 as the commission president, according to prior Statesman reporting. Arnold had a salary of just over $125,000 in 2023 as the county assessor, a job she won in the 2022 election after Bob McQuade, who held it for 28 years, retired.

Much of the race for the 2nd Subdistrict focused on Arnold and Pickering’s relationships with other agencies and communities.

Arnold argued that ACHD’s relationship with the Legislature had deteriorated since Pickering joined the commission and said that lawmakers didn’t respect Pickering. Pickering countered that ACHD’s relationship with Ada County cities had been poor during, and because of, Arnold. Both rejected the other’s accusations.

Pickering and Arnold also saw the role of ACHD differently. Pickering argued that the agency should defer to cities’ plans and visions for themselves, while Arnold argued that it should make decisions from a countywide perspective.

The policy perspectives were a little closer together for Bommarito and Nilsson, with both campaigning on the need for greater engagement with communities. Bommarito, however, also focused on greater transparency from the agency.

Pickering and Nilsson generally focused their campaigns on transportation safety and building out infrastructure for a variety of users, such as bikers and walkers. Arnold and Bommarito focused more on car transportation and reducing congestion.

This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 8:00 PM.

Nick Rosenberger

Idaho Statesman

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Nick Rosenberger is the Idaho Statesman’s growth and development reporter who focuses on all things housing and business. Nick’s work has appeared in dozens of newspapers and magazines across the Pacific Northwest. Support my work with a digital subscription