Who’s running for Boise’s Legislative District 16? Hear from the candidates

Voters in Garden City and part of Boise will choose among vastly different candidates for the Legislature.

Three Democrats now represent District 16, which is generally bordered in the west by Maple Grove Road, in the south by Franklin Road and the Interstate 184 Connector, in the east by 28th Street, and in the north by Hill Road and State Street.

Each incumbent seeks reelection to another two-year term, and each faces a Republican challenger.

Senate: Rabe vs. Rich

The state Senate race pits incumbent Alison Rabe, the executive director of Boise housing nonprofit Jesse Tree, against retiree Doug Rich.

Rabe said her priorities are addressing the region’s housing crisis and improving public schools. Rich hopes to scrap sales tax for groceries and get rid of property taxes on homes owned for over 20 years.

Rabe was set to face off against Republican LeeJoe Lay after Rabe won her May primary election, but Lay withdrew from the race in July. Rich was appointed to fill his spot two weeks later.

Voters first elected Rabe in 2020 in District 17, which includes most of the Boise Bench between Interstate 84 and Interstate 184, but she vacated that seat in November 2021 before her term was up after buying a home in District 16. Voters in her new district returned her to the Senate in 2022.

House A: Galaviz vs. Hadraba

In the race for the Idaho House Seat A, incumbent Rep. Soñia Galaviz, a public school teacher, faces defense contractor Chandler Stewart Hadraba.

Galaviz is focused heavily on education and local control of schools. Galaviz voted against House Bill 710, which allows patrons to sue libraries and librarians for failing to remove books that depict sexual activity, according to prior Idaho Statesman reporting. Gov. Brad Little signed the bill into law in April. Hadraba has been a proponent of removing such books from libraries.

Hadraba said he is running because House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, disliked Galaviz and incumbent Democratic Rep. Theodore “Todd” Achilles and asked him to run. Hadraba said his priorities include judicial reform, making Idaho the No. 1 state for “Bigfoot Tourism” and expanding 911 services to include a pet ambulance for seniors, people with limited mobility and community members with seeing eye dogs.

House B: Achilles vs. Davidson

In the race for Seat B, Achilles faces Jacquelyn “Jackie” Davidson.

Achilles teaches public policy at Boise State University’s School of Public Service and the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. Little appointed him to the Legislature in February to replace Rep. Colin Nash, who vacated his seat to focus on his role as a member of the Boise City Council. State law required the governor to fill the vacancy with a member of same party that held the seat.

Achilles said his top priorities are women’s health care and building a more equitable economy, while Davidson said she wanted to cut dependency on the federal government and protect children.

Davidson, who is retired, has been a committeewoman for Precinct 1614, which is a rectangular voting precinct north of Fairmont Junior High School, since 2020.

She has posted conspiracy theories to her Facebook profile in the past, including theories sympathetic to QAnon, according to prior Idaho Statesman reporting. She told the Statesman in 2020 that she did not follow the group.

QAnon is a far-right movement that has railed against “the Deep State” and claimed that Democrats are sex-traffickers and are involved in Satanic blood rituals. Some QAnon followers were heavily involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in Washington, D.C. that aimed to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Davidson also posted or told the Statesman falsehoods in 2020 including that the COVID-19 pandemic was planned, that vaccines cause autism, and that Bill Gates paralyzed children in India.

Her social media profiles have since focused mostly on Idaho politics and campaigning against Idaho’s Proposition 1.

For this Voter Guide story, the Idaho Statesman sent questionnaires to each candidate in a contested race. Their responses are below, unedited except to shorten when a candidate exceeded a 100-word limit per answer.

Use the horizontal scroll bar underneath each candidate to read the full Q&A. You also can click on the chart and drag horizontally.

Learn more about this race and other local elections at IdahoStatesman.com/Election. Find more Treasure Valley candidate Q&As like this in the Statesman’s Voter Guide. (Find the legislative district you live in here, and find your polling place here.)

Voters can still register to vote at the polls on Election Day. Early voting continues through Friday, Nov. 1.

This story was originally published October 17, 2024 at 4:00 AM.

Nick Rosenberger

Idaho Statesman

208-377-6437

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