Who’s running in Idaho’s legislative District 22? Hear from some of the candidates
Republican leaders are running for reelection in District 22, which touches Boise, Meridian and Nampa.
House Majority Leader Jason Monks, R-Meridian, is running for a seventh term against Democrat Glida Bothwell, a retired librarian, for House seat B.
Seven-term Rep. John Vander Woude, R-Nampa, is running against Democrat Loren Petty for House seat A.
And in the Senate, Sen. Lori Den Hartog, R-Nampa, who is Vander Woude’s daughter, faces Democrat Dawn Pierce.
All legislative positions are for two-year terms. District 22 covers east Nampa, southern Meridian and parts of West Boise.
The Idaho Statesman sent questionnaires to each candidate in a contested race. Their responses are below.
Den Hartog, Pierce, Vander Woude, and Monks did not respond to the Statesman’s requests.
Voters can still register to vote at the polls and vote early through Nov. 1. Election Day is Nov. 5.
Canyon County residents can vote early on weekdays Oct. 21-Nov. 1 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Caldwell Elks Lodge, Idaho Hispanic Community Center or Southwest District Health.
Ada County residents can vote early at the Ada County Elections office, Boise City Hall, Meridian City Hall, the Eagle Public Library, Kuna City Hall and the Boise Library at Bown Crossing.
Learn more about this race and other local elections in the Statesman’s Voter Guide. (Find the legislative district you live in here, and find your polling place here.) Read all of the candidates’ responses below. Use the horizontal scroll bar underneath each candidate to read the full Q&A. You also can click on the chart and drag horizontally.
Pierce on her criminal convictions: ‘There’s consequences’
In 1999, Pierce was charged with felony forgery and accused of forging three checks amounting to around $2,300. That summer, she pleaded guilty to forging one check and was sentenced to eight years of probation with a 90-day jail sentence. In October 2004, she was found to have violated her probation, and sentenced to prison, according to court records.
That same year, she was again charged with forging a check, this time for $1,250. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year in prison and a six-year indeterminate sentence.
Pierce told the Statesman by phone that the convictions have “helped me see everything from somebody else’s point of view.”
She said she has been a nurse for more than 30 years and now works with national and state anti-poverty and anti-hunger organizations. She said she was released early from parole and later worked as a legal assistant in the Idaho attorney general’s office.
“I’ve always loved speaking up for the least and the last in our communities,” she said, adding that she is pro-choice on abortion, opposes book bans and supports the Second Amendment “as written in the Constitution, not with any additives.”
“How can people state that they’re pro-life but not want to feed children?” she said, referring to the Legislature’s refusal to accept federal summer meals funding for low-income youth.
She said she has requested a pardon from the Idaho Commission of Pardons and Parole for her 20-year-old convictions. A decision will be made in the coming weeks.
“It hasn’t changed my view on crime,” she said. “I went to prison, I was convicted — as I should have been. And anybody else who commits a crime should be prosecuted according to the law, just like I was. You did something, there’s consequences, you deal with it and you move on.”
This story was originally published October 19, 2024 at 4:00 AM.
