Idaho gov., lt. gov haven’t spoken in three weeks as coronavirus shows policy divide

Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin both have been busy the past several weeks dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

Little has been issuing statewide orders to curb COVID-19’s spread, monitoring the state’s confirmed cases and deaths along with medical supply inventory and hospital capacity and addressing the public at least twice a week via town hall telephone calls and news conferences.

But during a news conference Thursday, Little said his office and the lieutenant governor’s office are “in communication weekly,” but he has not spoken to her in about three weeks.

“I am focused on what’s going on right here,” he said. “This is what’s important ... keeping people safe and getting the economy back up on its feet and restored. That’s my 90% of my focus, day in and day out.”

That’s seemingly the antithesis of Little when he held that second-in-command post and stayed lockstep with and supportive of Gov. Butch Otter for 10 years.

In Idaho, the governor and lieutenant governor are not elected on a joint ticket. While Little won the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary with 37% percent of the vote, McGeachin eked by in a closer GOP primary, receiving 29% of the vote. Little and McGeachin each received 60% of the vote in the general election.

McGeachin has defied Little and his administration throughout the pandemic. She left the Legislature’s 2020 session early — the lieutenant governor presides over the Senate — to attend to her family business, a restaurant and pub in Idaho Falls. She has attended or supported rallies opposing Little’s stay-home order and has been urging him to let businesses re-open. She defied his state order earlier this month to attend an event at a North Idaho brewery that re-opened despite Little’s order.

This week she wrote a guest opinion challenging Little’s decisions.

Her opening salvo served to remind Little how powerful she is: “As lieutenant governor, I am one heartbeat away from the governor’s chair,” McGeachin wrote.

“I lose sleep at night because the heavy hand of our government is hurting so many Idahoans,” she continued. “The effects of the executive branch’s unilateral decisions will impact us for years.”

The governor campaigned on a promise of imposing the “lightest hand of government” on Idahoans, she wrote.

“To me, this means getting out of the way and letting Idahoans get back to work,” McGeachin concluded in her tome sent to media organizations around the state.