Candidate filed to run in both Idaho and Kentucky. What happened next?
A former Idaho state legislator filed to run for state office in both Kentucky and Idaho. Now, he says he’s withdrawn from both races.
Republican Jeff Thompson, who served in the Idaho Legislature from 2009 to 2018, represented the Idaho Falls area in the House of Representatives. Thompson told the Idaho Statesman that he was going back and forth to Kentucky since 2018 to take care of family members. He got involved in the local Republican Party in Lexington, he said, and was asked to run for office.
He filed in a Kentucky House race on Jan. 7 and withdrew Wednesday, according to the Kentucky secretary of state’s website. In Idaho, Thompson filed on Feb. 27 to run for an Idaho House of Representatives seat. Thompson said he put in his filing to withdraw on Wednesday, and the Idaho secretary of state’s website said Thursday that he was out of the race.
Thompson said he thought he met the qualifications to run in Kentucky but realized later that he was an Idaho resident. He told the Statesman he spends most of his time in Idaho.
Idaho Secretary of State’s Office spokesperson Joe Parris told the Statesman on Tuesday that officials received a complaint about Thompson’s eligibility to run in Idaho and were “currently reviewing the matter.” Parris did not respond to follow-up questions.
“I was in the process of withdrawing here (Kentucky) when I filed there (Idaho), so they overlapped,” Thompson said in a phone interview. “I got out of the race here and thought I would run back there. Still have serving in my blood.”
This wasn’t the first time questions were raised about Thompson during an election. In 2014, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported that his website contained a list of endorsements from people and organizations, some of whom had not endorsed him that year. He told the newspaper that the list was just a running tab of everyone who had ever endorsed him.
One group, the Idaho Farm Bureau, told the Post Register it didn’t officially endorse candidates, even if it donated to them via a political action committee.
Why did he withdraw in Idaho?
Thompson has given somewhat different reasons as to why he just withdrew. The Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky reported that Thompson said he was pulling out to take care of his wife, who recently became ill.
Thompson told the Statesman he withdrew from the Kentucky race to take care of his wife, but also because he wasn’t a resident of the Bluegrass State.
As to Idaho, he said he withdrew because “the last thing I want to do is create confusion.”
“Running for office is tough enough without confusion, so I just withdrew from both,” Thompson said.
An hour later, Thompson called the Statesman back to recant the confusion remark, saying he’d withdrawn to help his wife with her ankylosing spondylitis, and nothing more.
“My whole focus in life is for her right now,” he said.
Sarah Cutler contributed reporting.
