Idaho Statesman endorses Chris Mathias in Democratic primary for Idaho House

Editor’s note: This editorial has been updated to include a prior affiliation between Chris Mathias and editorial board member Bob Kustra.

Voters in state legislative District 19 have a good problem in trying to find a successor to Rep. Melissa Wintrow, who is running for state Senate.

Chris Mathias and Jeff Gabica offer viable candidacies in the Democratic primary for Idaho House of Representatives.

In this race, Mathias earns the endorsement of the Idaho Statesman editorial board.

Gabica presents a more progressive agenda, including legalizing medical marijuana, raising the minimum wage and increasing beginner teacher pay to $50,000. Gabica also favors raising the sales tax by a quarter percent, and he even suggested legalizing and imposing a tax on sex workers.

Mathias offers a more moderate and more realistic view of what a Democratic legislator would accomplish in a Republican-dominated Legislature, with a focus on increasing public education funding, retaining qualified teachers and increasing funding for social-emotional learning, an issue that became surprisingly contentious in the 2020 session.

“We can persist,” he said of what his role would be in the Legislature. “We can continue to beat the drums for justice and fairness on a regular basis even if we lose vote after vote on the floor. We can bring deep policy knowledge to these discussions, especially around education, which is what I hope to do. So that at least conversations can be had on the merits, policy proposals can be comprehensive and well-considered before votes occur.”

Both Mathias and Gabica have compelling life stories, each with unique experiences that inform their positions on the issues.

Mathias is a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard. After his service, he attended Boise State University, where he studied criminal justice, was elected student body president as a sophomore and interned at the Idaho Supreme Court to support the launch of Idaho’s early problem-solving drug courts.

Mathias earned his law degree and served as a law clerk for U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont. He later earned a doctorate in law and public policy. He spent three years as the chief academic officer for the Idaho State Board of Education, and now helps build and maintain the Idaho standards achievement system. He also has substituted in the Idaho Legislature.

While Mathias concedes that marijuana legalization should be considered as a policy decision and could be done with a conservative approach, he said it’s not an issue that he hears coming up as a priority for voters. He said he’d focus more of his attention on improving education and reducing property taxes.

Mathias impressed us when he talked about how he saw his role in the Legislature. He said he would work on building relationships with conservative legislators who might share public policy goals. On property taxes, for example, he said he would reach out to someone like Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, whose district might also be experiencing rising property taxes, to see if they could come up with “two or three or six policy levers that are attractive to a critical mass of those legislators.”

On property taxes, Mathias said a host of solutions should be considered, including raising the homeowners exemption and increasing education funding to get supplemental levies off property bills.

“Coming up with a small property tax fix, everyone wants a silver bullet, but this is more of silver buckshot problem,” Mathias said.

Mathias would be a welcome addition to the contingent of Democratic lawmakers in the state Legislature. He approaches the job with knowledge of and experience with the issues, and a willingness to try to work with Republicans to achieve realistic goals.

This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 4:00 AM.