Good news, bad news: Tale of two library district elections in Idaho | Opinion
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- Meridian Library voters elected Kohler and Castle, rejecting anti-library candidates.
- Ada Community Library voters chose Moore and Moorhouse, backing conservative control.
- Board shifts suggest rural Ada patrons may face increased efforts to ban library books.
First the good news: Voters in the Meridian Library District got it overwhelmingly correct.
They chose incumbent Jeff Kohler and newcomer Garrett Castle to terms on the district board over two candidates, Mike Hon and Phil Reynolds, who led an effort to disband the library district over unfounded right-wing fears of pornography in the libraries.
Kohler received 5,154 votes, or 40.6%, and Castle received 4,996, or 39.4%, according to the Ada County Elections Office. Hon received 1,308 votes, or 10.3%, and Reynolds received 1,225, or 9.7%.
The right-wing bogeyman of pornography in libraries and librarians as groomers is really code for a dislike of gay characters or books that talk about sexuality or center on minority or LGBTQ+ characters.
Reynolds moved from California to Idaho sometime after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, from which he posted on social media, “The war has begun! Citizens take arms! FREEDOM SHALL PREVAIL!!! WE MUST DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION TO THE DEATH!”
He no doubt feels his views are more welcome in Idaho than where he came from, but Meridian voters showed him otherwise in this case.
The voting public certainly made the right call here.
Combined with library board trustee Destinie Hart, who in 2023 defeated an opponent also affiliated with Hon and Reynolds’ group, Kohler and Castle are going to make sure books are available to all patrons, and sound decisions are made for the library system’s well-being and future.
Now the bad news: Voters in the Ada Community Library district, which includes unincorporated parts of Ada County, elected Suzette Moore, who was appointed to the board last month to fill a vacancy, and Rachel Moorhouse, who ran as a ticket with Moore.
In a tight race, Moorhouse received 2,360 votes, or 26%, and Moore received 2,143, or 23.5%. They defeated Travis Worwood, who received 2,088 votes, or 22.9%, and Johnathan Baldauf, who received 1,895 votes, or 20.8%.
Worwood and Baldauf said they were running to “protect our libraries.”
Meanwhile, Moorhouse advocated for removing the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” from a supplemental reading list in the West Ada School District in 2014, and she told the Ada County Republican Party she was running because, “I would like to keep the majority of the trustees conservative and keep protecting our communities from being infiltrated by the ideologies of the left.”
She and Moore had current trustee Steven Ricks as their campaign manager. Ricks was on the board in 2023 when it violated Idaho’s open meetings law and removed several books from its shelves, including “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M Johnson, “Out Of Darkness” by Ashley Hope Perez, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson.
The Ada Community Library is outside the boundaries of the city of Boise and other library districts. It has four branches, in Hidden Springs, on Lake Hazel Road, on Victory Road and in Star.
It’s unfortunate for those patrons that they can probably expect book bans from the true ideologues, those on the right who are more concerned with their bogeymen and in telling Idahoans what is acceptable to read than actually serving their patrons — all of their patrons.
This story was originally published May 22, 2025 at 4:00 AM.