Boise is still a liberal city, and other election takeaways | Opinion
The results in Tuesday’s election in the city of Boise confirm a few things: Boise is still a liberal city, taxpayers value open space (and are willing to pay for it), and in general, voters are happy with the direction that Boise’s headed.
All City Council incumbents won reelection easily (although one incumbent, Jordan Morales, was unopposed).
Incumbent Jimmy Hallyburton won with 71% of the vote, over challengers Lynn Bradescu, a conservative real estate agent, and former City Council member Lisa Sánchez.
Incumbent Colin Nash also easily fended off two challengers, earning 70% of the vote in District 2.
The results clearly show that conservatives are still nowhere near being able to infiltrate the blue bubble that is Boise, and that — despite grumblings about recent decisions about the Interfaith Sanctuary homeless shelter, flying the Pride flag at City Hall and a zoning code rewrite — voters in Boise are on board with those decisions.
Based on the results, it would seem to be that most of the complaints about Boise’s decisions come from people who don’t live in Boise.
Perhaps surprising to some observers was the poor performance of Sánchez in the District 6 race, which includes the North End. She received just 7% of the vote.
There was some speculation that Sánchez and Hallyburton would split the liberal vote, creating a pathway for Bradescu to sneak in there.
But there might be some bad blood from when Sánchez sued the city to regain her City Council seat after she unwittingly moved out of her district. In addition, some voters may have recognized that a split vote could pave the way for Bradescu, and support seemed to coalesce around Hallyburton.
Regardless, Boise voters sent a clear message Tuesday: Keep doing what you’re doing.
Biggest surprise of the night
The biggest surprise of the night for me was the victory of Eric Phillips as Caldwell mayor. If I had put money on the race, I would have at least put money on a runoff, which is required in Caldwell if no mayoral candidate receives a majority.
Incumbent Mayor Jarom Wagoner faced two anti-Wagoner challengers in Phillips and City Council member Brad Doty. It would have been reasonable to expect the two anti-incumbent candidates to split the vote, leaving no one with a majority.
But Doty received just 861 votes, just 12%, while Phillips received 57% of the vote to take the outright win.
I’ve been told that the hotel project was a major deciding factor. Caldwell City Council members approved a plan to lease a 4-acre city-owned lot near the county fairgrounds to a developer to build a hotel on. A lot of residents were very unhappy.
If it’s any indication that the hotel played a role in Tuesday’s election, consider this: The only two City Council members to vote against the hotel, Chuck Stadick and Diana Register, won reelection. One of the council members to vote in favor of the hotel: Brad Doty.
Meridian public safety levy
Voters in Meridian voted by a margin of 2-1 to tax themselves $5 million more per year for firefighters, police officers and an in-house prosecutor’s office.
The permanent levy override needed only 60% approval, but it received 66%, almost enough for a two-thirds supermajority.
It should serve as a wake-up call for state legislators, who have passed restrictions on how much money cities can collect from new construction and annexations. Perhaps if these restrictions weren’t in place, Meridian wouldn’t need to ask existing taxpayers for another $5 million per year.
Eagle City Council
I can say that this is probably the first time in my career that I’ve endorsed a candidate who received the most number of votes and the candidate who received the least in the same race.
For Eagle City Council, our editorial board endorsed Nancy Merrill, who was the top vote-getter with 3,496 votes, and Tom Letz, the lowest vote-getter with 666 votes.
It is perhaps no surprise that the other successful candidate in that race was Robert Gillis, a retired law enforcement officer from California. If you throw a rock in the air in Eagle, it’s likely to land on a retired law enforcement officer from California — so much so that it’s earned the nickname “Little Orange County.”
Scott McIntosh is the opinion editor of the Idaho Statesman. You can email him at smcintosh@idahostatesman.com or call him at 208-377-6202. Sign up for the free weekly email newsletter The Idaho Way.
This story was originally published November 5, 2025 at 9:59 AM.
