Update: Governor signs bill to tilt ACHD commission Republican | Opinion
Update: Gov. Brad Little signed this bill into law.
Idaho legislators are playing hypocrites once again.
Legislators in 2020 forced elections in cities of more than 100,000 people to be by district, but now they want to change the Ada County Highway District elections from a district-by-district vote to a countywide vote.
Senate Bill 1356 barely passed the Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 19-16 and then passed the House on Wednesday night.
The bill is targeted at just one entity: the Ada County Highway District, which is the only countywide highway district in the state. Elections for all other highway districts in the state would be unaffected.
The law would change ACHD’s election process to match the process by which county commissioners are elected, starting in 2028. If passed, ACHD commissioners would still need to reside within the district they represent but instead of being elected by voters just in their district, they would be elected countywide.
The bill would also turn the ACHD race into a partisan race, with candidates filing for nomination in an even-year May primary, and then the primary winners would run for election in the general election.
“The process by which county commissioners are elected is well-understood and ensures that countywide commissioners are elected on the broadest possible basis,” according to the bill’s statement of purpose.
If legislators have an interest in making sure elected officials are elected on “the broadest possible basis,” why did they force the cities of Boise, Nampa and Meridian to elect city council members by district?
I’ve actually come around to the idea of district city council elections. I was skeptical at first, but when I saw how Nampa City Council members absolutely neglected North Nampa, I saw the wisdom.
Of course, the sole reason for forcing district elections at the city level but countywide elections on the county level is partisan.
Idaho Republican legislators see an advantage for their party: With a narrower voting district in the mostly liberal city of Boise, there’s a better chance a Republican candidate can win a city council election. In fact, Luci Willits won a Boise City Council race. Even though city races are nonpartisan, Willits has ties to the Republican Party and has a more conservative bent on the council — which is a very good thing.
On the other side of the coin, Republican legislators know that they have a better chance of getting Republicans on the ACHD commission if the election is partisan and countywide.
Just look at the Ada County Commission race of 2020.
Ryan Davidson would have gotten clobbered by Diana Lachiondo if county commission races were by district.
In the 53 precincts that made up Ada County Commission District 1, Lachiondo received 53,165 votes, while Davidson received 28,765, according to my calculations of voter data.
That’s a landslide, with 65% of the vote for Lachiondo and 35% for Davidson.
But because county elections were countywide — and partisan, with an R or a D behind each candidate’s name — Davidson won that election with 128,121 votes, or 51%, over Lachiondo’s 121,963 votes.
The current ACHD Commission leans Democratic. Commissioners Miranda Gold and Patricia Nilsson have run for partisan offices as Democrats. Alexis Pickering and Dave McKinney haven’t run for office in a partisan race or otherwise publicized their party affiliation, but Pickering is widely considered to be left of center and McKinney right of center. Commissioner Kent Goldthorpe previously was listed as a Republican on the state GOP website.
I think it’s even more important that ACHD elections are by district than Ada County commissioners because road policies vary dramatically from city to city and district to district.
Boise’s road system is very different from Kuna’s or Eagle’s. Boise needs representation on the ACHD Commission to protect its unique interests and desires to have more multi-modal transportation, such as bike lanes, pathways and public transportation. But if Gov. Brad Little signs this bill, voters in Eagle, Meridian and Kuna will have a say in who makes the decisions about how roads get built in Boise. And they’re more likely to vote for a Republican.
That’s the real motivation behind the bill.
And the city of Boise is going to be worse for it.
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.
