Letters to the editor: State and county elections

Editor’s note: The deadline to submit letters to the editor related to the elections is 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23.

Brock

Shelley Brock is running for Idaho House Seat District 14B in order to provide her grandchildren’s generation a quality public education and to protect Idaho’s clean water. The daughter of an Air Force pilot, Shelley grew up in rural Eagle not far from where she lives now. She has led an extraordinary David vs. Goliath campaign for the right of Idahoans to keep their homes, water and land safe and clean, successfully tackling little-known laws that allow the oil and gas industry to trespass on private property in order to extract mineral wealth — without the owner’s permission! She is fighting Boise’s plan to dispose of its inadequately treated sewage effluent into our historic canal system that has carried high-quality water to our properties, gardens, pastures and playgrounds across northwest Boise, Eagle and Star for 125 years. Shelley Brock is a rare candidate that has a deep knowledge and love for Idaho — no generic campaign full of sound bites for her, but a down-to-earth, ear-to-the-ground common sense platform. Shelley is passionate, dedicated, a skilled horsewoman, and rather incredibly, exactly who she says she is, willing to take on anyone threatening our homes. I endorse Shelley Brock for District 14!

Richard Llewellyn, Boise

Toni Ferro

Toni Ferro has been one of my dearest and closest friends since middle school. She is a homegrown Caldwell, Idaho, girl who genuinely cares about Caldwell, its constituents and doing what is right and best for all people. Toni and I were teammates for over seven years on the Caldwell swim team from 6th grade through high school and we worked together at the Caldwell Pool as lifeguards/swim lesson instructors for many summers. As a good friend, I can say Toni is not a typical “party” person (Democrat/Republican). Toni is not like the rest of the politicians who, when you write them an email or make a call to their office, you get a generic form letter response. Toni wants that person to person contact. She wants to hear from her constituents. I have no doubt she will make time to listen and respond personally to any and all questions. When she informed me she was planning on running for office, I was so excited for the voters of Canyon County, District 10. If you would truly like an honest, hard-working, good listener seriously working for you, Toni Ferro is your candidate.

Anne Gigray Kinley, Middleton

Rutherford

It would be unwise to choose a foot doctor to do your coronary bypass. For other reasons, you wouldn’t use a lawyer who is on your opponent’s payroll. Inexperience and conflicts of interest should be deal breakers when it comes to our health, our finances and our government.

Ada County is an enormous operation with 22 departments, 2,000 employees, and a $280 million annual budget. The commissioners make decisions about growth, our public health and safety and our property taxes. We can’t afford to elect unqualified shills for the development industry.

Bill Rutherford is the only qualified candidate running for this open commission seat (District 2). As a retired civil/structural engineer, Bill has managed some of the largest construction projects on the continent during his career, including 5,000 employees and $460 million budgets.

On his website, the opponent points to zero experience related to the commission’s work. Virtually all his campaign money comes from developers, who will push to increase the rate of unchecked growth. Meanwhile, all of Bill’s donations come from individuals.

We cannot allow out-of-state developers to run Ada County into the ground as they have in other places. We must elect Bill Rutherford.

Brad Talbutt, Garden City

This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 11:17 AM.