Officeholders who benefit from the closed GOP primary are desperate

Guest Editorial by Jim Jones

It is telling that the loudest voices against Prop 1 are those who hold office because of the closed Republican primary in Idaho. Federal and state officeholders who came to power because of Idaho’s corrupt, taxpayer-funded GOP primary are desperate to perpetuate themselves in office. That’s why they are throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Prop 1, the Open Primaries Initiative, hoping to defeat the election reform measure with deceptive claims.

And they are using taxpayer money to create confusion about the initiative. Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1376 in the last session, authorizing sitting legislators to use “public property or resources” to advocate against an initiative. Legislators are the only public officials in Idaho who can legally use taxpayer resources to propagandize. The officials who oppose Prop 1 are taking full advantage of public funding to badmouth the initiative, so as to retain their stranglehold on political power.

The extremist branch of the Republican Party has used the low-turnout GOP primary to bolster its ranks with culture warriors who have little inclination to solve important problems facing the state. When their extremist candidates can pick off responsible Republicans with as little as 8.8% percent of the registered voters in a legislative district, why waste their time doing the difficult work of governing. It is easier to win votes by stoking fear and outrage over fake culture war issues, than trying to solve serious issues–water policy, crumbling infrastructure, tax inequality, complying with the constitutional mandate to fund and maintain public school buildings.

We have witnessed too many ethical, reasonable and civil legislators getting picked off by dark-money-funded radicals. Geoff Schroeder, Linda Hartgen, Chenele Dixon, Julie Yamamoto, Kenny Wroten, Matt Bundy, Greg Lanting and several others were defeated in May by a small slice of the electorate in scorched-earth, truth-deprived campaigns.

The dysfunction in the Legislature grows each election as problem-solving Republican candidates get beaten by extremists in the closed primary. But that is just part of the problem. Some reasonable GOP officeholders observe the fate of primaried colleagues and take a sharp turn to the right in order to avoid being primaried themselves. Several officeholders have turned toward the extreme side of the political spectrum in recent years to avoid a far-right challenge in the closed primary.

For instance, Lance Clow and Wendy Horman used to be regarded by many observers as moderate legislators. That is no longer the case. Clow has taken a far-right turn since the 2013 legislative session. Horman has become one of the chief sponsors of school vouchers, which would force taxpayers to subsidize religious education, even though the church many of her constituents belong to does not operate religious schools. She and House Speaker Mike Moyle have threatened to repeal Prop 1 if the voters approve it, the voice of the people be damned. Several other generally-reasonable elected officials have felt compelled to make overtures to appease the extremists.

There are a great number of Idaho Republicans who are sick at heart with the havoc being wreaked by the extreme culture warriors currently in control of the GOP.  They include former Governor Butch Otter, former House Speaker Bruce Newcomb and well over 100 traditional Republicans who have formed Republicans for Open Primaries to eliminate the closed GOP primary. Butch and Lori Otter eloquently stated the case for opening up primary elections to all voters in a press briefing at the State Capitol in September of last year.

If voters approve Prop 1 on November 5, as expected, many of the extreme candidates who have benefitted from the closed GOP primary, such as Attorney General Raul Labrador and House Speaker Mike Moyle, will no longer be able to knock traditional, problem-solving Republicans out of the running in the low turnout primary election. They will have to face real competition from reasonable candidates in the general election.

About the Author

Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served 8 years as Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and 12 years as a Justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). His columns are collected at JJCommonTater.com.