Our View What is to like about the Legislature's performance?

Idahoans, like most Americans, dislike Congress.

Who can fault them after years of witnessing dysfunction and petty partisanship in Washington, D.C. What's to like?

When it comes to the feelings Americans have for their own congressman, it is a different story.

Political scientist and professor Richard Fenno observed this phenomenon - which is now referred to as Fenno's Paradox - in the 1970s, finding Congress' overall approval rating doesn't matter when incumbents come up for re-election. Americans don't like Congress, but they love their congressmen and congresswomen.

According to the results of a recent Idaho Politics Weekly poll, Fenno's Paradox is alive and well in Idaho. The poll found 72 percent of Idahoans "strongly" or "somewhat" disapprove of Congress' performance, yet you can be sure the state's incumbents - Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, and Reps. Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson - will have little trouble being re-elected when their terms expire.

Idahoans' dislike of the legislative branch was uniform, with more than 73 percent of those in the "very conservative," "very liberal" and moderate categories disapproving of Congress.

At least conservatives and liberals can agree on one thing - Congress is terrible.

Despite their displeasure with government, Idahoans give a pass to the state Legislature, which is just as dysfunctional as its counterparts in D.C.

The poll found 58 percent of Idahoans approve of the state's GOP-dominated Legislature, while just 29 percent disapprove and 12 percent don't know how they feel.

The differences were ideological: 75 percent of those who said they were "very conservative" approved, while only 46 percent of moderates and 19 percent of those identifying as "very liberal" were pleased with the Legislature's performance.

The results are what one would expect in today's politically divided society. Americans can't look past the "R" or "D" labels, and Idahoans are no different.

And that explains how roughly six of 10 people in the state approve of the Legislature even when it is displays such blatant disdain toward the public as it has this session.

This is the Legislature that has worked tirelessly to undermine the public's will by watering down and attaching sidebars to Medicaid expansion legislation, which only came about after voters overwhelming approved a voter inactive this past November. Legislators also retaliated by passing bills in both chambers that would make it nearly impossible to get a voter initiative on the ballot in the future. Gov. Brad Little vetoed the legislation Friday, but Monday legislators in the House had already announced they were crafting four bills again attacking the process.

Idahoans say they approve of their Legislature, but their approval looks to have a lot more to do with the letter "R" than actual job performance.

- Devin Rokyta, for the editorial board