OPINION: Apparently, this is what Idaho voters want

For years, the Gem State has operated under a premise that there’s a disconnect between what voters really want and what the GOP elected leadership actually provides.

The idea that a slim minority of hyperpartisan Republican voters has imposed minority rule on a broader swath of independents and GOP-leaning moderates has proved to be delusional.

Exhibit A: Proposition 1. This piece of electoral reform, the product of a grassroots initiative campaign, challenged Idaho’s closed Republican primary election format along three fronts.

Gone would be the requirement to register as a Republican in order to help provide the all-important Republican nomination for public office.

The candidates winning the top four number of votes — regardless of party affiliation — in the spring primary would advance to the general election. Theoretically, even if they came in second, third or fourth to a right-wing challenge in the spring, mainstream Republicans could survive and then court the larger, more diverse electorate that turns out in the fall.

And the general election would be decided by ranked choice voting.

Proposition 1 became a proxy on the GOP leadership that opposed it from the start.

And the GOP won by a near 2-to-1 margin — 64.9% rejected Proposition 1. To do any better than that, you had to be President Donald Trump, who won 66.9% of Idaho’s vote, or Congressman Russ Fulcher, who took 71%.

To say Proposition 1 was dragged down by its complicated — and possibly costly — ranked choice voting component is disputed by the scope of its defeat. A plain top-two primary initiative would have been subjected to the same GOP slogan — “Don’t Californicate Idaho” — and it would have been more accurate. Although it does not have ranked choice voting, the Golden State does use a top two primary.

And it wasn’t just ranked choice voting that went down to defeat in state after state Tuesday.

As the Idaho Statesman’s Scott McIntosh noted last week, top-two was rejected in South Dakota. A top-four primary proposal died in Montana. Arizona opposed an open primary measure.

Exhibit B: Voter preferences and/or the configuration of legislative districts embraced even the most fringe of Republicans over Democrats.

In Legislative District 6, Sen. Dan “Don’t piss him off” Foreman, R-Viola, paid no price for abandoning his own constituents within the University of Idaho or telling Democratic House candidate Trish Carter-Goodheart, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe: “Why don’t you go back where you came from?”

Foreman fell behind Moscow City Councilor Julia Parker by about 900 votes in Latah County, but District 6 voters in Nez Perce County gave him a 1,773-vote edge before Lewis County handed Foreman 1,406 votes out of 1,808 cast.

Much the same thing occurred in Blaine County, which gave incumbent Rep. Ned Burns, D-Bellevue, a 5,061-vote edge, only to be swamped by a 4,546-vote margin for Republican Mike Pohanka in Jerome County and another 1,050-vote swing for the Republican in Lincoln County.

The GOP’s gains were rounded out by former Rep. Codi Galloway’s defeat of Sen. Rick Just, D-Boise, by 912 votes and Republican Tanya Burgoyne’s defeat of Rep. Nate Roberts, D-Pocatello, by a margin of more than 1,100 votes.

What that leaves is six Democratic senators and nine Democratic House members to back up any reasonable Republican willing to court a right wing challenge in a closed primary for simply voting to keep state government functioning.

So the agenda is clear:

There will be no stopping a plan to siphon off limited public education dollars into vouchers or tax credits for families who already enroll their children in private and/or religious schools.

Not only is there no appetite for moderating Idaho’s severe abortion ban, but you might see efforts launched against contraception and/or in vitro fertilization.

The voter-passed expansion of Medicaid to Idaho’s working poor is at risk.

Culture wars against libraries and members of the LBGTQ community will only intensify.

It’s open season on Idaho’s undocumented workers and the industries that depend upon them.

The state GOP’s declaration of war against state funding of higher education will be implemented.

Cutting income taxes on wealthy families and corporations will remain a priority while the plight of Idaho’s beleaguered residential property taxpayers will be slighted.

Anytime there’s an opportunity to take possession of federal lands, it will be exploited — even if it leads to the liquidation of public lands into private hands.

And the subservience to outside agitators, notably the Idaho Freedom Foundation, will be enhanced.

All of which feels less like an election fluke and more like a mandate. — M.T.