Candidates Speak to Voters in Caribou County

On Saturday, the Caribou County GOP hosted a slate of state and local candidates at the Caribou County Fire Station.  Incumbents as well as primary challengers for state senate, one of the state representative seats, a county commission seat, sheriff, and coroner were all present to introduce themselves to the assembled voters, as well as make the case for why voters should choose them.  County Attorney Doug Wood also joined the panel, although his race is not contested.  Representative Kevin Andrus is also not facing a primary challenger, although he will face an opponent in the general election.

Despite the inherently competitive nature of the event, the evening was governed by a genial and respectful atmosphere, which is certainly appreciated during the current political climate.  While there were clearly some differences in approach and attitudes about many of the issues discussed between candidates facing off against one another, the importance of effective and responsive government was on some level expressed by all the candidates.  

In both of the races for state-level positions, the incumbents faced newcomer candidates that could fairly be described as non-traditional in some sense.  Brett Skidmore (running for House D27 Seat B) and Doug Toomer (running for State Senate D35) both come from backgrounds outside of politics, and are entering the elected political arena for their first times in the districts for which they are running.  Skidmore is contractor from Ammon, who currently serves on the Idaho State Contractors Board, and Toomer is a retired (after a 40 Year career) INL employee, who founded the Stand Up for Idaho organization.  Both of them had interesting stories to tell about what brought them into the race this cycle, and what things they hoped to accomplish if elected.  

The candidates’ positions and backstories are too lengthy to be recounted here, but for more information, voters can visit Brettskidmore.com and ToomerforIdaho.com to find out more.  A more in depth look at the State Senate and House primaries will be coming in future editions leading up to the May 21 primary.

District 35 State Senator and Caucus Chair Mark Harris and District 27 Representative Josh Wheeler both came to the table with experience in their positions and hands-on familiarity with the legislative agenda from the last session.  Over the course of their tenures, both candidates have worked on a number of bills that affect residents of the county directly, and have demonstrated a facility with many of the legislative nuances involved in the processes of making legislation work (or sometimes not work, as they both bemoaned) within the context of an often frustrating state system of sometimes competing
interests.

Harris and Wheeler are both well-known in the area.  Senator Harris is in his fifth term, and lives in Soda Springs where he has been an advocate for agricultural concerns during his tenure. Wheeler, an Ammon resident like Skidmore, is in his first term and has worked closely with Senator Harris, whom he called a mentor during the forum.  Information about the incumbent candidates can be found at Markharrisforidaho.com
and wheelerforidaho.com.

Despite the fact the all four state level candidates expressed support for second amendment protections, pro-life positions, lower taxes and regulations, and other shared conservative platform ideas, there are certainly differences in experiences, backgrounds, temperament and points of focus between them.  Each of the candidates seemed very willing to talk to voters about their individual ideas, and can be contacted through the websites listed above.

Some of the issues on which the candidates spoke included first amendment protections, and how various library bills potentially interfered with them.  While all the candidates affirmed the importance of protecting children from potentially harmful material, they differed on the extent to which they saw that as a present threat in the local jurisdictions.  Support for private school voucher programs was also a topic on which the candidates differed somewhat, with Skidmore expressing specific support for them.  

After a short break, candidates for local offices took the floor to introduce themselves and talk about issues within the county.  As with the state-level candidates, the races consist of incumbents and newcomers to the positions.  

In the County Commission, District 3 race, Board of County Commissioners Chairman Mark Mathews is running against first time commission candidate Kim Spencer, who worked with the County Road and Bridge for over forty years, thirty of them in the position of supervisor.  Mathews expressed his dedication to completing many of the projects which are currently underway throughout the county in a next term (including a recently approved Event Center), and Spencer stated that he felt that his experience working in and as part of the county would be valuable to the position.  Spencer emphasized his concern with protecting private property rights, lowering taxes, and fine tuning some of the county’s departments.  Mathews discussed the need to keep the county budget in check and maintain the high quality workforce he says he has had the pleasure of working with. Planning and Zoning issues, affordable housing, and county regulations were also topics raised.  As with the state races, deeper examinations of the commissioner race will be coming in upcoming editions.  

The same goes for the Sheriff’s race, between current sheriff Adam Mabey and retired trooper Eric Bates.  A number of topics were covered with regard to law enforcement, with Sheriff Mabey detailing some of the statistic related to arrests involving DUIs and drug enforcement under his term of service, and Bates raising questions about the potential impact of immigration from the southern border, and security issues in the county related to it.

County Attorney Doug Wood suggested that the county was likely to see an increase in undocumented immigration at some point in the future, but that he and the current county administration had established good relationships with ICE and other interdiction agencies in preparation for such an increase.

The coroners race presented perhaps the best illustration of all that there was a lot of agreement between members of the panel in many issues.  The race between Nita Weber and Casey Batterton was as collegial as one could possibly imagine, with both agreeing to serve in an advisory capacity to the other regardless of who won.

Over the course of the evening, the audience raised a number of questions which the candidates responded to in various ways.  A selection of those topics and further input from the candidates can be expected in these pages over the next three weeks as the primary nears.