Wednesday, November 07, 2018

IDAHO 2018 GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS SUMMARY From Ken Burgess, Veritas Advisors, LLP

Statewide Offices: All of ’s Constitutional Offices were up for election in 2018. With Governor Otter retiring, there were competitive races for most of our statewide offices. While we have a new Governor, Lt. Governor, and Treasurer, Republicans retained every statewide office.

Governor With Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s retirement, Idaho has elected its first new governor in more than a decade. With four candidates in the race, third generation Idahoan and rancher and current Lieutenant Governor (R) was victorious receiving nearly 60% of the vote. Democratic candidate , who would have been Idaho’s first female governor and the nation’s first Native American governor, received 38% of the vote. Bev Boeck (Lib) and Walt Bayes (Const) each received 1% of the vote.

Brad Little (R) 361,105 59.7% Paulette Jordan (D) 230,861 38.2%

Brad Little: Third generation Idahoan and rancher. Little represented his Emmett-area district in the State Senate for almost 9 years before being appointed lieutenant governor. He has been re-elected twice to his current job.

Lieutenant Governor With two women on the ballot for lieutenant governor, Idaho was set to elect their first female to the position. Janice McGeachin (R) a former member of the Idaho House of Representatives and current business owner received 60% of the vote against her opponent Kristin Collum (D).

Janice McGeachin (R) 355,510 59.7% Kristin Collum (D) 240,034 40.3%

Janice McGeachin: McGeachin (pronounced Mik GEE un) served in Idaho’s House of Representatives, representing Idaho Falls District 32A from 2002 to 2012. She is the owner and operator of several small businesses.

Secretary of State Lawerence E. Denney (R) 369,349 62.5% Jill Humble (D) 221,714 37.5%

Lawerence Denney: Denney’s experience includes working as a farmer/rancher. Before becoming secretary of state, Denney was a Republican member of the Idaho House of Representatives, representing District 9A from 1991 to 1992 and again from 1996 to 2014. He served as Speaker of the House from 2006 to December 2012.

Wednesday, November 07, 2018

State Controller Brandon D Woolf (R) 463,456 100%

Brandon Woolf: Woolf was a long-time employee of the Controller’s office serving most recently as chief of staff to Donna M. Jones (R), before running for the elected position in 2014. He ran unopposed in the 2018 general election.

State Treasurer Julie A Ellsworth (R) 463,548 100%

Julie Ellsworth: Ellsworth ran unopposed in the 2018 general election. She holds a B.S. in Education from Brigham Young University. She is a homemaker and has taught in Idaho's public schools. She also previously served in the Idaho House from 1996 to 2006, representing Boise’s District 18.

Attorney General (R) 383,512 65.4% Bruce S. Bistline (D) 202,916 34.6%

Lawrence Wasden: Holding a Bachelor’s in political science from BYU and a J.D. from the University of Idaho School of Law, Wasden was first elected as in 2002. He subsequently won re- election in 2006, 2010, and 2014. Prior to his election as Attorney General, Wasden served as chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, and deputy attorney general representing the Idaho State Tax Commission.

Superintendent of Public Instruction (R) 305,306 51.4% Cindy Wilson (D) 288,384 48.6%

Sherri Ybarra: Before being elected as Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2014, Ybarra’s experience includes eleven years as a classroom teacher, and six years in the administrative arena as an assistant principal and principal. This will be Ybarra’s second term. The : Due to retirements, primary election losses, and a few general election losses, the 2019 Legislature will see a 24 percent turnover from the previous legislature. While Republicans still hold a super-majority in both the House and the Senate, Democrats picked up a net of three new House seats and one Senate seat. The 2019 will have 28 Republicans and 7 Democrats. The House will have 56 Republicans and 14 Democrats.

With the turnover, there will also be plenty of new committee chairs in both the House and Senate. The Senate lost two of its ten committee chairs to retirement. However, with replacements for both the Joint Finance and State Affairs Committees, this could trigger a domino effect of chairmanship changes in the remaining 8 committees. The Senate relies heavily on seniority to determine chairmanships.

The House will be replacing at least half of their 14 chairmanships, with four retirements and three being defeated this election cycle. In the House, chairmanships are assigned by the Speaker of the House. Wednesday, November 07, 2018

The Legislature’s organizational meeting the first week of December will reveal committee assignments, chairmanships, and legislative leadership positions for the next two years.

Here are the incumbents who lost their General election:

District 5 Senate: David Nelson (D) defeated incumbent Dan Forman (R)

District 5 House Seat B: (R) defeated Margaret Gannon (D)

District 15 House Seat A: (D) defeated incumbent (R)

District 15 House Seat B: (D) defeated incumbent Patrick McDonald (R)

District 25 House Seat A: Muffy Davis (D) defeated incumbent Steve Miller (R)

District 29 House Seat A: Chris Abernathy (D) defeated incumbent (R)

A couple things of note and interest to the IAFP:

Dr. John Rusche failed in his attempt to win his former House seat back in District 6, losing to incumbent Republican by a 59% - 41% margin.

The turnover and new faces in the legislature – particularly in the House – will likely mean a very different- looking House Health and Welfare Committee. is likely to remain the Chairman, but typically that committee gets loaded with freshmen and sophomore legislators. As soon as an individual gets enough seniority to move to a different committee they take the opportunity to move. The same is true of the Education committee. Reason is that those two committees regularly deal with politically charged issues. This is unfortunate, because those two committees also deal with the most complicated issues, and those that affect the state budget the greatest, and would benefit the most from some institutional knowledge.

With the successful passage of the Proposition 2 Medicaid Eligibility Expansion initiative, the legislature now has an obligation to deal with implementation and funding for the expansion. But given the history of this issue in the legislature, that may be a very contentious and painful process. There will still be legislators who will oppose the implementation, and outside groups who will attempt to scuttle such a move. This issue is by no means decided, but the passage of the initiative will bring much pressure to bear on the legislature this session. Ballot Initiatives Proposition 1: Historical Horse Racing This initiative authorizing historical horse racing at certain locations where live or simulcast horse racing occurs and allocates revenue and directs the state racing commission to promulgate implementing rules. The initiative failed. Yes 277,664 46% No 323,370 53.8% Wednesday, November 07, 2018

Proposition 2: Medicaid Eligibility Expansion This initiative will provide that the state shall amend its state plan to expand Medicaid eligibility to certain persons and to provide that the Department of Health and Welfare is required to take all actions necessary to implement provisions of the new section and amend sections of Idaho Code to provide a correct code reference. The initiative passed. Yes 364,413 60.6% No 236,937 39.4%

Federal Offices: Idaho has not elected a Democrat to a federal office since 2008. The two Republican candidates, incumbent and newcomer Russ Fulcher, both received more than 60% of the vote defeating Democrats Arron Swisher and Cristina McNeil. Russ Fulcher, will succeed Congressman , who had an unsuccessful bid for governor this year, losing in the primary election to Brad Little.

Simpson and Fulcher will go back to work in a divided government. Democrats claimed enough House seats in the election to ensure a majority. As of this morning, Democrats have won 220 House seats, Republicans have won 194 seats, and 21 seats in the House remain undecided. In the Senate, Republicans have secured control, wining at least 51 seats. They are also leading in two races that remain undecided and have a good chance of winning Mississippi’s special election that is headed to a runoff between Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) and Democrat Mike Espy. Democrats have control of 46 seats in the Senate. Neither of Idaho’s two Senate seats were up for election.

Congressional District 1 Russ Fulcher (R) 197,151 62.7% Cristina McNeil (D) 96,909 30.8%

Russ Fulcher: Russ is a 4th generation Idahoan. He has multiple degrees from Idaho Institutions and spent 24 years in Idaho’s tech industry conducting business globally. More recently he has worked as a commercial real estate broker. Russ served 10 years in the Idaho State Senate, part of that time in leadership.

Congressional District 2 Mike Simpson (R) 169,671 60.6% Aaron Swisher (D) 110,221 39.4%

Mike Simpson: Simpson was born in Burley, Idaho and raised in Blackfoot. He graduated from Utah State University and earned his DMD from Washington University School of Dental Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduation, he joined his father and uncle at the Simpson Family Dental Practice in Blackfoot. Mike Simpson served in the Idaho House of Representatives for 14 years, the last six years as Speaker. He has served ten terms in the U.S. House of Representatives for Idaho’s Second Congressional District.

NOTE: All results are still preliminary and have not yet been finalized by Secretary of State Lawrence Denney.