Thursday, May 27, 2010

What happened in the election and what does it mean?

For those of you who love and honor the freedoms that millions have died for and the right to vote and took advantage of that by voicing your opinion at the polls, thank you.  To the 79% of you who didn't, shame on you!

Now, on to the info.  This primary election season has brought on a lot of controversy, and brought out a lot of skeletons.  We know more about the candidates of this election than most people care to know about their own family members.  But the people have spoke, decisions have been made, and it's time to come back together as a party and get behind the nominees to ensure they are elected on November 2 to their respective offices.

Congress (Idaho CD 1)

Undoubtedly the most hotly contested and widely published race was between State Rep. Raul Labrador and Vaughn Ward for Idaho's First Congressional District seat.  The winner will face current Congressman Walt Minnick on November 2.

A quick history:

Vaughn Ward jumped into the race 15 months ago.  He had done a great job of raising money and obtaining the support of nationwide political leaders.  He was born and raised in Idaho, but left Idaho to serve in the Marines and CIA, as well as run Nevada's effort in the failed Presidential campaign of John McCain.  After Obama was elected, Vaughn returned to Idaho to run for Congress.

Raul Labrador was supporting a different candidate, Ken Roberts, the current Majority Caucus Chairman in the Idaho Legislature.  Ken experienced some health issues and backed out of the race in December of 2009.  Not more than 90 minutes past the press release of Ken's withdrawal came another announcement of candidacy, Raul Labrador.  Raul had spent the last three years in the Idaho Legislature representing Idaho's 14th Legislative District (northwest boise, eagle, star, north meridian).

Raul jumped into the race with a very late start and no money.  He found trouble raising money due to the little confidence in him being able to pull off a win with his opponent having a 9 month head start and over $100,000 ahead of him.  Raul largely funded his campaign with his own money, paying himself back as he raised funds.

During the last 6 months, a lot of information has come out about each candidate, but none more than in the last 2 weeks of the race.  Vaughn experienced set back after set back as details about his life and bad campaign decisions surfaced.

A brief list includes his wife's full time work for a bail out receiving Fannie Mae, plagiarism on his website, new plagiarism on his website, failing to pay property taxes, majority of his campaign contributions coming from DC and New York, his failure to even vote in the 2008 election despite being a campaign leader for a presidential campaign, and the final nail in the coffin, this video of Vaughn Ward and Barack Obama giving almost identical portions of the same speech.



At the time of this posting, the two versions (one short one long) of this video have received a combined 100,000+ views in the three days it has been online.  It has been seen on The Politico, The Hill, Vanity Fair, MSNBC, UK Press, Idaho Statesman, KTVB, Spokesman Review, and the list goes on.  The video even made an election night appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Though polls still showed Ward with a small lead, Raul Labrador won the night by 9% with nearly 10,000 votes more than his opponent.  As I sat in the ballroom of the Doubletree Hotel in Boise after all the results were final.  I sat in a small circle with a few close campaign volunteers and Raul himself at 2am, we sat in awe of what had just happened.  Despite being outspent 6 to 1, despite having many paid campaign staff and Raul having just volunteers, the people still came out to renew our faith in the process.  They showed that money can't buy government officials in Idaho.  Not even Sarah Palin can persuade the conservative masses in Idaho to vote for the wrong candidate.

Idaho Legislature


There was almost as much excitement in the Legislative races around the state.

Idaho House:

A couple change ups happened in the House.  In District 21 (southwest Boise, south Meridian, Kuna), John Vander Woude beat out 1st term Rep. Richard Jarvis.  Two years ago, Richard beat Vander Woude by 65 votes, but John took back his seat.  Richard was involved in the Steven Ricks mess and was likely the cause of his demise.

District 13 (Nampa), unfortunately, Christie Perry took out 1.5 term Steve Kren.  Steve was a great proven conservative.  There were some lies put out by the Perry campaign which, in my opinion, will come back to bite her at the polls in two years.

There was a scary hour as various news sources reported that 100% of District 20's precincts had reported in and current Rep. Joe Palmer and his more moderate challenger Shaun Wardle were in a dead tie each with 627 votes.  This went on for a solid hour before all of a sudden, Ada County's election website showed a huge jump in numbers as Joe Palmer won re-election with 2,400 votes while his opponent received 2,000.

Idaho Senate:

There were four incumbent senators who lost their seats to more conservative prospects.  My two favorites are Sen. Jorgenson and Sen. Schroeder, both self avowed moderate republicans.  Hopefully with these four gone, we will be able to see the continued rise in leadership of the Idaho Senates most conservative member, Russ Fulcher of District 21.

Ada County Commission


It was bittersweet, mostly bitter, as Vern Bisterfeldt won the race between himself and Fred Tillman.  Vern and his "buddy" Roger Simmons have a rocky history with the Republican Party. Vern himself is the treasurer for Senate Candidate Branden Durst.  Roger Simmons, luckily, lost to current Commissioner Rick Yzzaguire. Early in the campaign, the Ada County Republican Party voted to endorse Rick Yzzaguire and Fred Tillman in the hopes that the true Republicans would win re-election.  Fortunately, with only Bisterfeldt winning his race, he won't be able to accomplish much being only 1 out of 3 votes on the commission.  Both Yzzaguire and Ullman will be able to outvote his ridiculous plans for the county.

Final thoughts


Other than those races, pretty much everything else went according to what was expected.  All in all, the candidates elected show Idaho is tired of the liberal agenda being pushed on us. We elected those who will voice our ideas and know who they work for.

With the Idaho Legislature moving yet further to the right, I believe we will be able to continue to hold the line on taxes, curb spending, and promote the furthering of conservative ideals we believe in.

As the campaigns wind up for the general election, look to this blog for my endorsements, which may not always be the Republican candidate.  Remember, I'm always fair and bias...

...But thats just me.

2 comments:

  1. Why would I want to vote for either candidate. Both choices are dead wrong for Idaho. One is an immigration lawyer that I don't trust because I think he ran a sleazy campaign with a devious spokesman. The other candidate is still not sure if he would vote for or against Pelosie. Can he be trusted on amnesty?

    By the way I saw your name a lot in all Twitter traffic against Ward. It didn't sound like you were all that fair and balanced TysIdaho

    Who will you vote for Mr. Sleazy (Labrador) or Mr. Fence Sitter (Minnick)

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  2. Maybe you were part of that hit job on Ward also. If you sat in a small circle of Friends TsyIdaho were you next to Dennis Mansfield, Dustin Hurst, Betsy Russell, Popkey, Reichert, and lets not leave out the "Tech-Savvy Teen" Colin Mansfield. Should I also include "Benedict Arnold (Lucas Baumbach) as well?

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