The 2026 Idaho GOP Legislative Agenda

Idaho Republican Party
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17 Video Views·Jan 13, 2026
On Monday, January 12, 2026, Idaho GOP chairwoman Dorothy Moon presented the party's legislative agenda as determined by members of the State Central Committee at the Winter Meeting.
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Okay, we're gonna go ahead and get started
because everybody has a very busy day
and I wanna thank you all for coming
to hear about our resolutions.
I'm so sorry about that.
I guess it's gonna be live stream,
hope for no ruckus in the room.
I think we'll be all right.
Okay, so we had a very busy weekend this past weekend.
What we were working on were rules and resolutions
for the state party.
The rules I'm not gonna discuss
because that's more internal and how we run our meetings,
the rules that we follow as an organization,
but I will talk about the resolutions.
The resolutions are strong suggestions.
I've seen people now say,
if all of these resolutions don't get through,
we're gonna start kicking people out of the party.
Well, folks, that isn't gonna happen.
This is where we get the people of the state together,
the state central committee members,
and there's 229 of us,
and we talk and hash out through all these resolutions
that have been submitted by different counties,
different legislative districts, and even region five.
They've submitted one as well.
So these resolutions are now coming forward.
If the legislature can move them through, fantastic.
If it's something where we gotta send a letter
to our congressional delegation on a federal issue,
then I will be doing that.
So there's a lot of work I do afterwards
to make sure this gets into the right hands.
Anyway, I'm gonna start and quickly run through
the resolutions that we did pass.
There's a screenshot of the ones that did get through.
The first one, resolution in opposition to men
and women's locker room.
And this one actually came out of Bonner County.
And Bonner County had a problem
where a man kept going into a woman's locker room
and nobody would do anything about it.
So 2602, what it will do,
now I'm pretty much, I've taken the further resolved
and the finally resolved on what these
are actually asking us to do
or asking the legislature to do,
is it calls upon Idaho legislature
to immediately pass a criminal statute
that prohibits people from knowingly and willfully
using a multi-occupancy changing facility,
bathrooms and sleeping quarters of the biological sex
that is not consistent with their own sex
as defined in section 73, 114 of Idaho code.
So they're asking the state chair
to give this to the legislative liaisons
to bring forward and see if we can get that passed through.
Now in Bonner County, the city council in Sandpoint
did pass this, surprisingly,
after a lot of complaints of this woman
having this man creeping around in the locker room.
So that's one of them that's coming up.
The next one, 2026-03,
of course is honoring and remembering Charlie Kirk.
There were probably nine submittals
from nine different counties.
So this was pretty well to recognize
that Charlie Kirk was a friend of Idaho.
Charlie Kirk had come here multiple times.
A lot of us had seen them at the Turning Point USA events
down in Las Vegas and in Phoenix last year,
we had President Trump show up before he was assassinated.
And so the work that he started, we cannot let stop.
And that's pretty much what this memorial,
more or less, asks for us to do.
And it does say that the resolution be spread
among the permanent records of the Idaho Republican Party,
the entire letter,
and then that should be shared with his family
and Turning Point USA in recognition
of his extraordinary life
and enduring impact on Idaho and the nation.
And so a lot of these were very nice
when they were originally submitted,
but we had to consolidate it to one,
but they all pretty much said the same thing.
Okay, number four, and actually Phil McGrain,
we'd had a discussion about this, he likes this one.
So this one I think we'll get through.
2026-04 resolution calling for combining
the May elections in odd-numbered years
into the November elections in odd-numbered years
in the state of Idaho.
So in essence, we're doing away with May.
When you have a board election
and only three people turn out in the entire precinct
or in the entire city, it's a waste of time and energy.
And we can accomplish all of this in November.
So this resolution did pass and more or less says
that it calls for the Idaho legislature
to amend our election laws
and to eliminate that May election
in the odd-numbered years.
So that one sounds good to me.
I like that one.
I think we all like that one a lot.
Then the next one, uh-oh, hang on,
I'm losing all kinds of stuff here.
Okay, the next one is 2026-05.
And this is a resolution to prohibit
Sharia law in our courts.
And it's a big issue with a lot of counties.
They don't want Sharia law to be brought in.
We have our own laws and we have our own constitutions
and we wanna keep those applicable
and not letting Sharia law come in.
So in this case, they passed this
and it's introduced in past legislation
explicitly banning the implementation,
recognition or adherence to Sharia
in any state or local court,
government agency or public institution within Idaho.
Sharia principles in any legal proceedings,
arbitration or administrative decisions,
ensuring that all governance remains firmly grounded
in American constitutional law.
So that is one that they wanted to see pass through.
At the 2026-06.
Now this is something we already have on the books.
It is condemning multi-subject legislation.
And I think most of you remember
when ranked choice voting came about,
there were two different parts, okay?
There were two different parts to that initiative.
There can only be one issue
that you're dealing with at a time.
And that's what we need to be dealing with.
So this is just saying, please legislators,
please leadership, support the single subject rule
as stated in the Idaho constitution.
So it's already there and calls upon all legislators
to strictly adhere to it.
This asked me to send a letter to the pro tem
and the speaker of the house
and to make sure this happens.
And we're gonna be watching.
So if they let anything slip through
with multiple subjects into one bill,
we're gonna call them out on it.
We address one at a time
and it's already in the constitution.
Again, it just needs to be implemented all the time.
2026-07, this is a resolution to amend
the Idaho constitution as far as education
and public attendance.
So in our constitution for the longest time,
we have had, this is what we have always had,
compulsory attendance at school
that legislature may require by law
that every child shall attend public schools in the state.
This is now a little archaic
because our laws have changed
to include definitely homeschooling
and now school choice with the fact
that we even have a tax credits available
to parents who want to have school choice.
So this says that we educate children
between the ages of six and 18
unless educated by other means.
That has all been stricken.
And what it says now,
this is what we want to see changed in the constitution
that section nine, article nine
of the constitution of the state of Idaho
be amended to read as follows.
Education by other means is the right of the people
to educate their children without government regulation
outside of the public schools
of the state shall not be infringed.
So this resolution is asking to have this
on the state ballot in November of 2026.
So we need a joint resolution to make that happen.
So that also is going to our legislators.
Okay, we'll take questions here
and there's a lot of them to get through.
So I wanna make sure I get through all of them.
Let's see, eight was gone.
Let's see, 2026, nine.
Now this is an interesting one.
Ban foreign government purchases of Idaho homes,
businesses and non-agricultural land.
This one is actually therefore be it resolved
that the state central committee
that all purchases, acquisitions and controlling interest
in private homes, businesses and non-agricultural land,
state land or federal lands in Idaho
by foreign governments, foreign state controlled enterprises
or their agents include those from countries
designated as foreign adversaries must be stopped.
There was a change added to this
and the change was like,
oh, it was brought about by, was that Chris Trachel?
Yes, Chris Trachel of Canyon County Chair.
And what it says is,
or their foreign state controlled enterprises
or their agents, including those from countries
designated as foreign adversaries included in an amendment
was not to include federally recognized Indian tribes.
Okay, so the tribes have been removed because they are here.
So that was one thing that the only change
that was made to that.
So this is asking us to have the legislature liaisons
work with legislators to ensure passage of this.
And we need to distribute copies to the governor
and the legislature and other relevant state agencies
immediately on this issue.
Okay, 10 was also amended just a little bit.
And this resolution calls to adopt
and enforce immigration law that holds employers
of illegal immigrants in the state of Idaho accountable.
This was pretty, this was a resolution
that was tossed around quite a bit in Pocatello
and eventually failed, but it's come back again.
And what this is going to do
and what the change with the amendment,
it says therefore be it resolved
that the Idaho Republican State Central Committee
support the adoption of law,
support the adoption of the laws outlined in part A,
section 247A of the Immigration Reform Act of 1986
as Idaho state law.
And then was added in excluding amnesty.
So that was put in the enforcement of civil
and criminal penalties for employers
to continue to hire illegal immigrants.
And that's pretty much what that one says.
So that was tagged in there, the excluding amnesty.
I don't know if it's already in there or not,
but that change is coming.
Okay, and these will all be posted
on the Idaho GOP website.
They will be posted probably in a couple of days.
Yep, as soon as we get them all done.
Okay, our next one, 2026-11.
This is a resolution for improved rural representation
in library districts.
This one, the idea that there was,
and this one was submitted by,
oh gosh, okay, where am I at?
Okay, LaTaw, LaTaw County submitted this one.
So apparently it's the same people on the library boards.
What they would like to do is have an alternate process
for creating library trustee zones,
whereby the people of the Idaho library districts
may seek the creation of trustee zones
outside of the jurisdiction library board.
And then that they would also like to see,
this is LaTaw County and other library districts,
which have suppressed rural influence on their boards.
All the while guzzling rural tax dollars.
And that is kind of true,
to create trustee zones prior to the next election.
In Custer County, where I live,
we are literally about a 40-minute drive
from Stanley Library.
But by golly, we're getting hit with quite a few taxes
on that because they extended their zone
without any real representation outside of the city.
So that's kind of a problem.
And we do pay the taxes.
And they came out and snagged heckle mine,
that entire very expensive property
to make sure they got taxes off of them as well.
But we have to look at this.
You know, a lot of libraries and probably some of yours,
they have it where you get a library card.
If you live out in the county, you pay a certain amount.
If you live in the city, you pay $5
because you're already paying utilities and so forth
and supporting through city taxes.
So there's a lot of ways to do this.
Should it maybe go down to a fee user system?
I think so.
If you're gonna use the library,
so many people now are on eBooks
and they're getting all their information
off of the computer.
So why are we all paying for library services?
If you wanna pay for it, pay for it.
Kind of like the issue now with public television.
It's the same thing.
So anyway, this is just one step
on making sure there's better representation.
Okay, so that's the library district one.
On 2026-12, resolutions for Self-Defense Protection Act
on campuses.
The Idaho committee wants to include students,
would like to make sure that individuals,
including students on public college campuses,
retain the right to possess and carry lawful
self-defense tools, including non-lethal options
for their personal protection.
Mace, okay.
I don't know if everybody's gonna be walking around
with brass knuckles, but anyway,
you can use a book anymore, I think,
as a weapon looking at the size
of some of these college books.
So now be it further resolved
that they do have a right to protect themselves.
Of course they do.
And we wanna work with our legislators
to introduce and pass legislation
that protects the right to self-defense
on institutional properties in Idaho,
taxpayer funded properties.
Okay, so that's number 12.
We had a lot of resolutions.
People just went crazy with them.
Okay, let's see, number 14.
A resolution requesting legislation
for the protection and management
of public lands within the state of Idaho.
And this was a very lengthy resolution,
but a very important one.
As most of you know, 63% of our lands are federal.
We are literally just people living
around a big territory.
I mean, that's really what it is.
We don't have a lot of say, however we might now,
that the Trump administration has put in
a couple of people to manage the forest
and to also his undersecretary position
to make sure that we're getting best use
and multiple use, which is required by law.
So this is something that was just to reiterate
more or less the direction that the Trump administration
is taking our federal lands.
And this would include affirm and protect
vested split interest estate rights,
including forage, water access and improvements
as property interests of Idaho citizens
and not federal privileges.
Codify multiple use and multiple uses everywhere.
It's in county regulations, it's in city regulations
if they have parks and so forth,
and it's definitely in federal
and state land planning guides.
Multiple use as the governing principle
of Idaho land management, balancing economic viability,
resource development, recreation and conservation
without allowing broad conservation mandates
to override productive uses.
Require full coordination with county land use plans.
Recognize county governments and sheriffs
as the primary enforcers of access and management decisions.
Establishing county land use plans
as the operative best management practices.
What we have in rural Idaho is a lot of forest LEOs,
law enforcement officers,
actually try to enforce our traffic laws.
That's not right.
The traffic laws are enforced by the county sheriff.
And that has actually happened in Lemhi-Custer County.
When I was a legislator, we had a lot of reports about that
and people would actually run,
try to get to their sheriff's office ahead of time
so that they could make sure that the forest service
isn't arresting them for a speeding violation.
So these are the kinds of things
that this would be addressing.
Also prioritize wildlife mitigation
through active management, grazing and timber harvest,
consistent with beneficial use and local needs.
The Good Neighbor Authority,
which is something that the forest service had started,
this would allow the state of Idaho
to go in and cruise timber sales, manage timber sales,
make money off of the timber sales
since the federal government is not doing that.
And that is something we have to continue with,
but it makes sure that the money goes to the counties
and not just into a big pot for the state.
The state does have to manage the fire
so there's gotta be an equitable way
that this money can be distributed.
But this is something that we have to continue.
We've done a very good job with it over the past eight years
and we need to keep cleaning up these forests.
They're gonna continue to burn.
We're gonna continue to have a smoke.
And we all know that Stanley,
which might be part of the playground
you all like to play around in,
had a devastating fire a couple of years ago.
So the fire issue is the biggest issue with me
because not only does it ruin our watersheds,
soils are just ruined forever for a long time,
within our lifetime anyway, the animals that die.
And that's something you all don't see.
So after the Stanley fire,
they went down and they pulled all the trees aside,
they pulled the dead animals out
because the last thing they want everybody to see
is how horrific those fires are.
And I really like the forest animals a lot.
That's what I hate to see.
There's no way out for them.
There's no way out.
And this is something that we can definitely be involved in.
But also harvesting.
So since the example of the Stanley fire,
they've gone in and harvested a lot of the dead wood.
And you have about three years
where it remains viable or worth anything.
And so they get in and they've been cutting down
a lot of it.
And I've never seen that happen.
Usually after the beetle kill
or after fires back about 10, 20 years ago,
they just let it stand.
And it falls in the river and it falls in the roads,
actually fell on a tent and hurt a kid.
So this is the kind of liability
that the feds and the state does not need to deal with.
Just keep it clean.
Keep the woods clean.
And then safeguard public access to Idaho lands
as an economic necessity and cultural cornerstone
while protecting vested property rights
against erosion redefinition by shifting federal policies.
And I wanna speak to that one personally also
because living where we live,
3% of Custer County is private.
Any type of emergency, crews, fire,
or we have EMTs getting out, that's all volunteer.
We don't have taxes paying for that.
But anyway, as far as the 3%,
we are dependent on the resources
and we're dependent on making sure
that these guys have access.
And the sad thing is with 3% only private lands,
excuse me, is the fact that they have another 97%
of the county they can access,
but somehow they still wanna go through those gates,
leave them open, let the cows roam free,
and get loose because they don't wanna recognize
that private property rights still exist in Idaho.
And they have the whole 63% of this state
that they can play around in,
but some of them still like to get into private property.
So this is really important that this one,
this more or less summarizes, excuse me,
I got a frog all of a sudden,
that the constitutional vehicle
for addressing these challenges,
recognizing that litigation has failed
to restore state control,
that it is through legislation
that Idaho can secure its jurisdiction,
protect the people, ensure the security
and prosperity of future generations.
So the legislature definitely needs to work closely.
Judy Boyle is probably one of the leads on land issues.
I worked with her a lot when I was in the legislature.
There's a lot of historical knowledge within this building.
Thank you, historical knowledge
that we have to access and utilize.
All right, moving on.
That was a little bit long, but that was a big resolution.
2026-15, resolution regarding taxpayer supports
for teachers' unions.
Why are we paying for teacher unions?
Dues are giving access to buildings,
collecting it out of teachers' paychecks.
The Idaho State Republican Central Committee
of course supports the passage of legislation
to prohibit taxpayer support for teachers' unions
in all forms directly.
Why are we even here?
You guys have already made up your minds.
Let's just get through it.
I mean, they were already gonna kill the bill.
That was very obvious.
They only reserved this room for testimony
if they expect huge crowds, and there wasn't one.
So the die was cast.
Anyway, so I really hope that something gets through here.
I'm looking at some of my legislators.
I'm seeing a lot of nodding heads.
It's ridiculous.
We just shouldn't be paying.
If they wanna be a member of a group,
they can pay.
2026-17.
This is a resolution urging a constitutional amendment
to, ooh, this is a fun one,
to replace all state taxes with a sales tax
and reduce government spending in alignment
with the Idaho State Constitution.
Okay, so this is interesting.
You know, I think a lot of us
really wanna see what happens in Florida.
I wanna see what DeSantis comes up with on property tax.
I mean, and see how, I mean, they're pushing.
It's gonna be within this year.
We're gonna see if they're successful with that
and see what their plan is.
But this is one to propose a constitutional amendment
to replace all state taxes with a sales tax
as the sole revenue source, a user tax.
Revising Article VII to reflect this change.
Develop a three- to five-year transition plan.
Of course, it would take that long
to get rid of all of our taxes,
such as income tax upon amendment approval.
Minimizing disruption to state and local budgets.
Three, commission an independent economic impact study
to determine the sales tax rate needed
to fund a conservative aligned budget,
ensuring job creation, business growth, and tax simplicity.
Four, conduct a comprehensive audit
and cut non-essential spending
to align with the conservative budget,
prioritizing limited government,
public safety, education, and infrastructure.
Five, adjust the sales tax rate marginally.
You don't wanna just go crazy.
As needed to sustain essential services
and maintain fiscal balance.
Don't over-raise until you see what you actually need.
Provide temporary state funding
or revenue sharing to local governments
to offset the loss of property tax revenue,
preventing local tax increases
under article seven, section six.
And seven, engage Idahoans through private town halls
or a referendum to ensure voter support
for the proposed amendment.
Let's have some buy-in on it.
And I will tell you,
based on every time I've been out collecting signatures
on the grocery sales tax exemption,
which we're still doing, contrary.
People can walk in our office anytime
and sign that petition.
This is the biggest issue.
If we get rid of grocery sales tax,
will we be able to get rid of property tax?
Yeah, we probably can.
So, but the property tax issue,
people are looking at 65 and older,
you don't pay property tax anymore.
You're paying for your house over and over
with the taxes that, especially with the tax increases
that we've had here in Boise alone.
So this is something that is probably ready
and ripe for consideration.
And a lot of people need to be involved
in these town hall meetings.
Or a great idea to ask them, what do you think?
Be it further resolved that copies of this resolution
be sent to the Idaho governor,
speaker of the house, and pro tem.
So let's open up that discussion.
Okay, and that one, who brought that one up?
That was, oh, that was you, legislative district 17.
Thank you, legislative district 17.
And then region five was the one
who brought up the union teacher one.
I'm trying to keep that.
And Blaine County, of course,
brought up the forested lands one.
2026-18 is a non-constitutional spending
from the Idaho state budget.
More or less that the Republican party calls
on the legislature to adopt a zero base sunset
of all boards and commissions.
And I had a list of those boards and commissions
and there's a lot of them.
Oh, there we go.
There they are.
So you can see, this is money we don't need to be spending.
State liquor stores, $70 million profit.
Why cut?
Well, it's a commercial enterprise.
Arts commission, 2.1 million.
Tourism board, 11 million.
So STEM action, 4.5.
Anyway, broadband grants, cat, wolf depredation.
Anyway, you can go down there and see
that historical society, zero base sunset.
And then you've got 1.1 billion
that could actually be removed.
So these are things, different line item programs
that could be removed.
Here in the legislature.
Or at least with JFAC and the budgeting of that.
As far as 19, we're almost finished everybody.
It's a resolution to return United States of America
to a constitutional money system of commodity backed money.
And it says that they would like
for the United States government to do this.
And that has a fixed values as required
by the coinage act of 1792
and honors the scriptural requirement
of having just weights and measures.
And be it further resolved
that the Idaho state central committee secretary
send this resolution.
Oh, our secretary's here.
Okay, so this is one you get to do Maria.
Send the resolution to the Idaho U.S. representatives,
Mike Simpson, Russ Fulcher,
and to Mike Crapo and Senator Jim Risch.
So that's one of the last ones on that page.
And then the last two, keep Idaho's water.
2026-22, we all know that there's been a lot of fighting
about the water, be it surface water
or groundwater in the state.
A lot of us don't want our water to be given to California
or sold off to California.
It's like, it's our water.
We live in the mountains
and desolate far away, far flung places for a reason.
And these mountains carry a lot of water down
and we should be able to use it first.
We should be able to store it first.
We should be able to make sure agriculture
has plenty of water.
We should be able to make sure our ranchers
have plenty of water.
We should be able to make sure that mining,
if it needs water.
These are the industries that we need to take care of
and especially the people.
You know, anybody from here, from CUNA?
Remember the metadata center and how much water it's taken?
Has that had an impact on development?
Yeah.
So anyway, it's our water and let's be smart about it.
So this further resolved that with that bold investment
in water storage, our farmers' families
and the economy face permanent decline.
With vision, courage and leadership
and with the backing of thousands of Idahoans
who have already spoken,
we can turn Idaho's water shortage
into tomorrow's water security,
ensuring future generations inherent, strong
and resilient Idaho.
And so they're talking $750,000 of water storage by 2100.
Anyway, so this is one that has come forward.
They're talking in particular about small reservoirs
in Minidoka, Jackson Lake and American Falls.
And actually reservoirs make a lot of sense.
And then of course, recharging the groundwater
is a very easy way of storing our water.
Okay, and then the last one, 2026-23.
A resolution calling for the posthumous pardon
for Randy Weaver and justice for the Weaver family.
This one is really unique
because it's more or less wanting
the Boundary County prosecutor to bring charges of murder
against Lon Horucci which was recommended
by the special prosecutor assigned to the case.
And be it finally resolved that we call on President Trump
to give a pardon for Randy Weaver
for the failure to appear conviction.
That's what it's asking for.
Randy Weaver has passed.
I think most of us know that.
It was a horrific part of history here in Idaho,
that entire thing.
So this is something that came up.
This letter will be sent off to the prosecutor
in Boundary County, to the President of the United States
and to the United States Attorney General.
So that is our charge on those resolutions.
That's all, we've gone through the resolutions.
Anybody have any questions about any of these?
You can raise your hand or you can meet with me later.
But if nothing, if you want to slow this down
and read them in context,
go to our website and read through them.
And if you have any questions, speak to your legislator.
If you feel strongly about one of these,
speak to your legislator, okay?
They're the ones who have to do the heavy lift.
And I believe there's a lot of good conservatives
who see the same way we do.
Yes, ma'am.
Not, yeah, that is carved out.
I don't know why.
And I'll tell you, as chair of the party,
I am not in all of these meetings.
In fact, I usually don't even read these
until I walk in there.
It's not my job to move these through.
Although everybody thinks they're all mine
because I always get blamed.
Oh, look what Dorothy did.
No, it wasn't me.
The committees did that.
They put these together, they discussed them in committee
and they passed it through.
That one was, oh, Nez Pierce.
Nez Pierce put it through.
And that was number nine, number nine.
And you can get a copy of that off of the website, okay?
But you've got to remember, these are suggestions.
When it gets to the legislature,
you know how many times these get put back and forth
and back and forth?
There's a lot of work.
This thing is gonna be morphed into who knows what
by the time it actually gets to a final bill.
But this is a start.
And that's what it's all about,
is making sure the people of Idaho
can start the ball rolling in these discussions, okay?
All right, and then again, please go to the website.
The other thing I wanna talk about quickly
is that, let's see, we've got about 25 minutes.
While we were there at the winter meeting,
there was a group called VoteProof
and everybody was given a ballot
to fill out different questions.
I believe there were 20 of them.
And you could fill out the questions
and then they would feed them into a machine.
There was no internet connection at all.
And then it would print out a receipt.
And the receipt looked like something from a grocery store.
And it said, number one, you voted this way,
two, three, four, five.
It's really a very cool instrument.
And so anyway, we had VoteProof there
and they had some results.
So we kind of had a fun little survey
that would talk about different issues.
And one of the issues that came up was,
what do you think should be the top legislative priority
for Idaho this year?
Taxes and spending, 68 people.
There were 70 and 70.
70 guests and 70 members voted.
Took the time to fill it out.
So there were 140.
And so 50% said taxes and spending.
Let's see, 4% education reform.
Election integrity, 8%.
The second highest was property rights and land use of 11%.
Immigration and border security was 10%.
And then parental rights, school transparency was 8%.
And regulatory reform, two.
So number one was taxes and spending.
Let's reduce the spending, get rid of the frivolous stuff
like the launch program.
That's a bad one.
One vote, could have got rid of it last year.
Anyway, we need to get rid of that one.
We don't need to be paying for every college kid's education.
This has been going on for years.
They keep trying to pay for everybody's education
beyond senior year in high school.
What are your concerns with the Idaho's elections?
Pretty much prefer paper ballots was 50%.
People really liked the paper ballots.
People liked the paper ballots a lot
when we had our presidential caucus.
Remember, everybody got a paper ballot
and then they dumped the ballots out on the table
and they counted them right in front of you.
What fun.
And then they'd stack them up.
So that's, you know, you can count them.
Remember the hanging chad?
Those were counted a million times.
We can hand count ballots.
So I like paper ballots myself.
The second big issue at 30%, that was 50%,
was in the absentee ballots, except for military.
Because everybody's gotten pretty dependent on those,
especially during COVID.
Which branch of state government needs the most reining in?
Judicial.
Isn't that interesting?
So judicial was at 50%.
And executive and legislative kind of fell between
evenly in the other 50%.
Do you think your Republican legislators
follow the Republican platform?
Very well, about 18%.
Somewhat, 60%.
Not very well, 19%.
And thinking about the legislators,
that seems about right.
That seems pretty much correct.
But we need to boost those numbers up
to where they're following the platform better.
And do you think that the grassroots voices
in your districts are very well represented at state level?
And over 50% said yes.
So I thought some of these responses were nice to see.
They don't like, oh, how concerned are you
about dark money not being reported in Idaho elections?
65%, no, no, actually 85, very concerned and concerned.
65% was very concerned.
They don't like dark money coming into the state.
And we actually saw a lot of that
with the ranked choice voting.
And then which type of lobbying influence
concerns you the most?
Out-of-state lobbyists was 52%.
That was the highest.
And then it was spread out between corporate lobbyists,
nonprofit political groups, and public sector unions.
So anyway, I thought this was all pretty interesting stuff.
We'll probably be posting this online.
I think it'd be kind of fun.
Okay, the last thing I wanna talk about,
and then we'll stand for questions.
We have a lot of ranking systems in Idaho, in the nation.
And I wanna talk to you about some of them.
Idaho Freedom Foundation has always been the gold standard
for the rating of our legislators.
People before me in the legislature were rated,
I was rated, my ratings were good.
I got a lot of nice compliments because I did well.
Tammy's done well, everybody's doing well.
A lot of people in this room, the legislators have.
And so IFF is one that a lot of people
have historically used over 20 years.
CPAC is the national one that most of you have heard of.
So CPAC actually has been rating for a long time,
not just states, but also nationally,
all of our congressional folks.
That one is one that is kind of like the gold star
of national rankings.
Now, another group has just taken off
in this legislative analysis.
In this bunch, it's, yeah,
the Institute for Legislative Analysis
formed about four years ago.
Now, I've talked to these two gentlemen,
Fred McGrath and Ryan McGowan.
Fred is the president
for the Institute of Legislative Analysis.
Now, these guys broke off from CPAC.
They both worked with CPAC for about 15 years.
So I've kind of done a deep dive into all of this.
And these guys broke off because they thought,
maybe some of these bills shouldn't have been rated,
what have you.
They didn't like the way some of the direction was going.
I don't know.
Sometimes people are in too long
or maybe they get new people in
that have some really funky ideas.
Don't know, don't care.
But here in Idaho, there are multiple rating systems.
IACI has one.
I think the AG people have one.
Everybody has a ranking system.
These are the people we like,
these are the people we don't like.
The one with the Institute on Legislative Analysis
has two states only, Idaho and Maine.
I like these guys.
I think they're okay.
What they do, they actually have analysts,
people to review the bill.
Guess what?
IFF have actual people to review the bill.
Guess what?
CPAC have actual analysts, people to review the bill.
The minute you bring AI,
how many of you think AI would be a good way
to rank a bill or a legislator?
Raise your hand.
How many of you think artificial intelligence
is a bad way to rank a legislator or legislation?
Please raise your hand.
Good.
Okay, you guys are smart.
You know what artificial intelligence is.
So there is another group out there.
I'm not gonna name names,
but you will see it on Facebook.
And if you do, I want you to totally disregard.
AI is skewed and can be skewed for a certain outcome.
And I will tell you right now,
after talking again, actually today,
to see if Fred,
because I noticed they took our logo down.
Because our logo,
you might've seen it at the end of last year.
All of a sudden you see the Idaho elephant.
You notice they just have our flag.
You know, they have our flag,
Idaho GOP rating system,
and then RNC.
Can you click on the RNC one?
Can you find that one?
So we have our Idaho platform
that their analysts are backing it to.
And well, that's okay if you can't find it right now.
But the federal one uses the RNC platform.
So we definitely have a platform.
And ours is good.
They said it was good.
So anyway,
if you see anything that says we're using AI,
please disregard it.
I understand there are gonna be some rankings
of bills and legislators every day using AI.
They are not accurate.
In my mind, they're not accurate.
I hate AI.
I like the little kitties and doggies dancing around
when I open up my Facebook every morning.
Those are so cute.
But I don't like it when it's trying to be used
for or against legislators.
I don't want the weaponization of ranking systems
that are going to hurt good legislators actually looked at.
So please remember that.
If you're looking at a ranking system, go to IFF.
I don't know why we need so many of these.
I mean, is it just to reconfirm things
that people think certain people are the best or whatever?
Go to IFF.
Go to CPAC.
I think that's all you need.
Or you know what?
Call your legislator.
How about that?
Call your legislator and say, you know why?
Can you vote this way?
Do you know who told the story?
I forgot who told the story that one person came in.
Rob, was that you?
One person came in and said something
and changed the mind of one legislator
on a very important piece of legislation.
A very heartfelt testimony.
Maybe you all need to get in
and do some heartfelt testimony, you know?
Don't depend, you know, ranking systems are nice,
but the best person to, you know,
know what's the best for you and your family situation
is your own brain, is your own brain.
And God gave us a brain for a reason.
It's to use it.
And right now, every day,
everybody's sitting around on these things,
even in group discussions at Thanksgiving.
Uh-huh, yeah, that's great.
Oh, really?
You passed the class?
You guys know what I'm talking about.
We gotta start leaving these things alone
and start using our own brains and doing our own research.
We have an election year coming up.
This is gonna be a, you know,
we're gonna have a primary election.
There will be some vicious attacks all over the place.
Ignore a lot of them.
You know your people.
You know your legislators.
And those legislative districts
are the ones should be putting in your legislators.
Not other counties, not other legislative districts
coming into your legislative district,
not people from out of state.
That's what we have to do, you guys.
So, you know, tell your friends and neighbors, block them.
You see somebody who's throwing dirt around,
putting mud on people here in our legislature,
this is not an easy job.
And because I've lived it,
a lot of these people who are throwing stones
have never been a legislator.
So they can't say.
They don't know about the sacrifices of time,
time away from family, away from your pets,
because they hold a grudge.
So you have to really give these guys credit.
And they really don't make a lot of money.
So anyway, I want you to know
that the Idaho Republican Party
stands behind our legislators.
We will be watching them closely.
There's a couple of them who I definitely,
well, there's more than a couple.
He probably should maybe go to the other party.
But you know what, they are getting called out.
And anyway, we're gonna have a great year.
We're gonna have some great conservative legislation.
We should see a budget decrease.
We should see a funding cut.
Because we've got some of the best legislators right now
I've ever seen in this building.
We have a lot of them too.
So anyway, I'm gonna close with that.
And I will take any questions
if you all want to ask any questions.
Yes, Cornell.
Thank you.
Thank you, Cornell.
I know I wasn't in the hearing,
so I didn't hear any of it.
Okay, and Cornell was one of your legislators.
Can the legislators please stand
so they know that you actually took the time
to come and be here for you?
All right.
Thank you.
I mean, thank you, you guys.
I know you're busy trying to get ready for today.
Any other questions?
Thank you, Cornell, for being in here
to answer that for me.
No?
Yes, sir.
What was that, Lynn?
Hang on, did you want to respond, Lynn, or what?
Oh, thank you, the flag bill.
Well, you know, I would like to see her in handcuffs,
but you know, what do you do?
No, I mean, seriously, we're gonna put some teeth
into the laws that don't have the laws in the laws.
Yes, it was.
I'm sure that'll probably be taken care of.
Yep, I'm seeing some shaking heads by legislators.
They're all over it.
They're gonna get it done.
And you know, America 250 next year,
we don't need this type of controversy.
We need to celebrate Idaho.
We need to have our military flags,
which we can have.
And in this huge parade that we're gonna have,
this huge celebration, and we don't need, you know,
this kind of dark shadow hanging over us
about who has what flag and who's taking over every poll
in the city of Boise and so forth.
You're right, but hopefully the legislature
gets it taken care of.
Any other questions?
Okay, thank you.
Thank you so much for being here.
Appreciate you.
