Blake Hall

Anyone who wants to add another piece to the mosaic of recent Idaho politics will want to check out the detailed piece in the Idaho Statesman today about Blake Hall. That’s a name already familiar to anyone conversant with Idaho politics of the last couple of decades or so. But there’s some new material here to add some dimension.

An advisory here: This is something of a historical piece, albeit recent history. As its headline says, Hall has been “dialing back” his heavy involvement in Idaho government and politics (though he has certainly not left the building entirely). Hall left his most significant state post, on the Board of Education, a couple of years ago, and for various reasons his impact now isn’t what it was. (In 2002, the last time we ranked Idaho’s most influential 100 people, Hall was listed at number 18, and the year before at number 24.)

But the article, by reporter Dan Popkey, does slice through a number of useful areas of significance and influence in Idaho. Read it, and you’re likely to come away with some added layers to your picture of how Idaho operates.