The new closed primary in Idaho seems to have had one of the effects a lot of people expected: Turnout is down. People professional expected to be neutral, like journalists and judges, are voting in smaller numbers. And a lot of other people, disgusted at having to declare a party identification, took a pass too.
But one of the other anticipated effects - the idea that relatively extreme challengers would be knocking out lots of Idaho legislators - seems not to be materializing.
Look up in District 1, the first north Panhandle district, where all three Republican legislators - Senator Shawn Keough and Representatives Eric Anderson and George Eskridge - were challenged from, probably you could say, the right. (A local Tea Party leader, Pam Stout, who had some national visibility, opposed Eskridge.) The challenges were energetic and well-publicized. All three incumbents seem to be surviving their challenges with strong votes.
Just south of them, Republican Representative Shannon McMillan was challenged by two primary opponents, one of them a former candidate for governor and senator - Rex Rammell. As this is written, she's at 54.4% of the total vote, well over as many as the other two combined.
A challenge to House Republican Caucus Chair Ken Roberts - one underwritten in part by fellow House Republican leaders - seems to have fallen well short.
A challenge from the libertarian-oriented Maurice Clements to Senator Patti Anne Lodge went nowhere; she won in a landslide.
And so it went around the state.