Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Day: August 2, 2014”

Three statewides

idaho RANDY
STAPILUS
 
Idaho

Draw no wild predictions of massive upsets into this, but three statewide offices below the top level – which would mean governor and Congress – have developed some new dynamics this year. They're different enough that, three months out from the general election, there's at least some sense of unpredictability about them.

The default prediction in Idaho when an office has a partisan label (as federal, state and county offices mostly do) is, simply, the Republican wins. It's a reasonable standard-issue answer in not all but most cases.

Noted here, three that don't necessarily reverse that, but ought to give prognosticators pause.

One, the most easily explained, is superintendent of public instruction, held for the last two terms by Republican Tom Luna. The two terms before that, however, it was held by Democrat Marilyn Howard, the Democrat most recently (12 years ago) elected statewide. When she retired in 2006, after having beaten Luna four years earlier, the Democratic nominee was Jana Jones, who was Howard's chief deputy. Jones nearly beat Luna, in one of the closer elections in Idaho that year. This year, she is running again, and is well-funded and highly active.

Her Republican opponent, Sherri Ybarra, has appeal and good classroom cred, but she was a surprise winner in a deeply split primary, and to date still hasn't been very visible or (visibly) organized. She contrasts with the highly-organized and campaign-honed Luna of 2006. This may change, and if as is possible she runs a solid campaign, the Republican label could carry her through. Right now, it's hard to know, and Jones is not badly positioned.

State Treasurer Ron Crane has had a series of bad headlines this season about his management of the office (and the finances it generates), the sort of thing elected officials usually find . . . unhelpful. He has a strongly aggressive Democratic opponent in Deborah Silver, a Twin Falls CPA who has been working hard and doing just about everything she can to keep those headlines in view and discuss them in detail. (more…)

On the front pages

news

Here’s what public affairs news made the front page of newspapers in the Northwest today, excluding local crime, features and sports stories. (Newspaper names contracted with location)

Female Episcopal priest dies (Boise Statesman)
Upgrades continue for Moscow-Pullman airport (Moscow News)
Latah deputies may see some pay increase (Moscow News)
Lots of exemptions in covered load rules (Nampa Press Tribune)
Changing rules for undocumented students (Nampa Press Tribune)
Pocatello housing group gets funding (Pocatello Journal)
New proposed rules for oil, gas (TF Times News)
Labrador blames Obama on immigrant children (TF Times News)

Concerns over plans for homeless camp (Eugene Register Guard)
Sky Lakes Medical Center spending on equipment (KF Herald & News)
Big burn in Oregon Gulch fire (Medford Tribune, Ashland Tidings)
Pendleton crime lab sees budget trouble (Pendleton E Oregonian)
Analyzing populations of Hermiston, Pendleton (Pendleton E Oregonian)
Moda premiums will rise 10.6% (Portland Oregonian)
Looking at Providence Park finances (Portland Oregonian)
Intense lighting storms in mid-Willamette (Salem Statesman Journal)

Reviewing Kitsap assessor race (Kitsap Sun)
Edmonds gets new low-income medical clinic (Everett Herald)
Former Herald building sold for low price (Everett Herald)
Legal issues addressed on immigrant children (Olympian)
Inslee visits as fires erupt (Spokane Spokesman)
Tacoma pot sales start (Tacoma News Tribune)