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Posts published in June 2026

A split in the gorge

A split in the gorge

June 7, 2026

Visit Hood River, as so many people do, and you’ll see on the front windows of many downtown businesses a sign saying: “We are immigrants,” and sometimes next to them signs saying, “No trespassing — no federal agents — agents lacking judicial warrants will be turned away.”

Many took care to advertise an April 23 community town hall about the “impacts of ICE actions in our communities.”

Politically and socially, Hood River closely resembles pieces of central Portland or Corvallis.

Travel about 20 miles down the highway to the other major Columbia Gorge community, The Dalles, and you’d have to search hard to find any such signs about immigration or other public policy. I couldn’t find one.

These two communities theoretically ought to be twins.  The Dalles has a formal population about twice as large as Hood River, but the cities’ urbanized areas feel comparable in size. Both rely on their Columbia River location for strong tourism sectors, while each still depends considerably on agriculture. Both cities exude some prosperity (a little more obviously, maybe, in the case of Hood River). Even the cities’ road plans, and mix of commercial, industrial and residential areas are laid out similarly.

And yet to walk around these two cities is to get an entirely different feel. Hood River is packed solid on weekends — parking is hard to find — its popularity as a tourist destination spot (sporting activities, notably windsurfing, are a major draw). The Dalles draws tourists but seems more reliant on traditional resource businesses and its massive new data centers, a subject of some local controversy.

But the politics of the area is clear and reflects the overall feel of the communities. Hood River city, and the county around it, is strongly Democratic, while The Dalles area leans very slightly Republican and Wasco County around it mostly is strongly so.

The reasons for this, and the impact of recent economic developments, suggest a small but clear current movement toward Democrats, which may have an effect on one of the handful of closely contested Oregon legislative seats.

The Gorge, or at least the Oregon side of it, has been politically fluid over the decades. In the half-century up to 1988, you could argue that Wasco was more Democratic than Hood River; certainly it voted more often for Democrats for president. Since then — around the time Oregon became a consistent Democratic vote on the presidential level — Hood River has become clearly bluer, and Wasco more purplish.

Hood River County overall in 2024 voted 65.8% Democratic for president (well short of Multnomah but close to the margins in Washington and Benton), most strongly in Hood River city (four of those precincts went Democratic by more than 70%), but generally county-wide as well.

Wasco County barely voted Republican for president, 51.1%, and that close split reflected a wide range of views around the county’s 12 precincts. Four precincts in and just to the west of The Dalles voted Democratic, two more nearby were closely split, and the remaining rural precincts, with smaller populations, were strong Donald Trump bases.

The one rural precinct which went for Kamala Harris, Rowena-Mosier, lies on the old Highway 30 directly between The Dalles and Hood River. Many of the residences there are relatively new, suggesting that some of the same population moves and cultures that have influenced Hood River and to a lesser degree The Dalles had an effect in between them as well.

These geographic and voting pattern details matter when it comes to one of the region’s most closely-fought legislative seats.

In the decade before the 2022 election, all of Hood River County (along with mostly Republican slices of Multnomah and Clackamas) was located in the 52nd House District, and all of Wasco County (along with several other north-central Oregon counties, generally strongly Republican) in the 57th District.

The 2021 redistricting nudged the 57th District toward the southeast, expelling the precincts around The Dalles. Those are in the redistricted 52nd District, which was already closely split between the parties and lost some marginally Democratic territory in the Portland metro area.

This put the balance in this swing district in the new territory of The Dalles. In the 2022 election Republican Jeff Helfrich won three of the four counties in the 52nd District but lost Hood River overwhelmingly, for a narrow district-wide win of 52.5%. In 2024, he won again but by even less, 51.8%; the Wasco County precincts edged a little more Democratic that year.

This year, Helfrich is running instead for the Senate in the 26th District, where Republican margins are a little stronger. The two major candidates to replace him in the House are Republican Scott Hege and Democrat Hank Sanders, both winners of contested primaries.

Not much of a demographic change would be needed in this district to create an almost perfectly even playing field. This could turn out to be one of the last legislative seats in Oregon decided after election day in November.

 

The disaster then

The disaster then

June 5, 2026

Almost anyone who lived in eastern Idaho half a century ago probably could tell you where they were midday on June 5, 1976. It was a local equivalent to 9/11 or November 22, 1963.

It was the day the Teton Dam broke. The day a wall of water smashed through the region, killing 11 people and leaving more than $2 billion - in 1976 dollars - in its wake.

The dam was located along the Teton River, a tributary of the Snake River, northeast of Idaho Falls and a few miles from Newdale, where the country turned mountainous. It was one of the last dams built during the Bureau of Reclamation’s era of ferociously go-go western dam construction. By then a long string of dams already had been built throughout the Snake River system, from American Falls and Palisades to Milner and the Hells Canyon dams. Teton completed the list.

Farmers in the upper Snake River valley, around Rexburg and St. Anthony especially, felt the massive reclamation system developed through the first half of the 20th century missed their area and didn’t give them enough water storage for irrigation. Early federal studies of the idea of damming the Teton date from about a century ago, and the Fremont Madison Irrigation District began lobbying for more water storage - in practical terms, a dam - in 1948. Over the next few years, a complex system of agreements about how to move and use the water, and who would get to do so and when, was worked out. There’s been a good deal of argument in the years since about just how much this water actually was needed; the case against was laid out skillfully by Marc Reisner in his classic book Cadillac Desert about the Bureau of Reclamation projects.

Congress, with active involvement of Idaho’s congressional delegation, pushed through the construction and budgeting authorization in 1964. Years of both planning and legal challenges, on environmental and other grounds, followed until major construction work started in 1972 and was essentially finished by the end of 1975.

The dam didn’t last long. Starting on June 3, 1976, dam workers, federal and contractors, started noting water spouting out from areas around the dam, and just before noon on June 6 the dam burst open. Eight billion gallons of water shot downstream, along the Teton River, then twisting with the Snake River southwest to the American Falls area. Some cities, like Rexburg and Idaho Falls, saw flooding. Others closer to the dam, such as Sugar City, were all but wiped out.

I was living in Caldwell then, but a year after the flood I traveled to the dam site and the hard hit communities. My strongest impressions were both of how sweeping the flood had been - you could see all soil scraped by the water in some places - but also the speed of reconstruction. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in particular poured enormous resources into helping the area recover, and it worked. Today, little evidence of the flood remains.

For all that success, the wreckage of those days shouldn’t be minimized. In his book, Idaho for the Curious, Cort Conley quoted some doggerel from a man who lived in the area then: “If I sound a little bitter, it’s for certain that I am; Because right now the Upper Valley isn't worth a Teton Dam.”

And why should this echo from 50 years ago be a story to ponder today?

This year, all of Idaho either is in or soon faces severe drought; the national water maps developed for the state look drier overall than I can recall seeing them in decades.

When that hits, people in need of water will go looking for answers. And sometimes the obvious answer isn’t the best one.

There aren’t any very easy answers. History tells us as much.

 

Listening

June 4, 2026

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is spending our taxpayer dollars to go around the state and “listen” to our concerns. Idaho is about to grant a multibillion-dollar contract, the biggest ever in state history. Is this a wise investment, this listening thing? Its peanuts compared to the contract.

Lord knows, the legislature, who decided these billions of our tax dollars should go this way don’t listen. They ignore testimony. My elected State Senator has rarely appeared in public forums in my district for his last six years. The last time he did, it made national news. So he has learned. Don’t listen.

But the IDHW is listening. Maybe.

I am wondering if this representative government can survive. It’s up to you.

In the meantime, our taxpayer funded IDHW has gone around the state asking folks what are their concerns as Idaho Medicaid moves to managed care.

Our legislature has required this change to managed care. It’s all the rage. Maybe you have experienced it. You must go to an “in network” provider or the insurance company repossess your car. It’s that kind of health care we love, don’t we? Now we can stick it to those lazy Medicaid patients.

The DHW is asking, what do you think we should do? Will they listen?

There was a “listening session” this last week in Lewiston. I am not currently a provider who gets Medicaid dollars, or an enrollee. I was conflicted about making the $20 drive.

But the sessions have been very well attended. The department has posted the anonymized comments online.

As I read through them, I see a recurrent issue from providers. Keep in mind, managed care is nothing new. Big insurance companies have used this technique for years to control their costs and thus maximize their profits. Providers know the routine.

The insurance companies restrict their “panels” to low-cost providers. You liked you doctor? Sorry, not in panel.

They deny coverage for a recommended treatment. You can appeal; the doctor can appeal. Do you have a few months? Years?

I was a low-cost provider. I didn’t order a lot of tests or recommend many stupid surgeries. Lots of patients went elsewhere. They chose. So did I. They could find a doctor that would do what they wanted. I kept doing what I thought was a good job for my patients.

In the end, we’re all paying. It’s insurance.

This scenario is playing out big time here in Idaho. Hospitals and doctors across the state are fighting for more money. Insurance companies fight back. Such is the nature of a normal healthy marketplace.

When will you folks realize healthcare is not a marketplace?

Except maybe plastic surgery. Is that what you need?

I guess the Idaho legislature believes private equity funded big insurance companies are better suited to protect the taxpayer dollar than our own government.

Will they listen?

One of the recurrent questions from providers was, what would be the appeal process? Who can we gripe to when the insurer denies what we say is appropriate care?

I assume the IDHW will include that in their contract they put out.

Or will they? So now, our representatives want to contract out listening?

Idaho receives about $3B from the federal deficit government to pay for our Medicaid health care. Don’t get me started on the amount of tax dollars we are spending on debt service. We are talking about health care spending here.

But the two biggest drivers of fixed federal spending, after Social Security, are Medicare and Medicaid.

So you see this as a solution?

I have told you before, it hasn’t worked. President Bush gave us privatized Medicare. It has been proven to be a big waste.

Maybe Idaho is just behind the curve.

We should be listening.

 

Hope for better days

June 1, 2026

Reading the tea leaves of GOP primary elections in Idaho and across the country should give far-right MAGA warriors the heebie-jeebies. It is a near certainty that Donald Trump’s MAGA puppets will lose the US House and quite likely the Senate. While Idaho’s primary results were slightly in favor of the State’s traditional, problem-solving Republicans, the outcome will be decidedly in their favor by November. The 2027 Legislature will have a more moderate mix of Republicans and Democrats than in 2026. There will likely be surprises in some statewide races–Governor, US Senate and Attorney General.

North Idaho was a problem for reasonable Republicans. Two excellent legislators in District 1, Sen. Jim Woodward and Rep. Mark Sauter, lost to MAGA warriors who waged extremely nasty campaigns. Rep. Elaine Price, an extremist legislator in District 4, turned away a spirited challenge by Christa Hazel, who was viciously attacked by the forces of Kootenai County GOP’s Brent Regan. Regan is Chair of the County GOP and also serves as Chair of the ill-named Idaho Freedom Foundation, which is about as enlightened as Genghis Khan’s war council. Hazel is a remarkable person who got 40.5% of the vote with a campaign based on real issues.

The good news is that Regan lost his race for precinct committeeman and there is a possibility that the traditional, reasonable North Idaho Republicans will take over the official GOP central committee. This could be a turnabout from the notoriously extreme GOP machine in the County. Regan’s allies lost the Bonneville County GOP committee in the 2024 primary. The MAGA crowd will lose their grip on other counties in 2028.

There was not much change in the election results between GOP extremists and traditional Republicans in the western side of the state from Moscow to the Treasure Valley. However, the extremists lost big in the Magic Valley. Senators Glenneda Zuiderveld and Josh Kohl, two of the most extreme legislators, lost by large margins. The reasonable Republicans on the Eastern side of the state easily shrugged off challenges from culture warriors.

The atmosphere for Idaho’s GOP extremists will become more troubled with each passing week as voters become increasingly aware of the consequences of the mindless budget cutting that extremists committed against important state programs. The fallout from national MAGA policies, including tariffs, the Iran War, inflation, and the pervasive grift, will erode away the support for extremists everywhere. The farm community will be ready for a change because of rising prices for fertilizer, diesel, machinery and about everything else necessary for making a living on the farm–all a result of blundering MAGA policies.

Governor Little is headed into troubled waters in November. His full-throated embrace of the MAGA program has turned off reasonable voters and failed to gain support from the extremists. He only received 59% of the vote in the primary. He has two viable challengers in the general election–John Stegner, who is running as an Independent, and Terri Pickens on the Democratic ticket. If both are on the ticket in November, Little will get a third term. If the one with the least support withdraws in a timely fashion, Idaho can have a more reasonable Governor.

Todd Achilles is likely to win his Independent campaign against our octogenarian Senator Jim Risch. The Senator is too self-entitled to hold public town halls with the common people. He has meekly surrendered the Constitutional power of Congress to set budgets and wage war. He claims credit for things he has opposed. Risch was front and center to bask in the glory of Micron’s $15 billion groundbreaking even though he voted against the CHIPS bill that made it possible. On the other hand, Achilles is a regular guy, a military veteran and a successful businessman. As an Independent, he’ll be able to work with both sides of the aisle to get things done for Idaho.

Lori Hickman is an accomplished lawyer, who will stand up for the rule of law as Idaho’s Attorney General. The current Attorney General gives priority to his extreme politics.

Raul Labrador endorsed a number of his culture war soulmates in the primary, including five losers–Senators Zuiderveld and Kohl, Rep. David Leavitt, and challengers running against Senators Jim Guthrie and Ben Fuhriman. His political instincts are as faulty as his lawyering. Hickman has pledged to keep politics out of the office and treat it like a real law office–giving honest, straight-forward legal advice and assistance that complies with the Constitution and laws of Idaho.

An issue that favors both Achilles and Hickman is the sale of federal lands to private interests. Both Risch and Labrador are vulnerable on the issue. Risch voted against a 2025 Senate budget amendment that would have explicitly prohibited the sale or transfer of public lands to offset the federal deficit. When it appeared this year that sale of those lands was a hot button issue in Idaho, he tried desperately to backtrack. Yet, he voted to confirm a land sale proponent as director of the Bureau of Land Management. Achilles has strongly opposed any form of disposition of public lands. Likewise, Hickman advocates keeping “public lands in public hands.” That sharply contrasts with Labrador’s efforts to force the transfer of Idaho’s federal lands to the state for disposal. He even joined a Utah suit in the US Supreme Court to accomplish that goal. The suit was dismissed but it may come back to haunt him.

I suspect the GOP MAGA warriors will become increasingly alarmed by the electoral landscape as November approaches. By then, it will be too late to backtrack on their extremist agendas. They won’t be missed.