OPINION: Idaho political pendulum poised to swing toward center

The proverbial political pendulum in Idaho may have reached its most extreme rightward apex. I see hope on the horizon.

The far right’s agenda stalled in many areas during the recent legislative session. The ugly civil war within the Idaho GOP continues to splinter as moderates reemerge. The result could be the breakup of the right’s stranglehold on Idaho governance.

Idaho’s closed primaries, lawsuits aimed to end the initiative process and a recent law to prevent ranked-choice voting all are GOP attacks on our democracy.

Recent ballot initiative results provide clues to a pendulum that is poised to swing back to the center.

In 2018, Idaho was spared a health care crisis by expanding Medicaid, throwing rural hospitals a lifeline. This initiative victory was broad and solid (61% voted in favor).

This year, Idaho’s rural schools were protected from the sucking sound of precious state dollars diverted to urban religious and private schools (100,000 signatures sealed the deal). Thankfully, Idaho paused to look at the education budget-busting carnage in states like Arizona, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Overall, Idaho education was funded at historical levels led by citizen involvement.

Question: Who kept Idaho’s rural hospitals and rural school districts from calamity? Answer: you.

Despite the Idaho Republican Party’s best attempts to derail the voter initiative process and purge moderate Republicans and independents from voting in primary elections, Idaho has emerged with options for renewed democracy.

Medicaid expansion and a dramatically increased education budget occurred because you spoke up. You found a way to express your displeasure with the supermajority’s dismal leadership. You didn’t cave to the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s dark money tactics and out-of-state boilerplate solutions.

You allowed Medicaid expansion to be placed on the ballot. You showed Idaho Gov. Brad Little the path to a new level of education funding.

The secret sauce of Idaho’s political DNA are the independent voters. They provide the true base of Idaho values. The ballot initiative process dramatically showed democracy in action.

An energized coalition of community groups, Idahoans for Open Primaries, is proposing to overturn closed primaries. If successful, Idaho can return to its core values of freely electing candidates from the political middle.

This group’s proposal would place a ranked choice voting initiative on the 2024 ballot. This approach allows voters to rank multiple candidates on a ballot in order of preference. The advantage is electing candidates with a majority of votes instead of the plurality under our current system. In Idaho, it specifically prohibits the closed primary system that treats approximately 200,000 primary voters as secondary citizens.

Despite GOP efforts to make ballot initiatives impossible, Idahoans for Open Primaries can proceed under a legal regime decided by a 9-0 Idaho Supreme Court decision.

I believe Idahoans oppose the Idaho GOP’s efforts to purge moderate Republicans from the party and lock out independents. The GOP closed primary system disenfranchises voters and has led to the current cohort of fringe legislators. Unaffiliated primary voters have every right to participate in Idaho elections.

Ranked choice voting and open primaries may swing that inevitable political pendulum back to where Idaho governs best. More candidates from a broader political spectrum will give us more choices. With more choices and more primary participants democracy can flourish ... once again.

When an Idahoans for Open Primaries volunteer asks for your signature to place ranked choice voting on the ballot, I strongly urge you to sign. After all, you have shown what it means to have a voice in our beautiful Idaho.

The proof is in the results so far: better health care for more and a greater commitment to education.

LaRocco, of Boise, represented Idaho's 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991-95.