OPINION: The midterms: Second verse same as the first

At the risk of being accused of entering the field of battle and shooting the wounded, here are some takeaways from Idaho’s midterm elections:

l The big picture — Status quo. All of the congressional and statewide offices remain in Republican hands, by more than comfortable margins. On election night, there was no net change in the Legislature — about 80% of the seats remain in GOP hands. Discovery of a flawed reporting of tabulations in Jerome County, however, flipped a sole Democratic House seat into GOP hands.

l Legislative District 6 — Dan “don’t piss him off” Forman, R-Viola, is headed back to the state Senate and that can mean only one thing: The skids for Republican candidates are greased in the newly reconfigured district.

What else explains Foreman’s success on Tuesday?

He was hardly an unknown commodity. Voters tossed him out four years ago after he started barking at uncooperative constituents. He voted against the budget of the University of Idaho, the economic engine of his legislative district. He called Moscow, his largest population center, “a cesspool of liberalism.” And he’s never retreated from his belief that women ought to be prosecuted for abortions, something that is no longer merely rhetorical in light of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Although Latah County voters rejected Foreman in favor of incumbent Sen. David Nelson, D-Moscow, 55% to 43%, Foreman more than made up for it by carrying Lewis County by 77% and the portion of Nez Perce County in his district by 68%.

Say farewell to the last competitive legislative district in the 1st Congressional District.

l Attorney general — If any candidate stood a chance at pulling off an upset, it was Tom Arkoosh, the Democratic candidate for attorney general.

Much of it had to do with his opponent, former Congressman Raul Labrador — a pugnacious, partisan, polarizing politician who pledged to end a tradition followed by Republicans Lawrence Wasden, Al Lance, Jim Jones and Democrat Larry EchoHawk in running an office steeped in the law. Labrador offered to be more amenable to the political aims of the GOP ideologues in the Legislature and made no secret of his ambitions to sprint from attorney general to a second run for governor in 2026.

Enter Arkoosh, who easily outmatched Labrador’s legal qualifications and then managed to secure the support of at least half of the Idaho Republican elites — from former Gov. Phil Batt to former Secretary of State Ben Ysursa to former first lady Lori Otter.

And if the outrage over the Supreme Court’s Roe decision was going to emerge in any race, it would be for the state’s top legal officer.

But on Election Day, the GOP stayed home — Arkoosh carried the routine 37.4% just about any Democrat could expect while Labrador’s 62.6% reflected the Republican base in the Gem State.

l Ammon Bundy — While Gov. Brad Little cruised to a 60.5% reelection margin, it’s equally telling that 17.2% cast their lot with a man who has one foot in the courtroom and another in a jail cell.

Bundy waged armed insurrections against the U.S. government in Nevada and Oregon. He staged a riot outside a Boise hospital. He made a pest of himself at a high school football game. He trespassed at the state Capitol. He mocked the courts and threatened the cops. He stormed the public health district. And he pledged the impossible — virtually eliminating income taxes, property taxes and a good share of sales taxes — all of which would bankrupt the state and its schools.

Yet nearly 1 of every 6 Idaho voters chose Bundy, more than exceeding expectations.

As columnist Marc Johnson noted last week, that’s on Little, who failed to challenge what Bundy stands for. Now the governor has to deal with the consequences: a political punch line transformed into a political menace.

l Senate Joint Resolution 102 — Legend has it there was a time when all Idahoans agreed on at least one point: They were all better off the sooner the Legislature adjourned and returned home for the year.

But Tuesday, slightly more than 52% of them voted to amend Idaho’s Constitution and give lawmakers rather than the governor the authority to convene themselves into a special session at any time for any reason. It’s the surest path toward a full-time Legislature.

You can’t read the voters’ minds.

You can however, discern the results: The Legislature, ruled by the right-wing base of the GOP, just got more muscular. And the chief executive, controlled by the Republican’s rational wing, just got more feeble.

None of which necessarily reflects what Idahoans want. Poll after poll says they support better funding for schools, respect for women’s reproductive rights and desire tax relief that works for homeowners, not corporations.

What they got, instead, is a state wedded to the Republican Party and a Republican Party that continues to slide toward its right-wing fringe.

Until moderates in the GOP primary election and Democrats in the fall election untangle this riddle, nothing much is going to change. — M.T.