Business as usual, or maybe a shock?

We fell into a very pleasant conversation following the North Idaho conservatives’ “Drain the Swamp” rally a couple of weeks ago.

Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, was chatting about her alma mater, the United States Air Force Academy.

I spent plenty of time at the academy while working for several years at the Denver Post, so we were talking about new buildings and something of a different look for the gorgeous campus in the mountains above Colorado Springs.

Eventually, though, we got around to talking politics, and Giddings said with a laugh, “Some of the people here tell me you’re a Democrat.”

Giddings clearly was needling me, as MC Don Bradway had done earlier — and the fact that it was all in fun was a blessing, frankly.

Bradway had a pistol on his hip and Giddings was an A-10 fighter pilot who could embarrass her male colleagues by bench-pressing 400 pounds.

No, I wouldn’t mess with either of them.

IT WAS all good-natured, but I did tell Giddings the truth.

“I’m an independent,” I said. “I vote for specific people and issues, rather than sticking to ideologies.”

The representative from District 7 was prepared for that, however, and brought up a point that never had occurred to me.

“There are a lot of independents, especially around here in Kootenai County,” she said. “But the problem with that is that if you aren’t registered in a party, you can’t vote in a primary.”

Being fairly new to the area, I admitted I’d never considered that disadvantage.

“You should register as a Republican,” she said. “The reality is that all the seats in this part of the state will be Republican, so registering in the party is the only way you’ll have any say at all in who goes to Boise.”

Giddings wasn’t pushing me with a campaign speech.

She was simply stating what seems an undeniable fact.

All nine state legislators from Kootenai County are Republicans, and none really had to sweat out a really close race.

FOR NOW, we’ll refer to that notion of inevitable Republican rule as the “Priscilla Principle.”

(Hey, I want to have some fun, too.)

The serious question, though, is whether that belief in the “Unbeatable R” will hold up through 2018 and beyond.

Card-carrying Democrats and the rogue Indivisibles, a huge national group opposing the agenda of President Trump that has startling support in North Idaho, are revved up to a point that some long-suffering Dems claim they’d never dreamed they’d see.

They’ve crammed town hall events, held a massive Tax Day rally and generally made it known to all Republicans that the easy ride is over.

Just ask U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador, who was hounded into making himself a national punchline just as he was announcing his run for governor.

The reality, however, is that being loud at town halls doesn’t necessarily translate into winning long-term political battles.

In fact, it might just be background noise.

It’s true that anger at Trump, and some lesser frustration with the Idaho Legislature, has given Democrats hope they can snag some seats in 2018.

What’s more, they’re organized.

But this is still blood-red Idaho, and the minority party would need to find some truly strong candidates. Above all, though, they’d have to convert this current fervor into the much less glamorous business of knocking on doors.

Still...

For once, there is reason to wonder.

Could we see a crack in the wall?

- • •

Steve Cameron is a special assignment reporter for The Press and can be reached via email at scameron@cdapress.com.