OPINION: The lawmaking power of Idaho voters is under attack again
Jim Jones
Dorothy Moon, the current chair of the extremist faction of the Idaho Republican Party, proclaimed on election night that: “We’re not ever going to let Reclaim Idaho bring another initiative.” Moon was honked off that the citizen initiative group had just run a third initiative drive seeking reform of Idaho laws.
Reclaim Idaho ran its first initiative drive in 2017 to expand Medicaid coverage for low-income Idahoans, after the Legislature had refused for years to take a 90% federal match to provide for their medical care. Resistance to that initiative was fierce. Raul Labrador, then running for governor, claimed: “Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.” The voters disagreed and approved the initiative in 2018 with more than a 60% vote. It has been a life-saver for about 100,000 Idahoans of modest means and for counties, whose medical indigency funds were stretched to the limit.
Reclaim’s second initiative, the Quality Education Act, forced a special session of the Legislature in 2022, resulting in an increase of $410 million in K-12 educational funding. That would not have happened without Reclaim’s good work.
The third initiative was designed to break the Moon faction’s control over what kind of Republicans get elected in the closed GOP primary. Moon apparently saw no value in allowing voters to speak their mind on the issue, even though they sided with her.
Moon followed up her election-night vow to stop citizen initiatives with an embarrassing word-salad op-ed that confused constitutional amendments, initiatives and referendums. She proposed “raising the threshold for constitutional amendments by requiring signatures from at least 10% of registered voters in 23 out of 35 legislative districts, up from the current 18 districts. This change aims to strengthen the initiative process, creating a higher threshold for addressing statewide Referendums.” Say, what?
The fact is that constitutional amendments are proposed by the Legislature and do not start with signature drives. Initiatives, which make laws, are completely different from referendums, which veto laws passed by the Legislature. If Moon meant that her 10% of 23 district requirement was intended to apply to initiatives, it would be an unlawful limitation on voter initiative rights that would undoubtedly be challenged in court.
Rep. Bruce Skaug and several other GOP right-wing legislators have proposed another unconstitutional restriction on the right of voters to make laws with the initiative. They would require initiatives to get a 60% vote in order to become law, rather than the current majority vote. That would change over a century of Idaho and most certainly invite a lawsuit. If the Legislature needs only a majority vote to make a law, there is no basis to require 10% more for a voter-approved law.
Skaug seems to believe that the initiative system is “broken” because outside interests put a lot of money into the Prop 1 campaign, which failed by a substantial margin. The extreme GOP usually tries to make it harder to run initiatives when one is approved or comes close. Now, any outcome brings calls to squelch the initiative rights of voters.
There is a problem with out-of-state money being spent in Idaho elections, but it is not related to the initiative. Rather, about $1.5 million of dirty money from out-of-state interests flowed into Idaho in the 2024 GOP primary election to defeat reasonable, pragmatic Republicans who opposed school voucher schemes. Skaug might notice that many of his former colleagues — Julie Yamamoto, Matt Bundy, Melissa Durrant, Kenny Wroten, Chenel Dixon and Greg Lanting — are no longer in the House with him. They were viciously attacked and beaten in the primary by out-of-state monied interests. Several good GOP Senators were also defeated — President Pro Tem Chuck Winder, Goeff Schroeder and Linda Hartgen. Even more tainted money flowed into the state against moderate Democrats in the general election. The problem plaguing Idaho is that dark money is being used to push the Legislature ever-further to the far-right fringes.
Rather than taking away the right of Idaho voters to make laws, perhaps Moon’s extremist faction of the GOP could start acting in the best interests of Idaho voters by adequately funding schools, providing health care to less fortunate Idahoans and dispensing with pointless culture war issues. If the Legislature would govern in a reasonable, responsive manner, voters might not have the need to initiate laws.
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Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served eight years as Idaho Attorney General and 12 years as a justice on the Idaho Supreme Court. He blogs at JJCommonTater.com.
LINKS:
Proclaimed on election night:
Expand Medicaid coverage:
https://www.reclaimidaho.org/medicaid
Refused for years to take a 90% federal match:
Raul Labrador, then running for Governor, claimed:
Reclaim’s second initiative:
https://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/from-the-opinion-editor/article264814144.html
She proposed:
In the 2024 GOP primary election: