00:00:00:00 - 00:00:40:04
Lindsay Allen
Welcome to the 2024 General election meet the candidate forum. My name is Lindsay Allen and I am joined by Naomi Bouts. We will be your moderators for the 2024 Meet the Candidates series. This year's forum is sponsored by the Hagadone Media Group, Quicksilver Studios, and the Joint Public Policy Committee of the Coeur d'Alene regional, Hayden, Post Falls, and Rathdrum Chambers of Commerce in partnership with the Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls Press.

00:00:40:06 - 00:01:05:17
Lindsay Allen
This forum is intended to allow you, the voter, to hear from the candidates representing various Idaho state legislative …

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:40:04
Lindsay Allen
Welcome to the 2024 General election meet the candidate forum. My name is Lindsay Allen and I am joined by Naomi Bouts. We will be your moderators for the 2024 Meet the Candidates series. This year's forum is sponsored by the Hagadone Media Group, Quicksilver Studios, and the Joint Public Policy Committee of the Coeur d'Alene regional, Hayden, Post Falls, and Rathdrum Chambers of Commerce in partnership with the Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls Press.

00:00:40:06 - 00:01:05:17
Lindsay Allen
This forum is intended to allow you, the voter, to hear from the candidates representing various Idaho state legislative and Kootenai County positions who will share their vision and policies to help inform your vote. Candidates will be given one minute to introduce themselves, then asked three questions with two minutes to respond to each question. Candidates will be allowed one minute for their closing statements.

00:01:05:18 - 00:01:49:01
Lindsay Allen
These forums provide a unique opportunity to connect with the candidate who seek to serve our community. By meeting our candidates one on one in a more casual environment, we aim to better inform Kootenai County voters about each candidate's point of view.

00:01:49:03 - 00:02:16:05
Lindsay Allen
Okay. Now up we have Carl Bjerke. He is a Senate candidate for district five. Carl, you will have one minute to do an introduction for the audience.

Carl Bjerke
Okay, well, I'm Carl Bjerke. I'm the Senate incumbent Senate candidate, and I'm running for reelection, for my next term, hopefully. I appreciate the opportunity to be here this afternoon.

00:02:16:06 - 00:02:42:02
Carl Bjerke
Close to evening. You know, my, district five is is a wholly within Kootenai County. And, I represent constituents from the Kootenai, Benewah border all the way up into Prairie and Post Falls, west of the lake, and basically to the Washington border. And as a as an incumbent, I have a bit of a track record and votes that I've taken, but for people that don't know me, I would encourage you to go to my website.

00:02:42:02 - 00:03:07:01
Carl Bjerke
That's Carl Bjerke for the number four senate.com, where you could find out a little bit more about my background and what I stand for. But basically I've got a a management leadership kind of political background. I'm the retired deputy chief in the city of Santa Monica Fire Department. And, you know, I'm on the, Health and Welfare committee in the Senate now, and, I'm the vice chair for, the Senate Finance Committee.

00:03:07:01 - 00:03:38:07
Carl Bjerke
So and I'm looking forward to hopefully having another session, another term.

Lindsay Allen
Welcome. Okay. We're going to get into questions. You'll have two minutes to answer each of these questions. Question one as incumbent, what do you see as the top issues facing your district and how do you plan to address them if elected?

Carl Bjerke
Well, you know, there's a bunch of issues that kind of are encapsulated at home with taxes, whether it's, lack of housing, whether it's some of the things like, child care.

00:03:38:09 - 00:04:00:05
Carl Bjerke
You know, the more we can take away the burden of the taxes, the more we can address those things. So being on the Senate Finance Committee, you know, we're responsible for the budgets, obviously. So, you know, the state brings in I think our budget was about 13.9 billion last time, and about 5.8 of that is actual state money.

00:04:00:05 - 00:04:36:10
Carl Bjerke
So we've get we have other sources for that money. So it's real critical. I mean, we're not the federal government. We can't print money. We can't just make it out of whole cloth. We actually have to have a budget that is balanced. So when we're saying that there there is a pie that has to be divided up. And when you're talking about dealing with the issues, whether it is the budget, the budget's a huge issue in this state right now, whether it's, spending for education or whether it's Medicaid spending, anything that gets a lot of money, disproportionately to some of the other things that we want to fund, that there is a finite pie.

00:04:36:10 - 00:05:04:22
Carl Bjerke
So, that is a huge critical issue for the state is to try to address those budgetary issues when you, especially when it comes to the two biggest outlays, which is education and health and welfare, mostly Medicaid, can you repeat any more of that question? Just want to make sure that I what?

Lindsay Allen
Yes. What do you see as the top issues facing your district, and how do you plan to address them?

00:05:05:00 - 00:05:28:00
Carl Bjerke
Well, health and welfare, I'm going to be working, very much this year on some of the Medicaid funding so we can try to address where some of those pieces of the pie can go, whether it's child care. You know, whether it's some of the Medicaid spending that, we have to look at, believe it or not, when you're on the Senate Finance Committee, everything seems to be budget related.

00:05:28:01 - 00:05:58:03
Carl Bjerke
And, I think everybody is looking to have something funded. And our job is to make sure that we do it appropriately.

Lindsay Allen
Okay. Thank you. Question two legislators often receive input from advocacy groups and organizations, as well as their constituents. How will you balance these perspectives when supporting or opposing legislation, and what steps will you take to ensure transparency for your constituents?

00:05:58:05 - 00:06:21:08
Carl Bjerke
Well, it is a goal of mine. It's a difficult task because we're a part time citizen legislature. You know, we're really only down there for three months. Will start January 6th. This this time, I'm there a little bit because I'm on the revenue committee. And you are hit all the time by, you know, advocacy is this, that, you know, everybody wants to influence what you do.

00:06:21:10 - 00:06:43:04
Carl Bjerke
I say the biggest influence for me is what my concern is, is my constituents. And and again, that's the most difficult thing to to come to, you know, talking about the budget again, you know, everybody has a certain feeling about what they want funded. You know, everybody's got their sacred cow. I think it was Rand Paul that relayed a story about talking about welfare.

00:06:43:06 - 00:07:07:02
Carl Bjerke
And when you ask the question to like a survey group, how many of you want to eliminate welfare programs? 67% of those folks say yes. But when asked that same question, when you divided up that pie and you broke out those components of welfare, they all receive 67 or so percent, favor favorable, you know, so, you know, it's really difficult.

00:07:07:04 - 00:07:33:18
Carl Bjerke
My constituents are my number one concern. And staying in touch with my constituents is my number one concern. When you're down there, it's, you know, you look for different ways. You find groups that are lobbying for a particular cause that end up aligning with what you feel your constituents concerns are, and then you've got to kind of meld that in with what you kind of promised people when you were deciding to do this begin with.

00:07:33:20 - 00:07:56:20
Carl Bjerke
So you trying to get all those things together. And I think, if you go into with the idea that you want to do the most for the most and you're actually there to serve, I think you can't go wrong.

Lindsay Allen
Thank you. Final question if proposition one passes, will you support it or will you vote to repeal it?

00:07:56:22 - 00:08:20:04
Carl Bjerke
That's somewhat of an interesting question in the sense it's not it's certainly not hypotheticals. We'll be voting on that pretty quick here. But my support for House Bill 179 in 2023, kind of what I would be kind of a hypocrite at that point if I decided not to do everything in my power to make sure that we don't end up with something called ranked choice voting.

00:08:20:06 - 00:08:46:23
Carl Bjerke
The legislature in 2023 resoundingly defeated, any anything like that moving forward? We had it end up being a little bit of a party line vote, but it was, you know, 5612 to in the House and it was 28 seven on the Senate side. Now that the GOP has come out against prop one and as well the governor, it would be really difficult.

00:08:47:00 - 00:09:06:14
Carl Bjerke
I think the issue comes into effect where, you know, if you look at our representative government being that we represent the people and that we have basically our marching orders from the people, and we go down there and we like we talked in the previous question about supporting our constituent base, and we do what they want us to do.

00:09:06:16 - 00:09:42:02
Carl Bjerke
This initiative process is it's a process we have. But oftentimes you'll find that the folks that are backing the initiative, I won't get into great detail, aren't necessarily the the grassroots grassroot Idahoans, you know, so there's there ends up being a misrepresentation when you talk about is somebody really for or against something. Very often some of these initiatives are the way they're worded, or just the lack of education to the voters make it difficult for the, you know, the average kind of voter who doesn't really delve into politics to kind of really figure out what's going on.

00:09:42:04 - 00:10:12:23
Carl Bjerke
So they're highly influenced by, you know, media, whatever. Our job is to actually try to represent our constituents, and they've already told us back in 2023 that they don't want the, anything that will resemble ranked choice voting.

Lindsay Allen
Okay. Thank you. So we will have a minute now for your closing statement. So whatever you want to say to the audience to close everything out.

Carl Bjerke
Well, one, I appreciate the opportunity to come here.

00:10:12:23 - 00:10:33:13
Carl Bjerke
It's always good to talk to your constituents and have them see you on the hot seat and see how you are. You do with these questions. I often ask myself sometimes why I would continue to put myself in this position, but I do it because it is a service and that is it. It's not for me. I certainly wouldn't be doing it if it were.

00:10:33:15 - 00:10:59:16
Carl Bjerke
I, I feel very proud of my record. Since I've been in office, I've only been the first term the two years, and I managed to even being on health and welfare and being the vice chair of the Senate Finance Committee, managed to get ten bills across that I either sponsored or co-sponsored. And those bills have to do with, fighting for the freedoms of Idahoans, and, protecting the rights.

00:10:59:18 - 00:11:21:21
Carl Bjerke
And I look forward to parlaying that for another, session, hopefully. And I will I will continue serving as long as the folks want to keep vote me back in. So and I again, thank you for the the opportunity.

Lindsay Allen
Thank you.

Carl Bjerke
Thank you.

00:12:08:04 - 00:12:30:06
Lindsay Allen
And now up we have Senate District five candidate Adam Chapman. Adam, you will have one minute to give the audience an introduction.

Adam Chapman
Absolutely. Thank you very much for having me. My name is Adam Chapman. I've been a Coeur d'Alene. Coeur d'Alene has been my home for my entire life. I would say I've been a resident my entire life as well.

00:12:30:08 - 00:13:09:11
Adam Chapman
But I've been traveling back and forth between different places. And I think that gave me a unique perspective to try and tackle the issues that we face as a community. I should say real quick that my platform is the three E's, the economy, education and the environment, or preservation in that order. In terms of the economy, I think so many people understand that we're struggling in terms of, you know, how much money we have in our pockets right now, not being able to really buy groceries or I should say, not even being able to have social work and socioeconomic mobility.

00:13:09:11 - 00:13:37:12
Adam Chapman
So for that, that's my big kind of pitch to the people.

Lindsay Allen
Excellent for question one. You'll have two minutes to answer these. What are the top issues facing your district and how do you plan to address them if elected?

Adam Chapman
Well, the district has a, very diverse community with all manner of different people over, coming from the, how do you say economic stratification?

00:13:37:14 - 00:14:10:05
Adam Chapman
We have so many different people in different areas of the economic community, so to speak. Excuse me, but, I have to say it goes right back to my platform. The economy is number one, and I plan to tackle that by being a very strong union advocate. I know that's not a popular opinion out here in this area, but I think we really could use, someone who's really fighting for the labor class so that people, I hate to say, in the lower classes, get paid what I would view, what they deserve to be paid.

00:14:10:07 - 00:14:37:07
Adam Chapman
Which would be more than a living wage, which is a term that's in the, political diaspora. I want to say, I don't know which is the right word here, but it's a in the case, they want a wage where they can move up in life, where they can thrive. I think families around here and workers in this area would really need that and like that and want that in their lives.

00:14:37:09 - 00:15:08:03
Adam Chapman
So that's the major issue that I think faces our community.

Lindsay Allen
Legislators often receive input from advocacy groups and organizations and your constituents. How will you balance these perspectives when supporting or opposing legislation, and what steps will you take to ensure transparency to your constituents?

Adam Chapman
Absolutely. Oh, I love this question so much. I have to tell you right now, I have accepted zero money on my campaign, for the reason that I want to be authentic when I get to Boise.

00:15:08:03 - 00:15:32:04
Adam Chapman
If I do get there, in terms of the balance, I have to admit you it's going to be heavily favoring persons who are laborers, blue collar workers. Even, you know, I used to work at Walmart and way in the back room hauling freight and, the conditions there, they were good. But, those people deserve more, I believe.

00:15:32:06 - 00:16:00:06
Adam Chapman
So for that reason, the balance, you say, although I will hear, of course, for economic leaders in the community want and what their desires are, I will be heavily favoring the, lower classes, middle classes, even high middle class, too. That going to be the balance?

Lindsay Allen
Question number three. If proposition one passes, will you support it or will you vote to repeal it?

00:16:00:08 - 00:16:28:15
Adam Chapman
I will support proposition one. So that we do have open primaries in Idaho, as I believe it's a more democratic process that way. And for that reason, candidates will have to, you know, be a little more how I say give in to the people as opposed to what the situation is now, where they can just kind of hold on to their base and, you know, just give those people what they want.

00:16:28:17 - 00:16:54:06
Adam Chapman
So support. Absolutely.

Lindsay Allen
Okay. Last section here is our closing statement. You have one minute to make a closing statement to the audience.

Adam Chapman
Okay. Fantastic. Thank you for having me. Members of the community, I tell you right now, we need help in these critical areas the economy, education, the environment. We all like to use the lake.

00:16:54:09 - 00:17:16:21
Adam Chapman
I love to swim in the lake. I think we want a clean lake, a healthy lake, so that we can do all of our hunting and fishing and swimming. Additionally, our education system being a product of that system, I feel that we could do some work. We don't necessarily have to pump a lot of money in there. We can do some curriculum changes with what I term as an amateur, as cognitive loading and my own experience.

00:17:16:21 - 00:17:40:20
Adam Chapman
I study languages as a hobby. I can tell you right now that more repetition and a little more hand riding in schools, and I'll go into more specifics later, would definitely help our community in those aspects. And again, the economy, we just need families have more money. We need more money. We need to get paid more money that people need more money.

00:17:40:22 - 00:18:04:10
Adam Chapman
Money's not all that it is. You know, it's not happiness, but you can sure go a long way.

Lindsay Allen
Thank you.

Naomi Boutz
On behalf of the Joint Public Policy committees representing the Coeur d'Alene regional, Hayden and Post Falls and Rathdrum Chambers of Commerce, in partnership with the Hagadone Media Group and Coeur d'Alene Post Falls Press. Lindsay and I thank all candidates for participating.

00:18:04:12 - 00:18:26:01
Naomi Boutz
I would also like to thank the production team members at the Quicksilver Studios, the Hagadone Media Group, and the Coeur d'Alene Press. And of course, thank you to those who have taken the time to learn more about each of the candidates featured in this year's meet the Candidates series. This series has made it possible to hear from 23 Kootenai County local race candidates.

00:18:26:03 - 00:18:51:17
Naomi Boutz
We sincerely thank candidates who took the time to discuss what is important to voters in Kootenai County. We hope this townhall forum has helped inform those still uncertain about whom they will cast a final ballot for in the coming weeks. Please remember to vote. It's one of the most significant rights and responsibilities as Americans. The fundamental message this year is cast inform votes.