Weeks, or even months, of behind the scenes maneuvering came to a head in the Idaho Legislature today. After passing the first maintenance budget yesterday, the House convened only to go at ease to allow the Republicans to meet in private yet again.
This has become a pattern this week. Party leadership likes to present a united front in public, handling disagreements behind closed doors. It is clear that there have been significant disagreements within the Republican Party, as last Friday’s budgetary coup demonstrated. There have been rumors of dissension in the ranks, and that Speaker Mike Moyle’s position might be in jeopardy.
Perhaps there was a challenge to Moyle’s leadership in the caucus meeting, because after returning, Rep. Joe Palmer made a motion to retain the Speaker.
This was an interesting parliamentary maneuver. Remember how Congressman Matt Gaetz moved to vacate the chair, ousting Kevin McCarthy from his position as Speaker of the House? Palmer’s motion was the opposite. He was asking the body to express its confidence in Mike Moyle.
Rep. Lauren Necochea, who is the House Assistant Minority Leader as well as chairwoman of the Idaho Democratic Party, rose to debate in favor of the motion. She said that it was tradition that the majority party choose House leadership and she did not want to go against that precedent.
I believed that Moyle called someone’s bluff. I don’t have inside knowledge of the caucus meeting, and if I did learn anything I would surely be sworn to secrecy, but it seems like this was a power move by the Speaker. If that’s the case, it succeeded. The House voted unanimously (with one member absent) to retain Mike Moyle as Speaker.
The drama was not done, however. After the retension vote, the House went at ease again and the Republicans withdrew to their caucus meeting. They came back an hour later, but something had changed. Typically, the Majority Leader runs the House, making the motions to move through the daily orders and eventually to adjourn. However, the motion to adjourn did not come from Majority Leader Megan Blanksma, but Assistant Majority Leader Sage Dixon.
I will let you speculate as to what this might mean.
EDIT: Idaho Reports published a story after this one officially confirming that Rep. Blanksma was voted out as House Majority Leader. The story includes comments by Rep. Dustin Manwaring, Majority Caucus Chair, and Blanksma herself.
The budget fight continued on the Senate side of the Capitol as well. S1266, the first maintenance budget bill, reached the floor, sponsored by Sen. Ben Adams. Democrat Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking debated against the bill, while Republican Sen. Abby Lee debated in favor, while expressing her concerned with what she called an “omnibus” spending bill.
In the end, the Republican caucus held together. S1266 passed on a 28-7 party line vote, after which the Senate adjourned. That means that both the House and the Senate have passed the first of five budget bills on the floor, and is a good sign that the coup against the new budget process has failed.
Make no mistake, this is a huge victory for the people of Idaho and for conservative principles. The Legislature now has the opportunity to fund the government while having separate debates on the spending increases requested by each agency. The political establishment threw everything they had at this new process, but in the end they failed. JFAC co-chairs Sen. C. Scott Grow and Wendy Horman deserve tremendous credit for holding the line, as does Speaker Mike Moyle for refusing to give in to the politics of power.
We are quick to denounce our elected representatives when they go against conservative principles, so it’s important to celebrate when they stand for them as well. The battle continues tomorrow, but today was a good day.
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