What did you think government was like when you were young? As you learned about the legislative process in school, did you envision a stately deliberative body, where distinguished men and women came together to debate high minded ideas, working together in pursuit of what was best for the people.
That sounds nice, but in many ways the Legislature resembles a stereotypical high school instead.
A couple of years ago I finally got around to watching the 2004 film Mean Girls, starring Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. I found it surprisingly good, a reflection of high school for Millennials in the way The Breakfast Club was for Generation X. As I reflected on the film I realized that it was a perfect metaphor for politics.
As much as voters would like to think that debates in the Capitol are about nothing but policy, personality plays a big role as well. A bill that might otherwise garner widespread support might lose support depending on who sponsored it. So far this year, it looks to me that the Main Street Caucus has united to kill a lot of good legislation out of personal animosity for conservative legislators.
If you’ve seen the film, you might recall how the popular girls use innuendo, rumors, and outright lies to destroy their enemies. Being an outspoken conservative who doesn’t march to leadership’s drum is enough to brand a legislator as an enemy of the Mean Girls Caucus.
Last fall, a political action committee connected to Gov. Brad Little began delivering door hangers and airing advertisements attacking Sens. Tammy Nichols, Chris Trakel, and Brian Lenney because they voted against big budgets last session.
Shortly thereafter, Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Winder stripped Sens. Lenney and Glenneda Zuiderveld of their vice chair positions and threatened Sen. Scott Herndon with an ethics complaint, all for being too candid about how politics really works.
Brian Lenney appears to have become the #1 target of the Mean Girls Caucus this year. Two weeks ago, moderate Republicans joined with Democrats to kill S1325, Lenney’s anti-SLAPP bill:
On Monday, Sen. Abby Lee, the Assistant Majority Leader in the Senate, led the opposition in Senate State Affairs to H572, a bill to preemptively ban universal basic income in Idaho. It had already passed the House, and Lenney was carrying it on the Senate side, but Lee debated strongly against the bill, finally agreeing with Sen. Winder to send it to the amending order where it will likely languish and die.
Abby Lee wasn’t done. On Tuesday afternoon, she struck again, joining with two Democrats to kill Lenney’s bill to limit the authority of public health districts. Once again, H525 had already passed the House, this time on a nearly party line vote.
Sen. Lee has already announced she will not be running for reelection, so perhaps she feels free to indulge in a personal vendetta.
She certainly isn’t concerned about her voting record:
This is not necessarily to single out Abby Lee here, nor to imply that only female legislators can be “mean girls”. It’s just a metaphor, albeit one that does a good job of demonstrating the personal dynamics behind the scenes. I imagine that the negotiation that goes on behind the scenes sometimes resembles a tense game of chess, while other times it’s a messy food fight.
It’s been a rough session for those of us who want to see conservative policies, but the primary elections are just around the corner. Voters will have the opportunity to reject the sort of cliquish politics that are more suited to high school than a state legislature.
