These are the crazy days of the legislative session. Both chambers are meeting twice daily now, trying to work through the backlog of bills on their calendars. Speaker Moyle’s target date of March 22 for sine die looks unlikely, but maybe they will pull some all-nighters.
On the election side, the filing deadline ends Friday at 5pm, so we are likely to see a flurry of announcements. There’s always a game of brinkmanship when it comes to filing for office. Even PC candidates will sometimes wait until the last minute to avoid giving their opponents a chance to respond. That can backfire though, as when Sandpoint mayor Shelby Rognstad filed for the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2022, but forgot to change his affiliation from Republican. Since he filed at 5pm on Friday, he didn’t have time to fix his mistake and was left off the ballot.
The moment the deadline passes, Freedom Bros will be live with a roundup of the upcoming election. I hope you’ll join me and the gang at 5pm on Friday to talk Idaho politics:
Speaking of Freedom Bros, both Dustin Hurst and Greg Pruett were indisposed last week, so I hosted the show myself. I talked with Karey Hanks, former legislator and current candidate in the House for District 31:
In case you missed it, the Senate State Affairs Committee heard a bill this morning that would have allowed teachers to carry concealed firearms, with several important caveats. It turned out that this bill was more of a gun control bill than a 2nd Amendment bill, so the committee wisely killed it. Read the whole story at the Chronicle.
Did you miss Capitol Clarity last week? IFF president Ron Nate explained how the Freedom Index works, and how it gves voters a powerful tool to hold their representatives accountable:
Did you hear President Biden? He said that illegal aliens built America. What did he mean by this? Auron MacIntyre explains:
News is happening fast and I’ll try to stay on top of it. Stay tuned!
About Brian Almon
Brian Almon is the Editor of the Gem State Chronicle. He also serves as Chairman of the District 14 Republican Party and is a trustee of the Eagle Public Library Board. He lives with his wife and five children in Eagle.
