Guthrie for Majority Leader?

Yesterday, the Idaho Dispatch reported that Sen. Jim Guthrie informed his colleagues via email that he was running for majority leader in the next legislative session:

In this email I am reaching out to all current members of the Senate majority caucus to express my intention to run for the position of Senate majority leader. I will reach out separately to others likely to join our caucus after the November election. This is not a decision reached easily but I make it with the utmost confidence and work ethic needed to fulfill this important leadership role.

Jim Guthrie, from the tiny town of McCammon in Bannock County, has been in the Idaho Legislature for twelve years. Guthrie took over as chair of the Senate State Affairs Committee in 2023 from the retiring Patti Anne Lodge, who had developed a reputation for holding conservative bills in the drawer rather than bringing them to the committee for a full vote. If anything, Guthrie doubled down on the practice, to the point where Ron Nate at the Idaho Freedom Foundation listed 16 different bills Guthrie had unilaterally halted. Many of these bills had already passed the House but were not even given a chance in the Senate.

Nate wrote:

You may agree or disagree with some of the bills listed here, but the problem is this one senator has taken it upon himself — to the exclusion of 104 elected legislators and our governor — to decide these important issues once and for all. This is not how representative government is supposed to work.  

Over the course of his twelve years in the Legislature, Jim Guthrie has amassed a lifetime Freedom Index rating of 51%. He peaked at 82% in 2018, but fell to 36.3% in 2024. This puts him near the bottom of Republican senators, ahead only of Sens. Chuck Winder, Abby Lee, Geoff Schroeder, and Linda Hartgen, all of whom will no longer be in the Senate next year.

His rating from the Institute for Legislative Analysis was similar: 35.4% for the 2024 session. On the other hand, Guthrie achieved a score of 85 according to the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, the same score as Democratic Sens. Rick Just and James Ruchti.

In 2023, Guthrie sponsored a bill to grant driver’s licenses to illegal aliens in Idaho. He was supported in this endeavor by PODER of Idaho, an organization that supports illegal immigration whose logo is the communist fist.

Guthrie signed on as a public member of the Main Street Caucus, a coalition of the most progressive legislators in the Idaho Republican Party. According to an analysis by Idaho Freedom Action, Guthrie voted with his Democratic colleagues 81.7% of the time, trailing only fellow Main Streeters Sens. Geoff Schroeder, Linda Hartgen, and Abby Lee — each of whom lost their primary election earlier this year.

It’s fair to say that Jim Guthrie is most liberal Republican senator heading into the 2025 legislative session.

Now Guthrie wants to be the Senate Majority Leader, a position that sets the tone for everything the Senate does during the session. The majority leader conducts business on the Senate floor, deciding which bills are heard at which times, and even which bills go to which committees. Given Guthrie’s record of blocking conservative legislation in Senate State Affairs, it seems likely he would use his influence to do the same thing for the entire Senate if given the opportunity.

In his announcement email, Guthrie recognized what he called the “diversity” of the upcoming Senate GOP caucus:

It is not lost on me that we have a caucus with more diversity than in any time since I have been in Boise and without a doubt that can come with challenges. I submit to you that we can let those challenges end in stalemate or consider them opportunities for consensus building. Different perspectives can stimulate a more thoughtful process in finding the best path forward as we make important policy decisions. My goal will be to respect those differences of opinion and work to make our majority caucus one of mutual respect as we engage in open, honest discussion.

Considering his record, I suspect many conservative senators will take Guthrie’s offer of respecting differences of opinion with some skepticism.

The scramble for leadership leading into the next session was sparked by the defeat of current Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Winder in the primary to newcomer Josh Keyser. Current Majority Leader Kelly Anthon is rumored to be running for pro tem along with Sens. Doug Okuniewicz and C. Scott Grow. Sen. Lori Den Hartog, who unsuccessfully challenged Winder for leadership in December 2022, has declared her intention to run for majority leader as well, setting up a contest for the hearts and minds of Republican legislators leading into the caucus elections this December.

It seems hard to believe that Republican senators would select their most liberal member to the second highest position in leadership. It will be interesting to follow this campaign for the next three months to see what Sen. Guthrie has to offer in exchange for their support. Make sure to email your senator to weigh in on this critical decision.

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